Vuylstekearas are probably a good choice for your climate, as they tend to
prefer to avoid a lot of heat, and can tolerate cooler weather quite well.
They like to stay evenly moist as far as watering goes, so you may need to
adjust your timing away from the "weekly" as appropriate. Don't let the
medium stay soppy, but water before the plant undergoes dry spells.

I suspect that growing it in a north-facing window will be a problem - the
plant may grow fine, probably a bit "leggy", but is not likely to bloom
reliably without more light. An east window would be a good choice.

As far as fertilizer is concerned, that's not really all that critical in my
opinion, but just be sure to get one with a complete array of minor and
trace elements to go with the macro-elements. I personally recommend
Dyna-Gro and the variants of the Michigan State University-developed
formulation, but there again, it's not overly critical.

When you feed, you'll probably want to feed at about half the rate specified
on the label. If you want us to help with a better or more precise
suggestion, post again when you get a fertilizer, and we'll all jump in!

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!
..
"Erin Out of Boulder" wrote in message
...
Hello, I'm new to this newsgroups and to orchids as well, so please excuse
my lack of knowledge. :-)

In April we got our first orchid, which is labeled as "Vuylstekeara Saint
Sand 'Pacific sunrise,'" when it was already beginning to bloom. All
blooms
were open soon after we bought it, the blooms stayed for a month and a
half
or so, and then withered and fell. Meanwhile we were watering as
instructed
about once a week.

We went back today to have it repotted (we were told to do so after the
blooms fell) and they told us we should fertilize it. We know we should
avoid urea in the fertilizer, but beyond that, we aren't sure which one to
buy.

In case this info is necessary, it is in a north-facing window, the
potting
mix is a combination of what appears to be wood chips and some synthetic
material (given to us at the orchid place when it was repotted), and we
live
in Oregon, where the weather is neither humid nor dry and the weather is
mild tending hot this summer.

Tips on which fertilizer to buy and anything else we should be doing? The
orchid people told us at the repotting that the root structure was looking
very good but that we should increase watering to once every five days
since
it is summer.