Uh, I'm working on creating a jungle...............

Um, I'm with quicksilver. What's wrong with a jungle?

I had a moment last fall where I was hating the mess of plants I owned. Then and there I decided no more big ones, no more hybrids. The tossing began. I've gone through the winter with space to spare and am loving it. I think I'm also down to less than 10 hybrids. More tossing and trading this spring should get me to where I want to be.

In the future, species only and almost nothing over 9 inches tall. Life will be good. One thing I can't decide is whether or not to stick mainly with cool growers, warm growers or just intermediates. The cool growers do great in winter and suck during summer. The warm growers do the opposite. Intermediate is where I should probably go, but it sounds so boring. We try to avoid boring you know.

Kevin

I guess it depends on where the jungle is!

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Well, like the others, my goal is creating a jungle. More of an exuberance, I would call it. I love the big fat English garden look -- with lots and lots of everything, huge old roses dripping down, 7-foot tall delphiniums, etc etc. Definitely not a minimalist.

I want my orchids to look like that, Ma :P

But I do have a secondary goal of making things easier for myself. So I've abandoned the idea of an exuberance/ jungle inhabited by orchids that need high light. Just too hellish in the summer trying to give them the right sun/shade to bloom.

So my modified goal is creating an exuberance/jungle of phals that think an hour or two of early morning and late afternoon sun outside in summer is heaven and bloom their lovely little hearts out for me in exchange.

I know that seems dull and boring to some others, but to me, it's beautiful.

You mean a cottage garden which is another word for a messy garden. My garden is a bit like that.

I love those pictures of neat and tidy half empty glasshouses. My enclosures are chockers and John, you have lots of room left.

The remaining Sharry Baby is going as are the unwanted gifts from orchid growing friends. The Restrepia, the Masdevallia, the Oncidium Sydney, the Laelia anceps....etc. just have to put them on a sales table when said friends are not looking.

Got lots of goals but whether any are attainable is really dependent on the time I have to spend. So my basic approach is make do or go with the flow. I really like all kinds of plants and have gotten and grown alot over the course of the past 30 years of keeping a greenhouse. Most of the early plants are no longer with me. Al kinds of issues almost like a natural environment when an unexpected natural outburst completely changes the equation that you have to work with. So while my focus is really on species, minis, and phrags I still try others as I encounter those that tempt me to put out the bucks and have the hope that my helter skelter culture will allow them to survive! And even flower too!

I have nearly completed making my little jungle here on my 4th floor condo balcony. My next goal is to find a way to make it easier to take care of. While I enjoy watering the orchids on Saturday mornings, I would rather spend 20 minutes as opposed to the 2 hours I currently spend drenching & fertilizing. A secondary goal is to make a collection of orchids that have a chocolate fragrance. I have been inspired by a recent show which was totally dedicated to orchids with a chocolate fragrance... I was in heaven!

-Ray-

Firs let me say that I am in awe of the growers in cities in northern climates who grow their orchids in any nook or cranny of their homes that they can. Their jungle is a worthy goal. I tend to shoot for a laid back greenhouse look. I put a lot outdoors. When I get home, the sight of all those pots hanging in the trees relaxes me. I love the old big floofy ones the best, the kind that Jones & Skully would sell at their great cutting sales years ago in Miami. The only goal I have is to maintain the orchids I have and if I'm lucky, be able to buy some of the old crosses that have been on my wish list for years.

In several years of growing a wide variety of orchids that interested me, I learned which kinds do best in the conditions I can provide. I also learned which kinds I most want to focus on. ThatÂs probably a fairly common process among orchid growers. Even those with very diverse collections, have their favorites.

But my favorites became such an obsessive fascination that I gradually lost interest in everything else. The only orchids I really want to devote time and space to are a few of the Brazilian bifoliate Cattleya species.

After coming to that realization, I thinned out the collection pretty severely. Since then, my orchid-growing life has been simpler and more satisfying. The only negative result has been financial. I spent some big bucks recently on imported walkeriana divisions.

My goal, getting to the key word of this thread, is an uncluttered collection in which every plant is a favorite in its own way. A long-term goal is to breed an award-winning species Cattleya. The first seed capsule is already developing.

