Hi! I'm new. An introduction to my journey, and some questions.

[Chiru]

Warning: This is a long post. Sorry. I like to type things.

Hi there. I'm new to this forum, and quite new to growing orchids as well. I'm mostly a tropical fruit hobbyist, and have a number of citrus trees as well. I've never cared much for flowers. (In the sense of growing my own/keeping them) Lovely to look at, but annuals are usually the prettiest and they end up dying off so why bother.

One day I went to my local dentist for my 6 month checkup and saw a number of beautiful orchid flowers he had scattered around his office. I thought they were pretty. He said he throws them away after they finish blooming. Most people do. Fast forward a few months and I'm heading to lowes to check up on their new citrus trees in the nursery. Gotta feed my obsession. Hope they have a Kishu Mandarin. Of course they don't. (Still looking.. sigh) I see some orchids, noting the ridiculous prices people pay for a flower that most people just throw away after bloom, or give as a random gift. Not for me. No way.

I figured I might as well check what's on the clearance rack. The lowes garden employees always overwater their plants and they end up wilting, dying off, etc. They never have any idea what they're doing. Nothing good up for grabs. Figures. But then I spot a wilty half-dead white Phal orchid on clearance for $5. It had a single wilted flower and a single leaf. The second leaf was dying off and yellow. Eh, why not. And so began my journey into orchids.

I still have this orchid, 3 years later and it's doing lovely. It had some close calls and almost bit the dust. I left it outside one night to get some lovely rainwater during a cool, rainy day. As per Texas weather, it was blazing hot the next day and the leaves turned white. Yikes. I burned it. But it popped right back. The roots were healthy and strong. Phalaeonopsis truly are tough plants.

Imgur: The magic of the Internet
Here is my first orchid that I rescued. It has decided to give me two spikes this year. Perhaps it's thanking me?

Over those 3 years, I've gotten various Phals rescues from the lowes discount rack. However, I never loved orchids. I liked them. I thought moth orchids were neat. But I see them everywhere. At weddings. At the doctors. At random Asian restaurants. (Asians REALLY love their orchids) and of course, at dentists. They're everywhere. And it's all they ever carry. However, this fall I noticed something weird on the lowes discount rack. It was a Dendrobium. I had no idea what the heck that was, and after asking the garden girl about it, she said she had no idea (shocker) and that they never carried it before, but it's dying. So I bought it. And now it's spiked. And now I'm waiting to see what the heck it is. I didn't know there were a bunch of different types of orchids. I was brainwashed into thinking phals were it. The final frontier.

I was wrong. I learned vanilla is an orchid. (How embarrassing) I learned about cattleyas. Oncidiums. I googled, and googled about orchids. I learned that whoever names orchids cannot make their mind up on nomenclature.

I learned that pitcher plants weren't orchids.

Orchids could be fragrant?! Aaaand a bunch of other things. Who knew they were so insanely, mindbogglingly diverse. Not me.

I still only liked orchids.

Then I saw this:
Imgur: The magic of the Internet

And this:
Imgur: The magic of the Internet

And even this:
Imgur: The magic of the Internet

And now I'm in love. So delicate. I don't know why, but I find these Japanese wind orchids absolutely, mind blowingly beautiful. They're pure. They're perfection. I've caught the virus. My wallet aches in anticipation of the damage that's yet to come. My bank account wails in horror at the prices these beauties command. And suddenly, that $20 Phal at lowes isn't so stupidly expensive anymore...
I get it now. For better or worse.


And that's my journey to now. Thanks for reading. I do have a few questions, and hopefully a few of you wouldn't mind identifying some of my orchids that are currently in bloom. Here's two oncidiums. I have no idea what they are, but I quite like them.
Imgur: The magic of the Internet


Lastly, I made a purchase of a bunch of new orchids. I've bought:

Neofinetia Falcata 'Amami Island'
Neofinetia Falcata 'Hisui' Jade
Neostylis Lou Sneary 'Bluebird'
Oncidium 'Sharry Baby'
Oncidium 'Twinkle' (white)
Brassavola Nodosa 'Lady of The Night'
Cattleya Rlc. Yen Corona 'Green Genie'

I don't even want to think about the costs.
One of my other hobbies is collecting perfume. I'm a big perfume kinda person. (Why are my hobbies so damn expensive?) So naturally, when I learned orchids, which I can grow indoors, have incredible fragrances, like chocolate, or coconut, I went crazy. You'll notice every orchid I purchased is fragrant. At least, I think so. Which leads to another question:

Is the Cattleya Rlc. Yen Corona 'Green Genie' fragrant? If so, how strong and what does it smell like? It's beautiful, nonethless.

Thanks for sticking around for my needlessly long thesis on orchids. Sorry...

What made you go from like to love?