Civil? You haven't seen a flame war yet! LOL

Diana

"Kevin" wrote in message
om...
Wow- thanks. From all that has been said, I'll take it I shouldn't
worry. The Phal's were mostly repotted in new stuff if A) they had
been knocked over too many times at the Home Depot and were falling
out of their pots or B) a visual inspection said the medium was broken
down. Many of the rest I haven't repotted, and apparently I should.
Many of the other plants were picked up through my local orchid
society- I'm lucky enough to live in St. Louis, and the local orchid
society is amazing. Many I bought at the local society sale, and I
must say all of the plants were pampered, beyond healthy. Many were
from local nurseries, and they all are well respected almost seem to
try to show off at such functions. I can't imagine all of their plants
could be of such quality.... The Missouri Botanical Gardens even
donated a couple of plants- specimen plants that were the size of
shrubbery. I wish everyone was lucky enough to have such a resource.

But back to the topic- the general consent is that the Phal's will
bloom when they are good and ready, but the new growth should keep me
from fear. As for the Dends, they may or may not need a rest, but if
they are putting on nw growth, keep watering. When you say mature, do
you mean that the new "shoots" will go from all green, to turning to
more of a papery cane like the older stuff of what? Heck, right now
they are all putting out new shoots, new leaves, kekis, tiny little
plantlets at the base, everything but blooms. So keep 'em watered, and
they'll let me know when they are done and ready for a rest and a
bloom? Right?

Again, thanks for everything. Many of the other newsgroups I read get
mean and crabby, but orchid folks seem to always remain civil... I
guess any group of folks who would lovingly water a stick for three
years in hopes that something might happen sometime can't be that bad,
huh?

Happy growing!
Kevin