Hey Jodik! There is something about you being here that always makes my heart leep for joy! Thank you. I hear you on the neglect thing. You have actually helped me do very well with my regular plants based on this advice, especially my jades! I must say that most can probably do without the tenderness while I did find one I did neglect for more than a few days almost dead from dehydration.lol I guess there is a balance somewhere. The good thing is that it will probably come back a lot easier with a good dose of rain water than if it was rotted due to the opposite. So far so good, all my roots but one Cattleya that I saved from the Orchid Society were healthy. On the one that had rotted roots, I used your method of cinnamon, and it WORKED! It is doing great now:-) So happy to see you, and in case no one knows, you have been a very long time close friend of mine on every forum but this one thus far. Here we go again.lol I also found out that in my type of mix which dries out very quickly in my warm greenhouse and with all those fans, the Cattleya seedlings would croak if I didn't provide constant moisture. These I can't ignore. So far so good. They are thriving with a good watering and misting every other day at the end of my hands. I have been discovering too that depending on how much light we give and the temps will determin if we can truly ignore them or provide watering more often than not. I know that a mount I tried, died to neglect with only a couple of days of no water, dried out to the bone. I would say that there are too many variables in play here to determine whether ones can be ignored or need a constant source of moisture. I have live hanging moss that needs a constant misting. I am figuring it out though, thanks to you all here and my own hand at it! I am still in the discovery process and finding out how well my orchids respond to my care with the environment, light, mix,air movement, and temps all taken into consideration. This is a blast! Lumpy! You see to have it all together for what you have. Would you believe that I have some of the same plants that are thriving in JUST 'hydroton', some in just plain 'orchiada bark', some in a combination of fine fir bark, some in fine fir bark, pumice, and perlite, some in chunky fir bark, while others in fine bark, charcoal, and perlite? It can very fun seeing how they all respond. It seems no matter what they are in, they need to be in a mix that provides a lot of oxygen and air movement, and does not stay wet too long. Right now I have many in the mix Josh uses that LOVE that. Time will tell if all do well in just about anything, as long as I can provide mixes that stay moist for fine roots, moist but dry out for medium roots, and then dry out fast for large roots. Bob, I have taken your words too to heart. That is exactly what I am doing. I fine mist all my Cattleyas until the top of the mix gets moist, then do a deep watering every weekend. I use warm rain water and make sure I mist and rinse heavily with warm water for about 5 minutes on each. I also have many clips that I have now started to use and in fact on many this am. Thanks for all you do and for everything everybody has done for me. I enjoy you all! I think my experience with living in the tropics and remembering how orchids grow in nature has given me a good headstart, well at least the basics of orchid care. I do know that the only time I ever saw them was under trees! The ones exposed to more sun always had burnt and yellow leaves, but huge flowers. The ones that got dense foliage to protect them always had dark green leaves, but smaller flowers. Mike:-)

Terpguy: I don't know. I can tell you how it's growing though. It is on the top usable shelf of my plant shelf, which is in front of an unobstructed south facing window on the third floor. It is fairly close to the window, maybe about 4-5 inches away. The window is covered with a sheer mesh curtain, the cheap kind you get at Ikea. It is growing in a mix of coco fiber, tree fern fiber, and a bit of bark and lava rock (I think that's what it was). The bottom of the board above is lined with aluminum foil to attempt to reflect light downward. It's in a clear orchid pot with side slats, so when it looks dry, I water it. I try not to let it get totally dry, as I read somewhere that it likes to stay moist. It tends to bloom at least a couple times a year for me. I was surprised that it decided to bloom now, as it has been putting on a lot of new growth and I thought it would concentrate on maturing those. Hey, I won't say no to blooms. So, I don't feel like I do anything special. Paph delenatiis don't bloom for me for anything though. At least one tried last year. This year, they didn't even try. I'm clearly doing something wrong. The one has been steadily shrinking too. I did it, I got Pleuro alata and that Lepanthopsis. And of course, I forgot another bloomer, a Phal hybrid with a name I can't remember right now. It's a harlequin with yellow-green petals and burgundy spots, blooming since Januaryish. I'm keeping my eye on my Cattleya luteola, which has two buds getting steadily bigger and fatter. Exciting! Calvin, I can't really help with any tips on C. luteola. Like I said, I thought it hated me. It's about 5 inches away from an 85W CFL, and it kept growing too close to the light and burning off its leaves. So I'd get new growth, then lose it. Although I guess the pbulbs stuck around. That is what is spiking now, a leafless pbulb.

Oops! ment to publish this in exchanges! Sorry

Oops that should have been posted in the gallery, Oh well. Nick