I am an orchid addict, trying to postpone the inevitable: another orchid
purchase. I last bought 3 orchids on April 16th (bringing up my total to
38), since then I have been

-- visiting orchid vendor's websites every day, often more than once a day
(just Web browsing, looking very innocent)

-- thinking about the imbalance in my collection, with 29 out of the 38
orchids being Phals, and only 9 Paphs, surely I must buy 22 more Paphs soon.

-- stopped by the local plant nursery on the way from work, telling myself
that if they happen to have a small Paph, those don't take up almost any
extra space and one more Paph won't be any more trouble to water, etc. The
only thing that stopped me from buying an orchid then and there was the fact
that not only did they not have any paphs right now, but they are now
selling orchids potted together with leafy non-orchids, and those weeds are
likely to take away nutrients from the orchids, right? Anyway they did not
have anything special, so I just bought a new decorative orchid pot, and a
replacement lightbulb.

-- thinking with regret about that one orchid that I admired at one of the
orchid vendor's at the New York show, but which I did not buy, since I had
not looked around yet, and when I circled back, it was gone already.

-- thinking that I wish I could hold out with more orchid purchases till
June, since in June through August fewer of my Phals will be in bloom, and
so I will need to replenish the collection anyway, and I don't have
unlimited amounts of space in the one-and-a-half bedroom apartment that we
live in. And surely having 17 orchids currently in bloom and 5 more in spike
should satisfy me for the time being. But what are the odds that I will stop
myself from another orchid purchase until then?

Does that kind of behavior sound familiar to you? Do you have additional
orchid withdrawal symptoms that I should be watching out for? :-)

Joanna