"Eroyee" eroyeeattelstra.com wrote in message
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[snip]
I'm rather nervous and I don't know why.. : P

No need to be nervous. Orchids don't bite, so you'll not suffer anything
except maybe stress if the plant doesn't do well and a little damage to your
pocket book. :-)

It's rather cold here at the moment.. Around 50 degrees, and will be
varying
from 50 to 60 degrees within the next week or so..

You call that cold? Come to Canada, particularly the north or east, in
January. Then you will really see the cold! :-)

If I have a heater on, would it be safe to have the plant near it?
I'm also going to get a humidity tray, I've read that they are useful in
non-humid areas..

Yes and no. If you have the growing area open to your room, you are
effectively trying to raise the humidity of the whole room using the tray.
Make no mistake, the water in the tray will attempt to form an equilibrium
with the air in the room (or wider area, depending on how open the room is).
But this means that in most cases, a humidity tray will not have a
measurable effect on the humidity your plant sees. However, if you enclose
both the plant and the humidity tray by some means (e.g. a small plastic
tent), the if there is sufficient water in the humidity tray, you can get
close to 100% relative humidity regardless of how dry the air is in the room
in which it is placed. What I'd do is make a cabinet with plexiglass in a
wood frame, and place both the plants and tray in that, and have a pair of
vents, one of which has a fan that blows air it brings into the chamber
across the water in the tray. In this way, the air brought into the growth
chamber by the fan ought to pick up a significant amount of moisture, and
provide the required air movement needed by most orchids.

Is it safe to bring this plant outside when it rains?
When it's windy?

Probably. after all, most orchis live outside all the time. ;-) But as to
whether or not your particular pattern of rainfall and wind speeds is
helpful or harmful to your plant will depend on the details of the ecology
of the species you have (or the species from which the hybrid was made - as
the case may be).

HTH

Ted