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Hi Dan,
You could suppliment your light with artificial lights which I know nothing
about other than what I read here in this group since I only grow in a
greenhouse. But I would think that as far as the humdiity goes, that you
would probably feel better etc if you were to raise the humidity in your
apartment closer to what orchids enjoy in general. Then, others here are
also experts on raising the humidity locally around a few plants. Anyone who
wants to grow orchids can. Hope you decide to try. Good Luck.
Gary
"Dan Russell" wrote in message
...
Hello!
I have thought about growing an orchid for years now but am afraid of
utter
failure mostly because of my living space.... I live in a very dry and
warm
(22C, 72F) apartment with south-west exposure. However, the temperature
outside is very cold (-20C, -4F) and I cannot place plants on the
windowsill
due to this ( I live in northern Ontario). The only place to get orchids
in
my town is at the local Home Depot, but I can make a trip to the Niagara
Peninsula where orchid dealers are abundant. What plant would you suggest
and is it even worth trying given my living space?

--
Cheers!

...Jennifer

Jennifer,

Buy a simple hearty Brassavola nodosa (or Brassavola digbyana) to start
with. Easy to grow and fragrant.

Mick

"Dan Russell" wrote in message .. .
Hello!
I have thought about growing an orchid for years now but am afraid of utter
failure mostly because of my living space.... I live in a very dry and warm
(22C, 72F) apartment with south-west exposure. However, the temperature
outside is very cold (-20C, -4F) and I cannot place plants on the windowsill
due to this ( I live in northern Ontario). The only place to get orchids in
my town is at the local Home Depot, but I can make a trip to the Niagara
Peninsula where orchid dealers are abundant. What plant would you suggest
and is it even worth trying given my living space?

You are probably not all that far from me. After all, I am much
closer to you than I am to Niagara. It would take me a good hour and
a half just on hwy 11 and hwy 400 just to get to the northern edge of
Toronto, and you know how much further Niagara is than that. You
don't say just where you are, but if you can make a day trip to
Niagara, it would probably be worth while just to come to Orillia for
dinner, and then take in a show at the opera house here.

Actually, you might want to take in the SOOS meetings in Toronto (the
first Sunday of every month at Edwards gardens), since they are
preceded by a sale, and there you can find a huge variety of orchids
available. The meeting proper starts normally at 2PM, but the plants
are for sale beginning at 12:30PM. Go to http://www.soos.ca/ for more
information. You will want to pay particular attention to events
scheduled for March and April (especially the show the first weekend
in Toronto - instead of buying anything at Home Depot, save up to
splurge at the show in Toronto at that time ;-), that will be
something to see since SOOS is hosting both the mid america orchid
congress and the canadian orchid congress, so there will be a huge
collection of vendors that we'd be hardpressed to find so conveniently
in one place).

I woke up to -20 C this morning.

I have been battling incredible dyness myself, and a couple of my
catts and phals are suffering some stress from it. But none have yet
died this winter, and by the time next winter comes around, I should
have some growth chambers built.

Actually, if your windows are properly insulated, you should be able
to maintain orchids there. If not, get an appropriately sized pad
(either a heating pad, or even some rubber or styrofoam would be
effective, and place your plants on that on the sill. If you have a
black surface on whatever you use, you will get the benefit of passive
heating. Or you could use black pots (paint them black if you can't
find some). But you need to consider this ONLY if the sill is too
cool. I have not found a need for such measures.

I am keeping a number of phalaenopsis, cattleyas, and dendrobiums
happy (apart from a little stress due to dry air for the past few
weeks), and I just added a couple epidendrums (one of which blasted a
whole inflorescence because of the dry air). I intend to build some
growth chambers this summer, so that humidity won't be a problem next
winter. Having a southwest exposure, you have a near perfect
situation to growth orchids, at least that is once you deal with
humidity issues. With such an exposure, you will probably need
supplemental lighting only in winter to deal with short days, and in
summer only if you get significant shade. Note, for a short time, you
can compensate for low humidity by watering more frequently. But I
would solve the humidity problem for the sake of my own health as well
as for the plants. I am going to have to add a humidifer to our
furnace, since for the past couple days, even with my humidifer going
full blast, the humidity was only 30%! I know, from the folk at SOOS,
that my orchids won't really thrive until I get the humidity up. That
said, I have been able to bring them to rebloom and produce new growth
despite the humidity issues I'm battling.

