I too have had similar experiences. I think in part though, it's due to
the fact that a lot of people just don't do their homework as well.
Orchids are easy, but only if you put _some_ effort into it, and learn
about their culture. Commonly, a person buys an orchid from HD or
Wal-mart...etc, over waters, kills the thing, and never bothers to find
out more, and then just go on to assume, based on that sole experience,
that orchids are hard to care for, and that they suck at it. In time
this will change, but it will be a long time I imagine.

I can't remember where, but I heard an anecdote one time which was
something along the lines of one has to kill 100+ orchids before
becoming good at caring for them, and getting the hang of things. That
number may be a tad high, but even if it was 10 orchids, well, during
that time, the owner is probably thinking with each death how futile it
is for them.

Cheers,
Xi

J Fortuna wrote:
I keep being surprised that even though orchids are becoming much more
common (in our area most supermarkets carry them), how many people still
have the popular misconception that orchids are difficult to care for, easy
to kill, sensitive, require a greenhouse, require special attention way
beyond that of most houseplants, etc etc. Today I talked to a co-worker who
had until today thought all these things, until today she had not thought
that she could possibly try growing an orchid, and she did not realize how
long Phals are in bloom, nor that room temperature is just fine for them.
She told me that she will now get one to try it out as well, and "we will
see how long I can keep it alive before you say that I am horrible at
growing the orchid" or something like that.

I wonder how long it will take for this popular misunderstanding to change
in our culture, now that orchids are becoming more and more popular? How
many more years or decades will it take before we can say "orchids were once
regarded as fragile and hard to grow, but nowadays most people understand
that it is not so"?

I also wonder how many percent of people in the U.S. (for example) now own
orchids as houseplants, and how many more would own orchids as houseplants
if only they realized that orchids are not hard to grow and that Phals bloom
so much longer than most other flowering houseplants?

Joanna

P.S.: I still have not killed a single orchid thus far in 4 years of growing
orchids. Our wedding anniversary (and thus orchid growing anniversary) is
tomorrow.