Jadel,

Speaking of raisin orchids... I recently scored two nice flasks of the
hard-to-find Phalaenopsis violacea var coerulea (Krulls Navy Blue AM/AOS x
Crystelle HCC/AOS). I will be selling them on my website soon one plant per
flask for big, big bucks.

But at this orchid show in Miami last weekend I bought a bag of Aussie Gold
Orchid Mix from Irma Orchids in Miami 1-888-888-7108 or 1-305-936-0840 on a
whim for $18. It is primarily the Van-Rolen Horticultural diatomite mix...
I tried it on seedlings coming right out of the flask and I want to tell you
all this stuff is gold. Great drainage, Cattleyas (which is the only orchid
really worth collecting incidentally) and Phals love it, you can't overwater
this mix for some inherent reason in its natural make-up, it appears pH
friendly to everything, and it is real pretty in the compots. I potted up
two of these fat rare blue violaceas in it and within 30 minutes the
seedlings looked very happy (and you flask buyers know what I am talking
about as far as being happy). I have been looking for a one-stop seedling
mix for years that I could use straight out of the bag on everything, this
could be it. Tonight I am going to pop a jumbo flask of 100 Polyrrhiza
lindeni and just throw it in on top of this mix to see if this stuff will
work on ghost orchids.

This weekend I am going to try and buy another 10 bags. It does appear that
someone else can indeed tell me something about raisin' orchids.

Mick