Hello Lumpy, Phalaenopsis have taken over. Local orchid society winter show in six weeks time and the Shopping Centre Marketing manager could only find pics. of guess what to put on in-store placards promoting the coming event.

This is not Phalaenopsis heaven. No Central heating in homes. No Snow, but not warm enough for Phals. And most society members kill them.

Alright, just to be difficult. In a recent post.....Nooooo! I'm not going to stir the pot.

I understand that Phals are the orchid spokesperson, but it's like if this was a culinary forum and the only thing people talked about was McDonalds.

Outside of a handful of people,( Jane , Darlene, Shavedmonkey, Arthurm, Orchidnick, ) there doesn't seem to be anyone posting anything of interest, and orchids are such a huge diverse interesting group of plants.

I admit that I shy away from posting because I feel that I'm still learning, and I don't want to give bad advice, but at the same time I think the conversation needs to expand. I feel that is the best way to learn and expand.

Thanks Lumpy. I'd like to see a busier forum as well.

I recently posted on the orchid gallery, and seriously thought about posting it here, or maybe both places. I know some of you post over there, and

I wonder how you feel about posting "plant/flower stories" over here too?

Just a thought.

Bill

Hello Lumpy. I agree the forum has changed. Its all Phals.

The experienced growers have gone. No interesting conversation or debate anymore. I drop in late at night and try to encourage the Phal growers so maybe they will learn and move on to other orchids. Doesn't seem to happen.

Good to see you, hang around, lets try to get an interesting discourse going.

Jane

I've watched this forum on and off for almost 20 years and it's really slowed down. About 10 years ago seemed to be the peak. All sorts of conversations about all sorts of things. Pictures from all around the world. Advertising must have changed as has the world and economy.

I like Bill's train of thought. What can we do to rejuvenate this forum. Is it posting pictures? Creating group growing projects?

I wonder how the other forums are fairing. The orchid hobby overall is struggling to maintain interest. Even local societies are having trouble with membership.

I was a bit busy over the weekend and it is great to come back to see some new posts. The downside is now I feel obligated to come up with some interesting posts. Some of my favorite topics from the past weren't questions but people experimenting and trying new things. There are a lot of problems to solve when you want to expand a collection.

Thanks Jane! I agree with your points. It is about encouraging new comer and supporting the hobby overall. I only started growing orchids in earnest in 2010. But I have really enjoyed it. Although it is stressful at times, it really helps me keep down the other life stresses.

Sadly I struggle with growing Phalaenopsis. So sometimes I don't feel the best equip to adress cultural issues. I think I keep my home too cool over winter. Hopefully we can all join in here we can. I would love to see the passion for orchids continue.

Darlene, you hit the nail on the head! Having grown Phals in NY I understand the warmth issue and it is an issue. I had tons of light in our house from large windows, but they were drafty and I kept the house cool. Ran into problems with Phals over winter.

Eventually, I moved my warm growers into a small room with poor light and grew them under lights in that room. Because it was a small room, it stayed warmer over winter.

Having moved to Florida three years ago, my Phals love the warmth but do struggle with the intense heat during the summer months. Florida also has very high humidity which encourages fungus and insects.

I now agree with Arthurm. Phals can be the most difficult orchids to grow successfully. He is right.

Jane

Well I'm quite grateful for the people on this board with their insights and support. I became interested in orchids and citrus after visiting this board a few times. Now I'm a proud owner of five citrus plants, a den phal, a den nobile, a den roy tokunaga, den spectabile, an oncidium wildcat, an oncidium sharry baby, and a psychopsis ( all since this January!) I've found it to be a rewarding hobby (that's robbing my wallet...!). :)

I am still a total newbie fumbling around. ( I've yet to kill one though) I don't have any insights yet nor any orchids that I've cared to bloom myself. But hopefully one day, I can chime in with something that others will find useful. I hope that these boards will be busy till then!

Orchid growing isn't exactly a cheap hobby. On top of that they're slow to grow and relatively* difficult to keep compared perennials or cacti. The time and energy investment makes them unattractive to the ordinary hobbyist or gardener than much rather plant a rose bush or a bed of bulbs and water here and there to get stunning specimens.

And yet here we all are!

