Congratulation on the anniversary, Kevin :)

When I got involved with all you evil people, the boxes really started arriving in the mail.
-- you said it well. I found out about a lot of online nurseries, "blowout" sales, and so on, after I joined.

I still have my first orchid, Cochleanthes Lip Blush. After a near-death experience, it lived and now finally blooms regularly. My second orchid, a NOID phal, died :(
I also still have a bunch of cattleyas I bought as bagged seedlings. Back then, I kept the picture from the bag, but not the tag, hehehe....

The collection has grown quite some since Cochleanthes Lip Blush...
Olya

I still have one of the very first orchids I ever bought, a lovely lavender Phal no name. The little bugger has NEVER re-bloomed, so I'm really keeping it out of sheer stubborness.

Julie

hello, Kevin, Happy Anniversary! I hope that you celebrated by getting an addition to your collection. the first orchids i bought was over 20 years ago and within a week in my care, they went to orchid heaven. after that i did not get any more until about 4 years ago and that one is a spider type and it is a very reliable bloomer. it is actually blooming now. it also has been divided into 3 plants and I got it for $5. at home depot.

sue

sue

Kevin, happy anniversary! I have a phal I bought about 3 years ago called "amadeus" The medium looks like coffee grounds, but the plant is insane!!! I now have over 40 plants but this one has a special place in my heart :) It has 3 large basal keikis, 6 new leaves this summer and about 20 aerial roots. This plant flowers almost constantly. I have been fortunate to have such a good one intro me to orchids- like a faithful dog to me.

I still have a Den. teretifolium, Enc. alata, and (currently in bud) B. cucullata from my original collection.

-Cj

Yes, I still have the first two plants that I bought from a local home improvement store in Albany, GA on April 8, 1999 for $39 each.
Lc. Everett Dirksen and C. Nancy Off

Oh, and Cym aloifolium.

-Cj

Happy Anniversary Kevin!

I have my very 1st...Colmanara Wildcat 'Hung Sheng #7' - purchased with a gift cert from gardens.com, from friends at work when I left that job. (spooky how I'm actually back at that company now...), purchased in July 2000!

The next oldest ones date from my 1st GNYOS...Catasetum tenebrosum and Stanhopea grandiflora, in 2004.

After that, they come and go pretty rapidly.

Carolyn

As some of you know I lost almost all my orchids to a storm about two years ago. But from those first plants I still have a small phal keiki that survived but doesn't grow larger. It's mother would have been 5 or 6 years old now. Also two recovered dens. They were near death when we got back. It took them almost 2 years to recover enough to bloom again. I'll never hang them in trees for the summer again.

The rest of my orchids are new one I've started (earlier this year) to collect again. Mainly rescues from HD or Lowe's.

I still have my plant of C. Irene Holguin 'Brown Eyes' and Lc. Bertha Boeing
which I've had now for over 30 years.

Still have a brassavola nodosa which hasn't bloomed since I got it and a bifreneria harrisonae which refuses to bloom again.

RP1

I think I'm moving things out at a slower pace now. Maybe I'm starting to actually figure out what I want to grow.

K

Still have my first phal (pink noid), laelia (anceps), paph (alma gaveart), oncidium (a "stinking" sharry baby), and psychopsis from when I started growing orchids about 10 years ago. The first masdie and miltoniopsis went bye-bye though.

Paphs creeped me out at first but I love'em now.

Happy Anniversary a day later, Kevin.

You've brought me up short... again. Here I thought I'd been in orchids 3+ years, but the AOS show was in Mpls in April, 2005, not 2004, so it's only 2+ years. Awhile back, I knew that. I'm blonde, okaaaay??

Of the 24 orchids I bought the first 4 months, 2 died and 6 have been sold. Five more will be traded/sold. Of the 11 left, the Coryanthes feildingii and Psychopsis are faves and have been faithful bloomers. The Phal. Penang Girl ÂChing Reuy and the Sedirea japonica have never bloomed, but they're staying anyway.

More than 30 years you've had those 2 plants, Toyo! Quite the testimony to your care and steadfastness - or their stubbornness.

Whitecat8

Toyo, I have had 'Brown Eyes' for years also. What a big, rangy Catt. I keep wanting to get rid of it, but it holds sentimental feelings.

Whitecat, don't worry. I'm blonde and started growing Orchids before I knew they were Orchids! Thought they were just houseplants growing in bark. Somehow, these two dens just kept living and flowering. Wasn't until I was given a big, beautiful Phal as a gift, that I Googled the tag. Google led me here, and it was the beginning of the end!