My immediate goal is very simple: to care for my two phals so that they make it through their first year with me without mishap. THEN we'll see!
Aerides and Ray: your display and comments are very encouraging to someone living in an apartment in the centre of Jerusalem. We have three aspects - north, east and west. At present, the phals are on our dining-room table which is pushed up close to the west-facing window, when not in use. (That table extends out and fills up the whole room when the family come for dinner.) I have to be very careful to move the plants back from the window (now, in winter) after two hours of afternoon sun!
I noticed that the local orchid centre recommends an east-facing window for phals. Whacko! I don't think I'll move these two, but a FUTURE goal would be to clear off all the papers from my desk!!!! and display orchids along that east window. I'm all for a jungle as long as it is green and growing.
Judy

goal...how does "contained jungle" sound? hehe. Just finished building a large version of a wardian case for my 30-ish hanging 'kids, complete with watering system. Next goal, 2nd case for mini's and tall growers! so...MORE! -Ryan

An interesting question :) I think my ultimate goal is to have a greenhouse/conservatory with really nice unobstructed sun exposure attached to my home, which will be a small cottage style bungalow close but not in central downtown that is small, so that heating costs won't be ridiculous and so that there will be a huge yard where I can grow vegetables and flowers. Inside the greenhouse room I will have a gazillion orchids. The end.

However, as I am just a little lacking in the funds (nearly there! ...actually no I am not), my more realistic short term goal is a 90 gallon aquarium which I will fashion with lights and fans so I can finally start my fantasy of growing mounted aerangis and other species. :) Meanwhile I will be getting rid of my larger orchids (noid catts, dends and phals) and also my Odontocidium which is also just too big.

I fear I've also become a bit of a species snob...I will still buy primary hybrids, but for some reason I feel like species (and small ones at that) are more 'worth' the limited space I have...weird huh. It's totally illogical.

Funny Junglers at the beginning of this thread! :))

My goal is pretty modest and pedestrian. That is to see how many I can grow and bloom of the genera with species I find enchanting.

With conditions of medium natural light, good day/night differential, low humidity, and limited space, I am resolved to dealing with occasional bouts of unrequited love (like Richard's Pleurothallis palliolata~ see url). These are at least temporarily relieved by new aquisitions.

As evidenced by another thread, I am currently on the scent of a little Chinese cymbidium, the next step toward my goal.

Sweetcicely

Here is a link that might be useful: Richard's Precious Pleuro

everytime, I water, I tell myself that there are too many plants and orchids and that I don't need more. I tell myself that the seedlings will flower and i should be patient . then I go to an orchid show or monthly meeting and all my good intentions/plans - as if they never existed and I come home with a few more. I have over 300 plants scattered all over the house - most of them in the basement. I can't wait till summer so I can put them all outside again!!
Sue

I have no goals at all. I'm a realist. I stick with what I CAN grow well. Wasting money on trying to perfect growing a particular species is out. Phals? Never again. I kill any I buy. I'm done with them. I wasted enough money trying to figure them out.

One goal is to have about 75 orchids, but I keep having about 100. Maybe it's like thinking you look better 25 pounds lighter, but your natural weight is 25 pounds more, unless you diet insanely and practically kill yourself w/ exercise.

Hmmm - maybe we each have a "natural number" of orchids, and it's too painful to get down to the ideal and torture to try to stay there. Scary. I'm sure it's not true.

Another goal involves re-homing large plants and concentrating on those that get only 10" tall, grow in my conditions, and of course, start out as gotta haves.

Additional goal - potting all the mounties except the Ghost and the Chiloschista.

No concentrations yet - still discovering orchids new to me and that I can grow a few that shouldn't be happy here.

Good thread, Richard.