I'm a young-ish person; just turned 21. Most, if not all, of my friends cannot keep a succulent alive, let alone a phalaenopsis from Trader Joes, which is the extent of their orchid escapades. Their excuses are that they forget to water, or "just kill anything" so they don't bother. The only ones who seem to be remotely interested are my bio major friends who are studying genetics; phal tetraspis/speciosa caught their attention. I even talked to a local grower here and the bay, and he's said that his nursery friends are all closing up shop as mass produced phals capture most of the market; there's no appreciation for *sorry for the upcoming buzz words* locally grown, small batch (it's as accurate of a description as I could think of right now!) orchids with the variety of species and flower shapes, etc. He offered to let me take over his operation when I get older and my job hunting doesn't pan out, jokingly of course, but... he was kind of serious! His kids didn't want to take over the family business.

In short, the people who grow orchids is few, and the ones that are on the internet are even fewer. Even the most "popular" orchid forums tend to have a core group of active posters with the vast majority of posters there to admire from the shadows or to grab cultural tips. I have taken it upon myself to preserve the orchid growing tradition and to have a collection worthy of an enormous greenhouse someday (clean room/lab included) and I have been buying up interesting species for the past year. You know, for the sake of biodiversity!...

A representative quote from my generation,

"Don't they [orchids] all grow the same? Can't I just put an ice cube in it once a week?"
-Unnamed UC Berkeley student, 2015

Makes me doubt some of my friendships!

-sorry for the long rant-ish thing. I had a long day. Nothing a little orchid window shopping won't help.

I think it's great that there are people who feel passionate about anything - especially growing plants (I'm quite biased, haha) ! I hope you get to have that greenhouse/lab and I'd love to visit it one day!

I'm in grad school for natural products chemistry and biochemistry, but sadly most of my colleagues do not care for plants (or have a brown thumb). You'd think that people would have some interest in something related to what they're spending years in grad school for in becoming an expert ... Nor do most of my colleagues cook, ferment alcohol, or do anything chem/biochem related as a hobby... (I do all of them!) ...but I digress.

I agree that it is a hobby that requires great patience/money and may not be appealing to many in the younger age group. But, I've been posting all my plant's progress (orchids and others) on social media this past year, and I've inspired a couple of my old friends to grow things of their own. I think it's wonderful that I can spread inspiration simply by doing something I enjoy doing.

Once I can get my orchids to bloom on my own (not those which came with at the time of purchase - I think that's cheating! haha), I'll post them on this board or the orchidforum. I hope that you do as well.

Hi, just came to said hi... I come every week and read the comments. My orchids are doing find except one that i did divided and it rot completly it was a beatiful irene cattleya. The pseudobulds started to get brown and it went all the way to the top 1 by 1

Hi Jane and everyone!!!! Read this thread with interest. I know Phals have taken over the world. I have a couple myself.

BUT I do have 2 others that we can talk about. I need help with both of them.

#1 is a Pleurothallis grobyi---the flowers are yellow. I got it from a friend who got it from HER friend. It was on a piece of wood, with sphagnum and a lot of fish line. My friend had it sitting on a plastic plate, she didn't really (soak) water it. She just misted it all the time and the plate held water that she put on it for humidity. That plate was full of white crust. Well, I gave it a good soaking first and foremost, let it drain well (no not on that nasty plate!) and the next morning the leaves that I thought were sooooo incredibly tiny were twice as large! Still not huge, after all it is a miniature orchid. I left it alone for about 3 days. That was as long as I could last. I very carefully removed the fish line, and tried to remove all of the sphagnum I could. I figured it was old stuff anyway. It didn't have many roots to speak of. I didn't want to put it back on that white crusty piece of bark sooooo, I got a little condiment cup, filled it with damp moss and set that inside of a potpourri glass bowl, on top of 1.5 inches of aquarium gravel. I figured I would keep the bowl filled with water in it up to but not able to get into the container with the orchid. I was aiming to increase humidity. I check it frequently to see if the moss needs dampening. If it does, I dampen. The orchid never sits in water.

Is anyone shuddering yet? lol. No? Good. Well it is in an east window, under a porch roof, on my kitchen windowsill. It is the only place I had where I could watch it. The leaves still look good (had it almost a year now.) but no flowers and I never fertilized it.

I live in SE Mi zone 5/6 near the Ohio border.

