J Fortuna ) wrote:
: My local plant nursery has some really attractive intergeneric hybrids for
: sale, including Bllra Marfitch 'Howard's Dream' and Colm Wildcat, and I am
: quite tempted to buy one of them, however I would not want to buy them if my
: conditions are such that they couldn't possibly do well.

: I grow on the windowsills or rather on shelves next to north-facing windows.
: I supplement this with growlamps so that I can achieve medium light right
: under a lamp, but I am not sure whether I could have medium light at leaf
: level for a Bllra since they are rather tall plants. So the light is low to
: medium, but mostly low.

: The temps in our apartment are usually around 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit.
: Sometimes in the summer the air-conditioning doesn't work though and then it
: can be in the upper 80s or in the low 90s for a short period of time. In the
: winters, especially at night the temp might be in the 60s.

: Humidity-wise we try to keep it above 50% at all times -- easy in the
: summer, harder but doable in the winter.

My growing conditions sound *very* similar to yours except I don't supplement
with additional lighting. Most of my plants are in an east facing window
which gets plenty of light but I also have a north facing window that gets
enough natural light to grow phals in.

Like you I have been branching out and experimenting with other orchids I
might possibly be able to grow there as well. Last spring I bought a Burr(?
I think that's right) 'Stephan Isler' and put it in that north window with
the phals. It's too soon to report any success other than it is growing well.
The new growth has done well and the pb is starting to flesh out nicely so
I'm pretty encouraged. I won't know if it'll bloom until next spring/summer.

Up until recently I have killed every single Onc species or intergeneric
hybrid I ever tried. You see, I'm a classic under-waterer and every plant
of this type that I had tried up till now was potted in lava rock. Combine
those 2 things and you have a pretty good recipe for killing this type of
plant. Nowadays, I make sure these guys are potted in media with better
water retention (e.g. bark if potted and a *big* wad of spagnum if mounted)
and I try to be more generous in my watering technique. That seems to have
done the trick for me.

Hope that helps some. I'm not far enough along to help much more.

: Based on all this would you advise me to go ahead and try an intergeneric
: Onc hybrid, or should I leave it alone? I am also considering getting a
: miniature cattleya at some point and putting it right under a lamp. Anything
: else I could try in these conditions? It's really important to me that I
: don't get something that does not really have a chance at flourishing here,
: but I am feeling like experimenting a bit with non-Phals.

I guess it depends on how much you value your record for not having killed any
orchids yet. ;-)

Seriously though, my experience so far suggests that you stand a pretty good
chance of success as long as you pick something that fits your lighting
regime.

Dave