White Monkey ) wrote:
: 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.

You might think about Dendrobium sulawesiense (go to Andy's Orchids at
www.andysorchids.com for a pic and description). It has low light
requirements (similar to phal light requirements) but the min temp is listed
as 55F which may require a hot rock in your environment :-). I have been
keeping one in a bathroom window that gets about 1000 footcandles of light
if I hold the light meter just right and it is not only growing well but
it's about to bloom. I am in a much, much warmer climate than you though.
The canes are listed as getting to 30" but mine is anywhere near that big
and even if they do get that long the canes are really thin so the plant
doesn't take up much pot space.

BTW, Andy's has a pretty cool search engine that you can use to get some
ideas. A search for "cool" and "shady" yields 153 hits. A search for "cool",
"shady", and "miniature" 22 hits. And, a search for "cool", "shady",
"miniature", and "easy grower" yields 6 hits. I can't get at the website
from the machine I'm typing this on otherwise I'd just cut and paste the
results in for so you'll have to do it for yourself.

Dave