Hello Janeen!

My name is Claude and I`m also an orchidaholic and don;t want to be treated!

Congrat for your success!
Wish you a nice trip to Hawai!

Claude


"mamathang" a écrit dans le message news:
...
| My name is Janeen H. and I am an orchidaholic...
|
| Newbie asks husband for orchid and book for birthday (February).
| Husband complies, newbie gets addicted. It is now April and newbie
| has 10 plants, 2 small greenhouses indoors, humidity guages, lights,
| fans and all matter of contraptions to ensure healthy orchid
| development. I bought 3 of the plants from the "almost dead" bin at
| Loew's and made friends with the plant guy there who used to be an
| orchid grower. He calls me when something cool comes in (like this
| really nifty Vanda that I am doing my darnedest not to kill). Start
| to have problems with original Paph. (dessication due to root rot) and
| come to this group looking for help. Start to freak as I discover
| that 1 plant has crown rot, 3 have root rot and these diseases could
| be spreading to my other seemingly healthy plants due to my ignorance.
| I've even bought 3 tiny little orchids from a guy off of Ebay, but I
| think I got a good deal on them all even though I was clueless when I
| bought them. GAAACK!
|
| Read, read, read, take notes, check plants, stock up on cinnamon, new
| potting medium, hydrogen peroxide, buy 5 different books on orchids
| and look for physan (which no one has but I run across an old high
| school friend who father grows orchids and is willing to let me have
| some of his - they don't sell it because it is so expensive?!?!?!?!).
| Buy gravel, set up drywells, toss infected plant that is obviously too
| far gone and place sick plants in isolation to limit spread of
| disease. Husband begins to worry about mindset of newbie. Newbie
| tells him that orchids are an addiction and I don't care to be helped.
| :-)
|
| Believe it or not my once sick looking dendrobium is no longer
| dropping leaves and seems to be growing a new leaf. My paph is
| sending new flowers out on the spike I cut back after ignorantly
| repotting it for no reason other than I didn't like the pot it came
| in. My Colm. wildcat oncidium has an 16" spike that just may flower
| any day now and is also putting out a new pseudobulb(?). My mini
| Catt. stopped yellowing and losing leaves. None of the others look
| sick or sad or wilty so I am counting myself lucky that I haven't
| killed them all. They like me! They really like me!! And I don't
| think any of them would be doing so well if I hadn't come here to lurk
| and learn for the past few weeks.
|
| I live in Mesquite, TX (suburb NE of Dallas) and have all of these
| different orchids growing in my living room under nearly identical
| conditions. I am sure that come summer time I will need to move some
| to shadier spots. My living room window faces W/SW and I try to keep
| the humidity at around 60%, but it is often higher just because this
| is Texas. They drywells are dry this morning and yet the humidity in
| the greenhouses is about 71% due to the rain we got over the weekend.
| I've opened up my little greenhouses and turned on the fans to get the
| air circulating. Gave them all their morning misting and opened up
| the miniblinds for today's sunning.
|
| Husband and I are planning 10th annivesary trip to Hawaii (2005) and
| the date now revolves around the orchid shows. Husband is amazed at
| the monster he created but is impressed with the recent results after
| newbie's original freak out (especially the new flowering on the spike
| I cut back). Thank you everyone - including the other newbies who
| asked the questions I needed to ask. I seem to be having unusual luck
| with my little collection and I hope that this posting doesn't jinx
| me. The hardest part of all of this was tossing out that one rotted
| plant.
|
| Admittedly addicted,
| Janeen