Debbi, Pat, thanks for your comments. Debbi: When I started collecting, I too was mystified by the apparent dearth of orchid sources. I'm gradually sniffing them out. Here are some indications - from dilettanti with little or no knowledge of what they're selling to the really serious collectors/vendors. The prices are (believe it or not) in descending order, with the best deals from the serious collectors. 1) select florist shops (large NOID phals) 2) general garden centres (phals and cymbidiums -all noids) 3) two "kibbutzim" Maale Hahamisha (phals and some catt. hybrids, some labelled) and Bahan (a more varied selection, but unlabelled - this one sells potting medium, fert. etc. and has an orchid park with a play area for kids and a coffee shop). 4)The serious growers. One or two have websites where you can order online, but it's much more fun to visit and select on the spot. Especially true if you're a centrally located pensioner with lots of time on your hands (haha!). sharonorchids.com is my favourite, but there are plenty more. You can also order flasks or soiless plants from abroad, but this is complicated and expensive and requires an import licence from the dept. of agriculture. So, that's the picture. Sorry about all the details, but you DID ask.... Pat: Ah! your beautiful orchids and your beautiful photos. My mouth waters every time I open one of your posts. A question: The two dens (acquired from different stands) came potted in mainly lava rock and charcoal with a bit of bark mixed in. Both were quite damp when I got them, but have now dried out completely (after two days). Is this normal and if so, does this mean that I'll have to water every two days?? Could I (should I) repot into standard orchid mix which seems to suit my catts and allows me to water them in this fairly dry weather every 7-10 days? Thanks in advance. Judy

Thank you for the graft union reminder. Larix laricina Blue Sparkler is a common plant over here. I actually got it for a friend but he already had one... so it's mine. lol I don't know much about it, I think it grows slower than Wolterdingen... which doesn't say very much. That Wolterdingen grows like somebody lit a match under it. Sherrie I named for me mom yep! A very nice witch broom. Very very slow-growing. (My) graft from Gee's is a result of a larger chunk of scionwood grafted to a larger seedling. I guess though that only time will tell. Thanks for the Glaucum correction. I knew that god dangit. I have one other seedling from my Wintergreen seedling collection that is equally as narrow. I'll go get a photo. Thanks Edwin, Dax

Thanx for all the kind comments!! Today is the 3 day of its opening and it has turned white and the petals have moved around a bit. Amazing, it's like having 2 flowers in one plant. Also found that there is a naked bud growing in the new leaf right next to the flower. By naked I mean no sheath....catts are definitely very interesting! Hope it will make it to bloom. Perfection - there's a fragrance that even *I* can smell but only during the day and it's even more pronounced when the temps are warmer. Again, without all your help...this catt would have died back in May. So I owe it all to you!

That is some kind of "big leaf" rhododendron. I don't have one. I have no doubt a grafted one would grow well for me...at least the hardiest big leaves like R. rex. So this is perhaps a good time to express my increasing infuriation with the paucity of what we should perhaps call "performance grafting" in the US. (Vs. something like Japanese Maples, which much be grafted, so is really propagative grafting) . Probably the biggest rhodo nursery in the world, Baumeschule Hachmann in Germany, ONLY produces grafted plants. Namely for performance reasons, too, although the concern there is limey soil, not hot, wet soil. Though they surely also have a awareness that certain cultivars will do better grafted, even in chilly north Europe. The Scottish Coxes, gardening in the most maritime of climates, nevertheless complain that certain cultivars perform better if grafted, in their vast encyclopedia of hybrids. As far north as MA, a R. rex in a collector's garden died one hot summer ,not one winter. The root rot is even a problem up there! So absolutely, grafting onto a rot resistant rootstock would allow R. rex to survive here. Even on the benign North Island of NZ, it's been done to permit certain big leaf species to grow without threat of root rot collapse. But here? I'm not going to name names, but feel like I've exhausted my options for convincing a commercial source to do it. Am I too cynical to wonder if they just like knowing a certain % of what they ship outwith the PNW is likely to eventually die of root rot? And thus need to be replaced? Perhaps. Or maybe it's just "this is the way we're always done things, and we don't like upstarts with new-fangled ideas". At any rate it leaves the only option being trying to breed tougher big leafs. Tim who sometimes posts here, is raising some promising hybrids, including one involving the native Rhododendron maximum. (Which still isn't tough enough to be seen much south of DC, in the Piedmont and plains at least.)