More about orchids

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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