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Newbie delurks with many thanks
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 |
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