Whitecat8

Hi
In 2000 I started redoing my entire collection with the idea of creating a "lowland rainforest" and get rid of the "jungle " lol This means no pots!! Every epiphyte growing on materials in fixed locations. A chance to grow the hundreds of epiphytes that are not orchid,Broms or ferns. A place for my tropical birds to fly free along with the reptiles and selected insects. A complete ecosystem though definitely not limited by region,species or methods!!!
Over half of my plants are still in pots but I have the waterfall in place,the pond and marsh are coming along and my heating system actually worked .I'm getting the light regulated and am learning what to put where and how much.
I no longer care that most of my orchids are noids and always will be lol As long as they do well I'm happy lol
Let's see it's taken around 25 years to get to this point so I can easily see an "ecosystem in a box" within another 25 ,30 tops lol gary

arthurm, yeah, but that was before the Coelogyne asperata. Ah, the days of idealistic youth.

John :>)

This post got me thinking that I am very close to being set up on eBay and know how to pack and ship. All I needed is to take that last step and start listing plants.

So I did. I listed a Maxillaria sanguinea and will start selecting some more to list. I will try not to get in too much of a money mode and take the fun out of it. Item number: 140205757116

Richard, thanks for the info and congrats on mastering eBay. You'd said you wanted to reduce the # of duplicates. Looks as if you're launched. I'll keep a close eye on your list. Whitecat8

Gary, that sounds interesting. Do you have pictures?

What am i likely to purchase in 2008.

Some more clones of B. nodosa (if i can find them)
Some more seedlings of Cattleya intermedia
Some more clones of Phal equesris (if i can find them)
Some more clones of Neo. falcata (if i can find them)

The following three pictures show (i guess) about a quarter of my collection. No! it is not out of control. I only have about a thousand orchids and i still have some garden left. Not like some collections i have seen of (mainly) Cymbidiums where the collections have filled the yard and overflowed to the front garden.

That is my other goal. To get rid of the half a dozen Cymbidiums that are cluttering up the garden.

Tolumnia Wall

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A Quarter view of Shadehous

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Another Quarter

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My goals are :
1. get rid of all my NOID Oncs, dens and one catt.
2. keep my Masdes alive - right now they are doing great!
3. save my rescue P.bellina

Hats off to in-home growers! I am truly in awe of your dedication and successes. My primary growing areas are a 10'x 4' balcony and a postage-stamp patio. Both were totally overflowing with orchids after 20-some years of collecting. I had some success last year in culling out 'dead wood' - i.e. non-bloomers and those that can't decide if they want live or die. My goal this year is to complete the job and have some elbow room for my favorites, Brazilian bifoliate Catts and Brassavola species & primary hybrids.

Marci

My goals are to repot and acclimate the many orchids I recently acquired, as well as to take better care of the motley collection of orchids I already have. I grow under lights, so I'm specializing in phals, some are noids, some aren't. But a few phaius, phaiocalanthe, spathoglottis, and minicatts have snuck in somehow.

My long-term goal is to rebloom the phals to a sufficient quality that I can reuse them in my interior landscaping business (put them in clients' offices for 2 months, then bring them back). I'd much rather use my own orchids for this than have to buy them every time, it would give me a nice extra profit center!

My goal at the moment is to cut back my collection by at least 30 plants overall, preferably the large-sized ones which I am no longer enamoured with or plants which have been doing poorly. I have been gradually switching over to more miniature and compact-growers over the past couple years and that has noticeably increased the space in the GH, but nowhere near enough. I have been tossing, giving away or selling the excess orchids, but need to be more strict with myself and dump even more. The ideal GH environment is where there is room to walk down the aisles without having to turn sideways and where plants are not crammed up against each other -- which increases the likelihood of disease and pests. Of course, I will never reach that goal, but it is a good direction to be aimed in.

It is very difficult to part with plants, even those you really don't like anymore. They kind of stick to you and make you feel guilty when you want to unload them, and then you make all kinds of excuses and promises so you don't get have to get rid of them.

But, there comes a time when you have to sit down and think about the direction your hobby is taking. I found, in clearing out a small wall area of the GH two years ago, that I had an ideal environment where I could grow Tolumnias like weeds which I had never realized before; in the before, I had merely killed them. The few big, mostly Cattleyas, which had been in that space didn't give me near the enjoyment that these mini Tolumnias do, both species and hybrids, and I still have room for at least a dozen more.