In your apartment it is not zone 9a. It might be micro climate zone 10 out in my yard but it nothing like that in this room. It is an artificial climate that has some relationship to what happens outside the house but the extremes are muted.
Do you intend to place the orchids outside at any time during the year?
And where are you in the world?
As to the orchids that will thrive and bloom in your conditions, who knows! all you can do is try and see what happens.

This post was edited by arthurm on Wed, May 15, 13 at 19:40

I'm in Houston which is 9a and I grow my orchids outside most of the year. I have Catts, Schombos, encyclia, Oncidiums, Ansellia, Dendrobiums and Gramms that are all growing well for me.

Thanks for the responses. You make a good point about indoors not being the same climate as outside. I keep my temps indoors in the high 70's mostly but in the heat of the summer it sometimes slips into the 80's if I"m not careful about having the ac on all the time. Outside it has already started getting into the 90's and I have summer temps up into the 100's to look forward to. For me, I love it, my poor orchids, I am worried about. I just don't like the ac running all the time. It blows on me and makes me cold. Hehe. Anyways, as for growing outside, I will have to give some of those a go and see what happens. I may give one of the oncidiums a try, I have several of the same species so loosing one wouldn't hurt to bad. I will just have to monitor the temps and bring them in if it get's too hot/cold.

You cannot grow everything unless you have deep pockets and multiple growing houses.

So It gets to 100F now and then. Not so much of a problem for some orchids provided you can provide enough shade-cloth cover in summer.

Sunshine, particularly in winter is a plus.

Join the local orchid society and find out what types and the methods the locals use to grow their orchids.

Forget about those wimpy cloud forest orchids such as Odontoglossum and Miltoniopsis.

I'm in South Florida and grow many types of orchids outdoors. Being new to Florida, I think my zone is listed above as zone 9-10. It is hot and the sun very strong.

My plants have suffered sunburn and I have since moved some into shadier places and have installed shade cloth over my patio. I have most of my dendrobiums hanging in a tree which gets early morning sun. Catts seem to love the heat (so far), I have lost a few which didn't like the heat. I won't grow those again.

I have found Phals do fine until the day and night temps stay high. They seem prone to fungal problems and generally appear stressed as do the intergenerics. I move them into AC for a few months (still experimenting).

You state you work at a nursery. I would think you could get info for your growing area there. I would follow ArthurM's advice and join an orchid club. You will meet other growers from your area and learn what works and doesn't.

I'm thrilled to have moved from NY to Florida. My orchids seem happy and I'm getting growth I never got in NY. Even my indoor, dirt houseplants are thrilled being outside. They are growing like weeds.

Good luck,
Jane