I was new to orchids.  I didn’t want to buy huge flowering plants that I couldn’t maintain.  And I felt that if I bought them in flower, as so many orchid advisors suggest, I would mostly watch the flowers fade and die, which struck me as sad.  Many of the vendors have out-of-bloom plants with photographs posted to show you the blossom to come, and they are all very good about tagging the individual plants with their full names.  The only trap I saw with the photos was that sometimes their 2” square image of a beautiful white flower was an enlargement, and sometimes it was actually smaller than what you’d get.  But again, if you are conscientious about checking the tags, the info is usually easy to find.


The plants I brought home  pretty much looked like this, though there were a few more of them.
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I also bought this useful book.

It didn’t take long to realize that I have no idea how to relate the foot-candle light requirements to the conditions in my house.  For some of them, direct eastern-window sunlight caused yellowing and leaves dropped.  For others, it was not an issue.  They seemed happy.   I read on and found that I should repot directly after  they bloom, which gave me a little time to learn how.  But another advisor said to repot as soon after purchase as possible, lest they drown in the extra tightly packed moss some growers use for transport.  Eventually I found my way to this website, which has really good advice, as well as supplies.  What seemed a ridiculously complex set of rules and rituals gave way to simple pleasure though, because, miraculously, they began to bloom.
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I've been a gardener ever since the first geranium bloom I liberated from someone's front step set roots into the glass of water on my windowsill.  Roots are beautiful, and new life springing from a cut flower is a profound and exciting mystery.  Most of my gardening has been earth-based, at first in containers, and then, especially when we settled in California, in the ground.
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A few years ago I noticed huge and beautiful orchid arrangements at my dad's house.  There was something ethereal about them which called to me differently from all the "normal" flowers I've learned to grow.  And a visit to Fiji, where so many orchids grow happily out of doors, inflamed my curiosity. 

So I responded to the call by attending the Pacific Orchid Expo in San Francisco this year.  

It's a sweet show.  People are happy among the flowers.  I figured out that I have strong opinions about them, disliking the ones with monkey faces and skull imagery, as well as finding flesh colors kind of uncanny-valley creepy.  But also that some are just fascinating and lovely.  And I took the chance to bring home all orchids that were not in bloom, choosing little ones I can nurture along.