Thick-leaf cold growing water loving orchids

[Grim Tuesday]

I have a very peculiar set of desires to find orchids that will thrive in my house. It's dry and relatively cold in the winter, so semi-hydro really only works well with plants that will tolerate cold-and-wet conditions. For those that like it, they do better than plants I have in bark.

So far I've found miltoniopsis and oncidium, or oncidium intragenerics consistently love it. However, those plants all have thin floppy leaves. My cat goes crazy for leaves like that. She has chewed on the end of every single floppy leafed plant I have and it's gotten to the point where I have limited space that she can't reach. I've tried spraying them down with bitter spray but it does not dissuade her. The problem is in 5 seconds she can do more damage to a plant than it can grow in a month. Even if she is on best behavior and only takes one bite a week the whole collection has ragged leaves after a few months.

But she leaves "thick leaf" plants alone. Phalaenopsis, cattleya, most dendrobium are free to thrive in my house. However, they tend to dry out in bark or be too cold in semihydro. So what am I to do? Do you guys have any recommendations of species, hybrids or genera that I could try that fit the following requirements:

- Thick leaves
- Loves water
- Doesn't mind being cold (I have a heating mat but space on it is limited, and I'd like to avoid getting plants that need to be babied)

[Ray]

Have you considered a standard cymbidium?

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Ray

Have you considered a standard cymbidium?

Cyms have long floppy leaves... I had a cat for awhile (adopted my son's cat) and he would chomp any Cyms that I brought into the house that he could reach. And would even jump to places like the dining room table that he usually ignored.(Elderly, a bit arthritic, overweight, and on the lazy side but made an exception...) Mmmm.... delicious...

How about mini-Catts? Stiff leaves, don't take up much space, cold-tolerant (and not fussy about anything) and colorful flowers. Should do fine in semi-hydro (but they really don't care) Also Angraecoids... there are a lot that are quite cold-tolerant.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Cyms have long floppy leaves...

Yeah, but they're relatively thick....

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Ray

Yeah, but they're relatively thick....

Cat did a number on it... had Cym on the table ready to go to a meeting, sure that it was out of reach, the cat attack was in the blink of an eye before I could chase him off he had taken several good chomps. Sneaky... and fast when it suited his purposes. Never underestimate a cat, even a fat, old, lazy one.

[Lil Duck]

This is not a conventional orchid but rather something more niche. My recommendation is any species from the genus Anathallis (formerly a subgenus of Pleurothallis), Anathallis's has very thick succulent leaves (for a Pleurothallid) and can easily handle routine drying out, they are most abundant in south-east Brazil where they will experience both very hot temperatures and cool to cold winters, they are also found in the Caribbean. I own one species Anathallis sertularioides which has honestly been the easiest orchid I own, it does fine with temperatures below 70 f 24 7 but also did not mind when it got a few hot days in the 80s, right now it is doing great mounted (Kool-Log with moss) in like 50 to 60 percent humidity, I do try to keep it always moist.

The main drawback would be that they aren't very showy and do require pure water. If Anathallis doesn't sound like your thing then I second the recommendation for mini Catts/ Brazilian Cattleyas.

Edit : Just saw that you would be growing these in Semi Hydro... yeah these probably would be too "mini" for Semi-Hydro, most people grow these in moss.

[ArronOB]

Just wondering if you folk who suffer from cat damage are providing cat grass for your cats. Without a ready access to cat grass then indoor cats get desperate for anything green.

[Subrosa]

You'd be surprised what a cat will eat. I dedicated an extra bedroom to my plants after one of my cats ate every last bite of a 35+ fan specimen of Neofinetia falcata 'Suminagashi'. The leaves on falcata are short, thick, hard and pointy, but it didn't stop him. There were definitely orchids right next to it that you would think a cat would go for before a falcata. And an untouched falcata 'Oonami Secai' around the same size as the 'Suminagashi'...in case you don't know Neofinetias, at the time a single fan of the 'Suminagashi' was worth about the same as the whole specimen of 'Oonami Secai'.

[Maryanne]

Gosh, I guess my cat is way too well behaved...on the other hand my daughter's kitten comes to visit and needs all kinds of distractions. Kitten loves to dig the soil in the pots, so a cone shaped ring of aluminum foil is wrapped around the ones she favors. Cats don't like foil - and isn't it funny that while I am typing right now, an ad for aluminum foil is in the lower margin of the window ! ha!

Try it - it may work for you and your plants. Also lay in a supply of catnip with the cat grass.
Good luck!
Maryanne

[DirtyCoconuts]

oooph, these stories are brutal