What was your first orchid? - Orchid Board

Oscarman · #1 07-13-2006, 02:07 PM

We all have to start off somewhere, usually with one plant that sparks our interest in orchids.

What was your first orchid - can you remember it's name?

Mine was Blc. Oconee 'Mendenhall' AM/AOS and it's flowers looked something like this.

cb977 · #2 07-13-2006, 02:10 PM

My first was actually a NOID phal but she's gorgeous!

This should be a very interesting thread...thanks Dave

justintimedc · #3 07-13-2006, 03:45 PM

When I was in 8th grade, I was into gardening and house plants, so my mom brought me to this orchid greenhouse she heard about, called Kensington Orchids, in Kensington, MD. This was a HUGE operation, with literally acres and acres of greenhouses. I walked into the first one, and saw a field of phals in front of my eyes. I honestly remember that moment well to this day. I understood on some level that I was hooked for life.

Mom bought me a nice big white phal, i have no idea what the name of it was. We moved to Minnesota, waaay up north, near Canada. I kept that orchid through the years there, and it never bloomed, but kept on growing. The plant got huge. At the end of my high school years, we moved back to the DC area, in my senior year, and I brought the phal with me. It started blooming immediately. It then bloomed non-stop for the next 5 years, never without a bloom, and sometimes with as many as 30 blooms at a time, each easily 6 inches across. I started accumulating more orchids at this time.

Sometime in college, my parents were tending to my orchid collection, and it got some kind of virus and died quite quickly. But to this day, it was the largest, most robust, bloomingest orchid I have ever had.

Tindomul · #4 07-13-2006, 03:53 PM

Nice stories. My first orchids came in a trio! (Again with the trio for me). NOID Phal (The one I posted about lately concerning the seed pod and its seeds), one NOID Dendrobium, and on Onc. Sharry Baby. When I saw that I didnt kill them, I got more orchids. Always in trios though, how strange.

Oscarman · #5 07-13-2006, 05:30 PM

Tindo, that sounds a little like OCD. One, two, three...one, two, three...one, two, three!

ScottMcC · #6 07-13-2006, 05:40 PM

I'm also in the noid phal club...

this one had about 25 flowers on a branching inflorescence, and is now awaiting repotting (tonight) into s/h. so far it's been growing well, hopefully it continues!

Oscarman · #7 07-13-2006, 06:25 PM

Scott, sounds like you are in deep with the S/H......

ScottMcC · #8 07-13-2006, 06:47 PM

yep. so far I have the catt that I divided and the phal that was poorly potted (repotted it last night into s/h), and tonight (provided I ever get home from work, which is questionable at best...) I will be moving 3 or 4 other plants over. over the next few weeks I've got another couple that are going, just waiting for the optimal time.

my catts are doing great. I just noticed not only some wicked new root growth on them, but also another new growth. so now both baby plants have 3 new growths! I lost one leaf from one of the oldest backbulbs, but it was kinda tenuous even before I repotted, so I think it was just that leaf's time to go.

Oscarman · #9 07-13-2006, 08:45 PM

What did you water them with once you moved to S/H. I am assuming that you started with K-L-N for soaking the clay and them for the first watering as per Ray's site suggests?

Did you continue with K-L-N until new root growth was evident and then moved to a fertilizer
or
Did you start using fertilizer with the second watering after the initial K-L-N watering?

signed; Curious in Clay!

ScottMcC · #10 07-14-2006, 07:09 AM

once they're in the pot, it's kinda hard to see if new root growth is going on or not without disturbing the plant, and I figure that repotting is a pretty huge disturbance and the plant wants to heal for a bit. so I just did the kln presoak/first watering and then subsequent waterings are with MSU at 125 ppm.

last night I ended up moving 2 noid phals over, along with my Oncidioda Charlesworthii. The first two were in dire need of repotting--super densely packed sphag which had rotted some of the roots (although it was uneven, so they still had a fair number of nice beefy roots). I wasn't surprised since one was an IKEA rescue and the other was a flower shop plant. The oncidioda was actually potted well previously, and the media was in good condition, so it had a great, well developed, healthy root system.

Anyway, we'll see how things go. I've still got a few other plants to move over shortly.