Ok, now I am ready to hear what everyone has to say! (just no yelling please.) Will tell you about the other one later. One at a time. Rosie

Hi rosie, can you post a picture so anyone can help you better.

I will try to do that tomorrow. And I will tell you about #2 tomorrow also. Thanks!

Hi Rosie! Good to see you here, very friendly place. You can do whatever you want without getting yelled at.

I can't help with the Pleurothallis but we have someone who grows them well. Nick, hopefully will pipe in.

I tried to grow some in Florida and they died a quick death. But I think you have a good shot because you have the cooler temps.

Please start a new post tomorrow with a picture. Label it 'Pleurothallis Help.' I think that will bring people in.

Jane

Rosie - I think you and your pleurothallis deserve your own thread. There are a few people who grow them that are more likely to notice your request if it had its own thread.

Hi Jane! And thanks, yes I read a couple threads and I feel more comfortable here than there. And you know where I am referencing.

Ok, will try to take pix today later or tomorrow, forgot about an app't (or two) I had to keep today. But I will make a separate thread for it. Thanks for the advice! Rosie

Jeff- I also grow citrus, sounds like you have a nice collection of plant starting.

Theloyalplum- Phals are the most commonly found orchid and the big box stores have driven prices down but that might not be a bad thing. My first orchid was a Phal followed by a Dendrobium from Home Depot. After that I bought a book to learn about care and saw pictures of all the other types out there. This lead me to search out plants and vendors. Leo the 20 dollar big box purchase lead to hundreds of purchases from small vendors.

Yenika_ Sorry to hear about your plant. Some people put cinnamon on fresh cuttings to prevent disease, you should also sterilize the cutting tool. Bacterial rot spreads fast once it gets started.

Rosie- Your set up sounds fine to me. I do something similar with Masdies. The white crust is mineral deposit build up and should clean easily. I would change the sitting water once a week because it will get nasty.

My intention wasn't to discourage new comers from posting questions about Phals, tho I feel those questions are difficult to answer. It's kind of like asking how to cure the hiccups, everyone has a method they swear by but what really works?

@jeff I really do hope something comes of this hobby. I joke with my parents readily that when I'm old and make a bajillion dollars (completely scientific term), I would homestead in Hawaii somewhere and build out giant orchards of every type of mango, lychee, avocado and whatnot and live on what came of it. But, it's decades down the line at the very least!

@james It's a blessing and a curse. The grower that lives down the hill from me says that a majority of his stock are imports from Taiwan/Thailand and from mass producers of phals because at the markets, that's what sells. The plants themselves are inexpensive, easy to maintain and come ready for sale. On top of that, they're already widely recognized by common folk, homebodies that are just looking to spruce up their living space. The "good stuff" he keeps is for his own personal collection that he keeps in a greenhouse next to his home, but even he says that the good seedlings, hardened out of flask, costs as much as the generic plants, and because of the price of the generic ones, he can't reasonably charge enough of a premium to that market to recoup costs. It's great in that it improves accessibility, but discourages from buying different ones (in most cases*). Terrible utility tradeoffs. :(

It depends on where you are in the world, the climate and the orchids that you can grow in that place without providing expensive housing and heating or cooling.

At a local orchid society meeting last week 97 orchids were benched and only one was a Phalaenopsis.... and it was mine. But just say I decided to become a Specialist Phalaenopsis grower rather than a windowsill dabbler. A Glasshouse just set-up for them would set me back heaps as would heating and cooling costs.

if say, heaven forbid, I wished to become a specialist Cymbidium Grower. No problem. No heating costs. Just some Shade-Cloth and the back garden would be taken over with Cymbidiums everywhere.

Seriously, one large specialist nursery no longer produces Phalaenopsis because it could not compete with imports produced in more favourable climates.

Makes sense. Talked with a grower in Hawaii a week ago, and even he said the same thing. Mass producers have pushed nurseries into little niches, his being high quality, hard to find dendrobium and cattleya species and hybrids. Lots of his collections and breeding plants came from shutting down nurseries around the islands, and it makes me sad. :( Crossing my fingers that our babies become marketable and profitable sometime in the future to increase the potential diversity of everyone's collections. But then again, I don't because it would only fuel more poaching from the wild. :(