What book would you recommend?

[PinkCloud]

Hello, hello, hello!

I recently celebrated my birthday and my husband promised to give me any book I wanted as a present to help me along in my orchid addiction. (I don't think he fully understands how serious this addiction can get!)
I got interested in orchids last year and would want a book that would help me in my questions as they come along.
Any and every suggestion is greatly appreciated!

[CTB]

Understanding Orchids is a good uncomplicated guide to growing orchids by William Cullina. It's a book you don't outgrow with the first reading.

[tucker85]

There are many good books on orchids. My favorite general knowledge book so far is "Understanding Orchids" by William Cullina. It's new enough to contain most of the recent trends in culture techniques. There's lots of good general information about growing orchids as well as a section covering specific information about many of the different species.

[BikerDoc5968]

For me OrchidWiz is a great source, even though they are in a juvenile disagreement with the AOS and many pictures have been removed. And if you get the quarterly updates, you should stay very current. It is much more costly than books, but if you can organize a group purchase, you and your friends can save 30% or more and have a great orchid resource.

[Daethen]

What I did when wanting books is went to ebay. For the price of one new book I got 5 used but look new books. I swear none of these looks used more than once.

[PinkCloud]

Thank you so much! Understanding Orchids is definitely first on my list.
I looked up some books on Amazon and Ebay as Daethen suggested and I think I'll order a few different ones. "Ortho's All About Orchids" and "Practical Gardening Handbook: Orchids" by Rittershausen (Its £0,01 on Amazon. CRAZY!)
Any idea if these two are any good?
BikerDoc5968 -> What exactly is OrchidWiz?

[BikerDoc5968]

OrchidWiz is a software program that has pictures of orchids, allows for search able ID, keep a log of your orchids with pictures you upload, specific care of orchids, etc. It is updated quarterly. Older copies had awarded pics but since there is a bit of a feud going on between the author of OW and the AOS, they have been removed in the current version... something to do with copyright?????? I probably shouldn't be making statements that I don't know the absolute answer for regarding the issue(s) between OW and AOS, I apologize to all, if I am speaking out of turn or have made inaccurate statements.

OrchidWiz Orchid Database Software Home Page

[jrodpad]

100 Orchids for the American Gardener (Smith & Hawken) is a great reference book. It's not a deep dive like "Understanding Orchids" - it gives you a one page summary of the cultural requirements on 100 different types of orchids. It's a great "field guide" for when your out doing your orchid shopping. It's saved me from purchasing orchids that just wont work in my growing environment and helped guide me toward orchids that will. Also, with beautiful photography and concise language, it's great if you only have 5-10 minutes to read at a clip.

I love the Understanding Orchids book too!

I know it's not particularly responsive for your quest to buy an orchid resource book - but the best, most complete resource I've been able to find -by far and without a close second is the Orchid Board. The collective knowledge of the orchidists who frequent this board is AMAZING. If you become an OB junkie, then no book will meet your expectations.

Good luck!

- J

[PinkCloud]

Thanks BikerDoc5968 for the tip.. I'll look in to that!

jrodpad ->I hope "100 Orchids for the American Gardener" is helpful also for us nonAmerican gardeners! I know what you mean about becoming a OB junkie.. Im spending WAY too much time just cruising around on this site.

[gnathaniel]

These aren't pretty books (no pictures except on the cover), but I HIGHLY recommend the species culture series by Margaret and Charles Baker. There's one for Dendrobiums, one that includes Phals, Phrags, Pleiones and some other 'p' orchids, one for Odont/Oncid. alliance, and I think one (harder to find) dealing with Paphs. You can also get individual culture sheets in the same format for many other species from the website Orchid Culture -- Charles and Margaret Baker, now maintained by Troy Meyers since the Bakers have passed away. These are amazing books for anyone interested in growing species, and they're pretty darn useful in understanding culture of hybrids, too. I've used these extensively since I started growing orchids, they're very well-indexed and easy to use.

Happy Birthday!

--Nat