Another view.

Nick

Really nice.It seems you have quite a collection

Looks like I posted the same picture twice, makes my collection look bigger! Of course you are only seeing pictures of the survivors, the countless martyrs who committed suicide under my expert care shall go unremembered and unsung.

Nick

Very striking colour. I can't imagine the size of your collection, if these are the survivors. I spy some violet blooms in the right hand corner, are they orchids too?

I have been at it since 1996. I learned early on that certain groups of plants, like Dendrobiums who like a dry winter, don't like me. I avoided these and concentrated on plants that do well with me. Most of my acquisitions during the last 10 years are doing well which does make for a large collection. I'm also very quick to make divisions for trades and will trade virtually for anything I don't have.

The real key has been the construction of a cold GH in addition to the warm GH. When you have a choice of outside, warm inside or cold inside it's relatively easy to please all of them. I have also long ago stopped shopping for the 'usual' orchids and have been concentrating on weird stuff. Check out the offerings of this place in Germany.

http://www.myorchids.de/main1.htm

I just got about 30 dormant tubers from him. If any of them make it, they will be a group of plants seldom seen in the US. An import permit, by the way, is free. All you have to do is ask for it. The other thing is not to be too impressed with sources like Andy and his offerings. Andy lists 7 Calanthes, Fraser's Thimble Farm at:

http://www.thimblefarms.com/cypripedium.html

lists 9 more. I'm more likely to order from Fraser as everyone in America gets their stuff from Andy. That way I'm more likely to end up with plants that are unusual, as defined by the average orchid hobbyist. I guess that's being a little snobbish. Oh well.

I'm retired and this hobby fills my days.

Nick

I love the colour! but the name is suspect!
Blc. Dennis Kone is Chocolate Drop x Painter's Brush which i believe might be the parents of the orchid pictured.

Not so sure about the unregistered cross Blc. Wainae 'Leopard' and Ctna. Why Not 'Paradise' But maybe its possible.

Not too worry, you can still beam it across the great big puddle to me.