Greetings all,

I just discovered this group after biting the bullet and getting an orchid.
Many members of my family have had them, so I'm not a total babe in the
woods and I think I'll be able to keep this one up (phal. "pink stripes")
just fine in my tiny Amsterdam (Netherlands) apartment. However, I know that
the collector bug will hit me very hard at any moment, I can feel it--it's
happened before, just not yet with orchids (actually, it's an interest in
adding vanilla to the list of spices and herbs I'm trying to grow that got
me the phal.; it was *there*, you know how it is, and they didn't have a
vanilla orchid in stock and this one just kept nodding away at me...).

Before I go totally nuts I'd like to have a direction for that to flow...
I'll be getting a few hardier and larger sorts as regular houseplants as I
go, given that the prices here are much lower than appears to be the case in
much of the rest of the world (the nice phal.'s with one flower spike with 6
or 7 flowers are going for 5 Euros here right now) but for the collecting
and being generally insular and nuts about it phase, I think it would be
best to try these fabulous little tiny ones I keep seeing referenced. In
this climate, a miniature greenhouse, say the size of a couple of 10-gallon
aquaria, would be my best bet to start off with, I think.

So... what am I yammering at you folks for? Well, I'd like suggestions on
which of the miniatures make good starters for amateur cultivators. What's
good in shade (apartment's too small and the electrics too crappy and
bunched up to get a fancy lighting setup, so we're talking natural
conditions on that one), what can take a lower-temperature winter (yes, we
do have a heater, but no, we don't run it very high at night--just enough to
keep stuff from freezing) (I'm willing and able to get reptile hot rocks or
something for the mini-greenhouses, though, should that turn out to be
best)? I'm not one of these people who think something has to be showy to be
special, and am in fact quite attracted to the weird, so don't worry about
that sort of thing in answering. I am also aware that the floral return on
orchids is limited--in other words, I'm fine with looking at apparent clumps
of sticks or smudges of green for most of the year. The humidity levels here
are high, but the light low. I have access to excellent plant-supply shops
where they will know which soils/media to sell me, and which fertilizers (if
any), and where I can ask advice about sick or damaged plants, so I don't
have to get only the hardiest and most difficult to kill or anything like
that, but this probably isn't a moment for the downright delicate.

So, any suggestions on what to keep my eyes peeled for?

Thanks,

Katrina


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