J Fortuna schreef:

In November 2001 Kye posted a message containing a set of questions to
encourage fellow rgo'ers to introduce themselves. I think that this is worth
doing on a regular basis. So here are Kye's questions with my revised
answers:
---------------------------------------------------------

And here are mine:
-- Who am I and What Is My Gender?

My name is Niek Hanckmann, male.

-- Where am I? Where do I grow?

I live in Vught in the Netherlands. I live in a small monastery on a
compound of 19 acres (almost 8 hectares). There we have a heated
greenhouse of 20 square metres of wich I can use half for growing
orchids. The other half is used by the other brothers for succulents,
som not-hardy terrace-plants and for sowing annuals in spring.

-- What do I grow?

I grow aproximatly 100 different species and som 40 hybrids. I am a
generalist, so I just try to grow what I like and what is in my reach. I
have orchids from aerides to trichopilia, from bulbophyllum to vanda,
from angraecum to wilsonara. I have a slight preference for miniatures,
but only because you can grow more of them on an square metre! The
benefit of larger plants on the other had is that the rest of the people
living here can also enjoy them. That makes the time I spend on my
orchids acceptable to them ;-)

-- The decade of my age?

3rd decade

-- How long have I been growing orchids?

I have been growing orchids for 18 years now. I started on a window
sill, brining the plants outside under a tree in summer. Since four
years I am growing in a greenhouse.

-- My biggest orchid accomplishment(s)?

I am very proud of my dendrobium cucumerinum (is now called dockrillia
cucumerinum). It was one of my first orchids and it is the only one from
the beginning period that is still alive. I bought it flowering in 1987
and it refused to flower for 15 years! Al those years it grew 3 or 4
leaves a year and in winter it lost 3 or 4 leaves as well. Three years
ago it finally established and started growing well. It still isn't a
very big plant, but it is flowering two times a year and growing more
vigorously every year.

-- Miscellaneous Info...

As you might have made up out of the answers above, I live as a
religious brother. My daily occupation is teaching in a school for
psychiatric adolescents. That is a heavy job, so growing orchids is a
very welcome diversion.
And although my heart beats twice as fast when seeing orchids, I do like
everything that has to do with gardening or wildlife.

Greets, Niek