Can anyone recommend a good orchid book/author?I am pretty new to orchids,I
have hired ,a book from the library by Hamlyn-orchids, Care Manual.Authors
are Brian & Sara Rittershausen.Any feed back appreciated!
thanks keith

Home Orchid Growing by Rebecca Tyson Northen is an old staple. It is
somewhat outdated as to materials and chemicals, but the basics are still
very good. It is out of print through 4 editions, but you can usually find
them available on line.

I also recommend Botanica's Orchids, the Ortho book All About Orchids, The
RHS Manual of Orchids, Simon & Schuster's Guide to Orchids, and Taylor's
Guide to orchids

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!

.. . . . . . . . . . .
"keith" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a good orchid book/author?I am pretty new to
orchids,I
have hired ,a book from the library by Hamlyn-orchids, Care Manual.Authors
are Brian & Sara Rittershausen.Any feed back appreciated!
thanks keith

Home Orchid Growing by Rebecca Tyson Northen is an old staple. It is
somewhat outdated as to materials and chemicals, but the basics are still
very good. It is out of print through 4 editions, but you can usually find
them available on line.

I also recommend Botanica's Orchids, the Ortho book All About Orchids, The
RHS Manual of Orchids, Simon & Schuster's Guide to Orchids, and Taylor's
Guide to orchids

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!

.. . . . . . . . . . .
"keith" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a good orchid book/author?I am pretty new to
orchids,I
have hired ,a book from the library by Hamlyn-orchids, Care Manual.Authors
are Brian & Sara Rittershausen.Any feed back appreciated!
thanks keith

"Ray" wrote in message ...
Home Orchid Growing by Rebecca Tyson Northen is an old staple. It is
somewhat outdated as to materials and chemicals, but the basics are still
very good. It is out of print through 4 editions, but you can usually find
them available on line.

I also recommend Botanica's Orchids, the Ortho book All About Orchids, The
RHS Manual of Orchids, Simon & Schuster's Guide to Orchids, and Taylor's
Guide to orchids


I second these and would add Isobyl LaCroix's --Orchid Basics.--

Be aware that orchid books can consume nearly as much time, space and
money as the orchids themselves.


J. Del Col

"J. Del Col" wrote in message
m...


Be aware that orchid books can consume nearly as much time, space and
money as the orchids themselves.


J. Del Col

Ha! You got that right!

K Barrett

Yes, and what's frustrating is when you get several "good orchid books"
and they don't agree on methodologies or cultural requirements...


In article b4Zcb.435373$cF.138919@rwcrnsc53, K Barrett
wrote:

"J. Del Col" wrote in message
m...


Be aware that orchid books can consume nearly as much time, space and
money as the orchids themselves.


J. Del Col

Ha! You got that right!

K Barrett

Keith, Do yourself a favour & join your nearest Orchid Society & find a
mentor. This way you
will meet nice people, find out how to grow plants in your neck of the
woods, etc.
Sometimes the speaker of the evening brings his own plants & they raffle
them off.
I have "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids by Alec Pridgeon" for
reference but
then you can research for more on the internet.
Cheers Wendy
Ps....You can post images at :- alt.binaries.pictures.orchids
If you need Webpage Url's just ask.
"keith" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a good orchid book/author?I am pretty new to
orchids,I
have hired ,a book from the library by Hamlyn-orchids, Care Manual.Authors
are Brian & Sara Rittershausen.Any feed back appreciated!
thanks keith

Yeah, that can be frustrating, but when you consider that plants - like
people - are individuals, and so are the various growing conditions amongst
readers, it's really not too surprising.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!

.. . . . . . . . . . .
"dd" wrote in message
...
Yes, and what's frustrating is when you get several "good orchid books"
and they don't agree on methodologies or cultural requirements...


In article b4Zcb.435373$cF.138919@rwcrnsc53, K Barrett
wrote:

"J. Del Col" wrote in message
m...


Be aware that orchid books can consume nearly as much time, space and
money as the orchids themselves.


J. Del Col

Ha! You got that right!

K Barrett

"K Barrett" wrote in message news:b4Zcb.435373$cF.138919@rwcrnsc53...
"J. Del Col" wrote in message
m...


Be aware that orchid books can consume nearly as much time, space and
money as the orchids themselves.