Happy Anniversary Kevin...

Jane

Happy anniversary, Kevin! You've added a lot to the forum.

All but one of my plants were killed when my building had a five four years ago. But I replaced several right away: Brassavola Little Stars, C Marjorie Hauserman, C Hisako Akatsuka 'Volcano Queen,' Paph Lynleigh Koopowitz, and one of my first loves, Onc. Gower Ramsay. They've kept on true to form--in fact, the Little Stars is even better than the original.
Margo

No, they died of old age long ago. And the rest of my past collections have had to be given away several times as I went to work overseas. My present bunch is only about 12 years old at most.

Sure do, Kev, two Catts that I've had for about 20 years. One blooms every winter and one is a division of the original that I gave away when I thought it was too large to bring along when we downsized. Wish I'd kept it but the division is coming along nicely. They're good old friends.

Marci

grats on your anniversary!
I have a noID dend I got in Hawaii several years ago. The Masdie I got at the same time died really quickly :(
The dend has survived drought and overwatering before I started to getting into orchids and finally did my reading and now it blooms alomost constantly...

I'm still new at this, so none of my plants are very old, but after reading this forum, I was wondering if orchids actually do have a predictable life span? I would imagine that they are like most other plants and do begin to decline at some point. Anyone know which live the longest...and the shortest? Just curious.

Sorta comes down to how long of a "beginning" one is considering, for me. My very first 2 orchids are long gone. One was a NOID den that eventually died, and the other was a NOID phal that I sold or gave away at some point. I do still have 2 divisions of a NOID miniden (which is planted in wet peat in a bog terr) I bought at Lowes yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaars back when the BBS carried them frequently. That purchase was a year or two after that of the phal and den mentioned previously. All predated the first time I attended an OS meeting or even knew of events like orchid shows. :)

W/ the exception of the aforementioned miniden, my oldest plants [if I stretch "beginning" to include my first orchid show] would be a Pot Hoku Gem 'Superspots' and Blc Blazing Treat. Both of which I've had for probably ten or more years now.

Marci

"They're good old friends." - You know, I think that's a perfect way to describe how I feel about my two old Milts. I know there are so many new hybrids out there probably far superior to these, but they've just been around so long now and have given me so much pleasure - how could I get rid of them?

Thanks to all for the nice comments about the anniversary date.

K

lizkuntne: Provided they have proper care, most orchids are essantially immortal and can continue to live and bloom well beyond your life span. A few execptions exist (psygmorchis, for example), but most will live happily, for ever.

-Cj

I find Phals start looking 'old' after about 5 years. They lean out of the pots and as each leaf is lost the crown-neck elongates. Although they continue to spike and flower, they just look 'old.'

Jane

According to my member page I bit the bullet and joined in March 2003 but it was 2000, I think, when I first dragged home a phal. Do I still have it? NO. And I don't want anymore of those fussy plants. I have a brassia that predates my joining GW. It was specimen size when I got it, still is, still have never gotten it to rebloom. I've been threatening to send it to Howard for years now but hang on to it. In the spring it would have had a year and a half in Florida, maybe then I'll send it to Howard, if it doesn't bloom. If I do that, it will just be me and my no-phal laelias and catts, since the early days. Gotta love 'em.

No I don't but I remember it. It was an Oncidium Splendidium. I bought at a famous greenhouse in NJ which is no longer in existence. I watched it like a hawk I was so thrilled with myself growing orchids. That was around 30 years ago.

I still have my first one. A little NOID Phal I got for my birthday in 02. The little beast has survived heart-rot and constant lack of watering or over-watering. *g* But, it's in strike now, it hasn't tried to bloom since winter 03/04. All it has done is grow new leafs and roots and, last winter, creating a basal keiki . Well, better than nothing I guess. I still like the little irritant. :)

I have a huge - in a tub -- old unnamed oncidium that has 10 plus spikes every spring -- I have to cut it way back every other year. My husband was an orchid judge when I married him and this is the one plant that I have left of his, he died a long time ago, so I figure its going 20 plus years. I have quite a few from 1999 on but I have gone from vandas to phals to phrags and now paphs. I moved and have a new smaller greenhouse so I had to cut way back. I have one awarded vanda, Candaces Sunshine, that I kept and it is in flower at least 6 months of the year -- so I made the space for it --- I've had it 7 years