I have no doubt that you can keep a wide variety of orchids happy
indoors where you are, as long as you get to know the plants. After
all, I have been able to keep mine happy, and if I can do it, so can
you. While with effort, you and I could probably maintain ANY orchid
that can be maintained in a greenhouse, I would suggest you start off
with dendrobiums and cattleyas. I have yet to kill a dendrobium or a
cattleya. But I have killed several phalaenopsis. Even though my
first cattleya was terribly ill when I got it (because I was ignorant
of what to look for or who not to buy from when I got it), it is well
on its way to full recovery! And I have learned just recently that
there is quite a variety of hardy orchids that you and I could
maintain outside, the most notable being several species of
cypripedium (look at the site I mention in the thread with the subject
line "Just curious, for now"; that will show you just how recently I
learned of this!). I know in an apartment you're not in a position to
grow stuff outside, but this is something to keep in the back of your
mind for future reference.

HTH

Ted

"Dan Russell" writes:
I have thought about growing an orchid for years now but am afraid of utter
failure mostly because of my living space.... I live in a very dry and warm

Not to worry. Your apartment sounds exactly like mine.

I have all my orchids bunched up on a table between two couches, a
wall and a cupboard. I am able to keep a steady 55-65% humidity within
this enclosed space. The rest of the flat is at 40-50%.

You might also want to supplement the daylight with artificial
lighting. A cheap spotlight with an E27 socket, a timer and the
largest compact fluorescent tube (20 watts at least, I have seen 30W)
you can find should give you enough light for an epidendrum or
phalaenopsis-like plant.

Geir

Please note that you have two requirements to struggle with - the humidity
as you notice, but also the light. Being so far north the winter darkness
will work against you with high light requiring orchids, especially since
you say you can't put them in the window.

So if you are going to use artificial lights I suggest you try some
mini-catts. Pretty accomodating plants on the whole.

-dan

C'mon Mick.

What kind of advice is that? Both need extremely bright light to bloom
well. She DID say northern Ontario....

--

Ray Barkalow First Rays Orchids
http://www.firstrays.com
Secure Online Ordering & Lots of Free Info!

"Mick Fournier" wrote in message
.. .
Jennifer,

Buy a simple hearty Brassavola nodosa (or Brassavola digbyana) to start
with. Easy to grow and fragrant.

Mick

Ray,

I stand corrected... Jennifer should buy a Paphiopedilum sanderianum.

Mick

Mariana Interrupted,

Glad you enjoy my humor... you might be the only one that does on RGO. My
point is/was to Jennifer that all newbies basically kill the first dozen
plants they buy, so it is better to buy cheap ones to start off with.
Brassavolas are cheap and/but have been known to rebound from the most
abusive care imaginable.

Sounds like you got the hang of growing orchids OK.

Mick

Thank you to everyone who replied to my posting. I have gained valuable
information and plan on getting an orchid soon. However, I plan on waiting
until spring when the humidity has increased, the weather is warmer, and the
days are longer. In the meantime I will continue to research and read this
newgroup, I will let you know of my success (or lack thereof - 12 to go,
eh?).

Jennifer

"Dan Russell" wrote in message
...
Hello!
I have thought about growing an orchid for years now but am afraid of
utter
failure mostly because of my living space.... I live in a very dry and
warm
(22C, 72F) apartment with south-west exposure. However, the temperature
outside is very cold (-20C, -4F) and I cannot place plants on the
windowsill
due to this ( I live in northern Ontario). The only place to get orchids
in
my town is at the local Home Depot, but I can make a trip to the Niagara
Peninsula where orchid dealers are abundant. What plant would you suggest
and is it even worth trying given my living space?

--
Cheers!

...Jennifer