Yes, but they don't need watering, they don't develop strange,
undiagnosable diseases, and they don't fail to flower for no
explicable reason even when you manage to do and avoid the first the
first two, respectively. And you can keep them in a dark closet if
need be with no ill effects.lol


To the original poster: you don't say where in the world you are, but
if you can get either of the books by Ortho or Sunset (both called
"Orchids", IIRC), I don't think you can beat them as beginners' books
for quality to price ratio (about US$12).

Once you've got some idea what you're doing, you can make more
intelligent decisions about which of the more expensive books suits
your immediate, or not so immediate, needs. I will say that IMHO you
don't need a lot of basic culture manuals -- they all pretty much boil
down to the same thing, though each will have the occasional pearl of
wisdom the others lack. Many of the older books (including more
recent alleged revisions) are heavily oriented to greenhouse growing
-- some of them strongly imply it's nearly impossible to grow orchids
indoors, which is just plain silly, though of course it is in some
ways very different.

After the basics, you get to start branching out into books by genus,
geographical region, scientific studies, encyclopedias, monographs,
histories, pictures... Well, you get the idea.g

MG

"Wendy" wrote in message
news:vA1db.27581$Ms2.25404@fed1read03...
Keith, Do yourself a favour & join your nearest Orchid Society & find a
mentor. This way you
will meet nice people, find out how to grow plants in your neck of the
woods, etc.


Keith,

This is sage advice from Wendy. I will add that orchid societies can be good
sources of books themselves. Obviously not all societies will offer such a
service, but I know of 2 societies in my area that have extensive libraries
of orchid books, periodicals and etc - available for free loan to society
members.

They often give away free tea at meetings as well. How can you lose?

Best,
Matthew

I agree Wendy. My daughter bought me a Orchid book for my birthday= nice
coffee table book, but I find it easier to check the web. Very little needs
to be printed
"Wendy" wrote in message
news:vA1db.27581$Ms2.25404@fed1read03...
Keith, Do yourself a favour & join your nearest Orchid Society & find a
mentor. This way you
will meet nice people, find out how to grow plants in your neck of the
woods, etc.
Sometimes the speaker of the evening brings his own plants & they raffle
them off.
I have "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids by Alec Pridgeon" for
reference but
then you can research for more on the internet.
Cheers Wendy
Ps....You can post images at :- alt.binaries.pictures.orchids
If you need Webpage Url's just ask.
"keith" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a good orchid book/author?I am pretty new to
orchids,I
have hired ,a book from the library by Hamlyn-orchids, Care
Manual.Authors
are Brian & Sara Rittershausen.Any feed back appreciated!
thanks keith

That's mostly because there are about 1001 "right" ways to grow orchids and
only a few really really "wrong" ways. Not to mention adjusting for varied
conditions, and semantic/interpretational differences or misunderstandings;
a lot of times, authors as well as speakers are trying to say the same
thing, in different words ...

IMHO, Northen's book is a staple for the advanced grower, but likely to
confuse a newbie. The Ortho "All About Growing Orchids" is very good for
the beginner [if you can find it, the prior edition with the pink cover is
better than the latest edition with the floral cover -- the usual deal with
the "new and [not]-improved"].

Taylor's Guide to Orchids is also very good for those who read, but I find
that a lot of beginners get so carried away by all the pretty pics that they
forget to read the text -- I can't tell you how many have shown up here,
book in hand, looking for Miltoniopsis and other cool-growers despite the
very clear text which identifies them as such [and which means you can't
grow them here, at least not without a cool-house].

Good growing,

--
Kenni Judd
Juno Beach Orchids

http://www.jborchids.com
"dd" wrote in message
...
Yes, and what's frustrating is when you get several "good orchid books"
and they don't agree on methodologies or cultural requirements...


In article b4Zcb.435373$cF.138919@rwcrnsc53, K Barrett
wrote:

"J. Del Col" wrote in message
m...


Be aware that orchid books can consume nearly as much time, space and
money as the orchids themselves.


J. Del Col

Ha! You got that right!

K Barrett

On Mon, 29 Sep 2003 14:42:24 -0400, "Kenni Judd"
wrote:

Taylor's Guide to Orchids is also very good for those who read, but I find
that a lot of beginners get so carried away by all the pretty pics that they
forget to read the text --

Hmmm, I was in the mood for a new orchid book. Just picked up a copy
of Taylor's Guides from your recommendation. Looks pretty decent. As
much as the thing has been thumbed through on the rack I thought it
might be used, but it wasn't.

Thanks for the tip.

bb