Having googled up Oct-Dec 2005 of the list the question is, how does
anyone select an orchid? There are folk on these forums that have
several hundred plants. I don't see how they make/made an informed
choice. There are just to many. There are no "All American" lists. No
one reviewer can cover the available plants. Search for a fragrant
orchid spins off into hundreds of classifications, opinions, and
questions like "What is fragrance?". It is like finding the prettiest
grain of sand on a beach, a large beach. How to build a collection?
Beats me.
Joe T
Confused in Baytown

jtill wrote:
Having googled up Oct-Dec 2005 of the list the question is, how does
anyone select an orchid? There are folk on these forums that have
several hundred plants. I don't see how they make/made an informed
choice. There are just to many. There are no "All American" lists. No
one reviewer can cover the available plants. Search for a fragrant
orchid spins off into hundreds of classifications, opinions, and
questions like "What is fragrance?". It is like finding the prettiest
grain of sand on a beach, a large beach. How to build a collection?
Beats me.
Joe T
Confused in Baytown

Depends on what kind of collection you want. My collecting is
done in two different ways. There's the 'Oh, that's *beautiful*.
I just gotta have it!' plants and then there's the 'It's on the
clearance table and I have no clue what it looks like but it's
cheap' plants. :P

It seems that most people tend to start gravitating towards the
kinds that they like the best. Pretty colors, biggest flowers,
most unusual flowers. My collection is very small but it's
pretty varied.

Tracey

Joe,

I've been growing for over 35 years, and the "philosophy" behind my
collection has varied all over the map.

My advice is to thoroughly analyze your easy-to-provide conditions and focus
on anything that will fit that. As your collection grows, you may find
plants you just generally prefer, so you can specialize a bit.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"jtill" wrote in message
ups.com...
Having googled up Oct-Dec 2005 of the list the question is, how does
anyone select an orchid? There are folk on these forums that have
several hundred plants. I don't see how they make/made an informed
choice. There are just to many. There are no "All American" lists. No
one reviewer can cover the available plants. Search for a fragrant
orchid spins off into hundreds of classifications, opinions, and
questions like "What is fragrance?". It is like finding the prettiest
grain of sand on a beach, a large beach. How to build a collection?
Beats me.
Joe T
Confused in Baytown

On Sat, 8 Jul 2006 13:13:08 -0400, "Ray"
wrote:

Joe,

I've been growing for over 35 years, and the "philosophy" behind my
collection has varied all over the map.

My advice is to thoroughly analyze your easy-to-provide conditions and focus
on anything that will fit that. As your collection grows, you may find
plants you just generally prefer, so you can specialize a bit.


Joe -
It is like picking your better half -- G You meet them and you like
them and you can get along. So you choose them. The only thing about
plants is that you can stretch your budget, likes, and change you mind
more easily.

The longer you grow the more you try to avoid the 'impulse' buy.

When I started, I grew every back-bulb and division my mentor would
share. That was 50 Hausermann Catts one weekend from a repotting
session. I also shopped every gh in range - (we were in Chicago at
the time and the OS would sponsor open house trips to various gh
complexes.) Anyone remember Black River in MI along the lake? We
bought in bloom at the gh tours so we knew what we were getting and
when it should bloom again. We had Catts, Paphs, and a few Epi/Enc
and Den.

Lost most of it to a bad thermostat and freezing weather.
Now I grow Ascda and Bulbos, John grows Paphs and Phrags. We also
have a few Dens, Enc, crosses ( who can avoid Sharry Baby?) and Cym.
I love Wendy's BIG Cym. I have to make do with the summer cym and the
miniatures that are not cold dependent.




SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/orchids