OK, got my order today and the reviews are mixed. The good news is P. Penang Girl came in a 4" pot, roots were pretty decent, TWO spikes. It got potted into another 4" pot in CHC mix. The P. luddemannianum in a 3" pot has very short roots, one spike with black tip and one good spike but it went into a 2" pot. P. bastianii was in a 4" pot but again, the good roots were quite short, two spikes but the tips are black and it went into a 4" pot with lots of p'nuts in the bottom to help fill up the pot. The leaves on all 3 plants look healthy and clean and I'm sure the plants will grow and thrive. I've definitely received far worse. The Penang Girl was an option B plant (no A plants were available) and it was a really a nice surprise for the B to be in that condition. They do need to take lessons on packing the plants. I'm used to receiving plants that have tape over the medium/pot to hold everything in place. These were just wrapped in newspaper and upon opening them, half the sphag was dislodged. It was a good excuse to repot since I prefer that anyway and now I know what I'm dealing with. All in all, I would buy from them again if they have something I really, really need. Brooke

My honest opinion is you need to get a few more orchids. Your attention to this plant is to its detriment. You should only water when the media is almost completely dry. You should not be misting it. The plant has lost most of its roots and is going to suffer until it grows new roots. This is spring time. If this plant has a shot of surviving it would be now. Do not soak the plant for an hour. It has few roots and doesn't need this. I would stop the fertilizers completely. Stop spraying it. Just put it in a bright spot and try to forget about it. Check the media in a week. Stick you finger down into the bark and see if it feels moist. If it is, do not water! Orchids do best with benign neglect. Good luck, Jane

Baldan's Kaleidoscpe *is* beautiful, big flowers on a tall arching spike. Flowers are yellow with magenta stripes, with a magenta "glow" in the center. It is also an AM/AOS, meaning it has a high award from the AOS. It is also extremely vigorous, and blooms a long, long time. Mine has been in bloom since January. You won't be sorry with this one either. Again, I got this last May in bloom. I don't know how much longer it will go on, but it's already been in bloom for five months and looks to have a ways to go. $15 is okay for shipping. It's about the same for two or three plants at Norman's..

My Ghost Orchid is kept in a 17x30Â polycarbonate exterior greenhouse (along with my cattleya and vanda orchids) with a 63% shade cloth. Although I have a 63% shade cloth, my greenhouse is very bright. I imagine that the Ghost Orchid growing in the Fakahatchee Strand State Game Preserve gets "plenty" of light and high temperatures in atmosphere heavy with moisture, but my mounts here in SW Georgia do dry out between watering. In fact, with my environment during the Summer, with the air flow I have, and the high temperatures, the mounts dry out within an hour or two. The greenhouse has a concrete floor that I water down on the very hot days to increase the humidity and lower the temperature. I have a 30 inch thermostatically controlled fan on the west end of the greenhouse, and there are two fans on the floor at the west end of the greenhouse that run 24/7, so the air circulation is very good. I try not to let the lowest winter night-time temperature get below 55degF, but it has dropped to 50 on occasion. I mist spray the entire greenhouse in the Summer when the Summer day-time temperature inside reaches 108degF. I would like to keep the Summer daytime temperatures lower here, but again it would just be too much work for me to do more than I am now doing. In South Florida I know that the temperatures get pretty high, but as long as there is a high humidity, they seem to do pretty good. I know that if they stay wet, the roots will rot. Years ago, when I first got the Ghost Orchids, I mounted them on a larger mount, but I didn't remove them from the mount they came on. I just attached that mount to the larger one that I had. When I first got the plants I also bought 'Plant Success' Fantastic Fungi micorrhizae tablets from CharleyÂs Greenhouse to spray and dip the plant in occasionally (product #7170 - 75 tablets for $19.95). Also, when I first got the plants I kept them hanging beneath a plastic bell. The plastic vented plant protector (product #1747 - Solar Bell - 3 per pak, 13" diam. x 10" high for $19.95) is from CharleyÂs Greenhouse too. When the plants started to really grow, I removed them from under the plastic bell. The clear plastic bell didnÂt provide any shade but was used to keep any drafts off the young tender plantlets and to hold the humidity around them. The three mature plants hang in the center of the greenhouse on the east end facing south and are out of the direct flow of air which would dry them out too quickly here where I live. I do fertilize it with Better-Gro fertilizer, and I also use Superthrive. I mist spray the entire mount with fertilizer - Superthrive - water, sometimes several times a day during the Summer months. (I use 1/2 tsp fertilizer and 2 or 3 drops of the Superthrive per gallon of water.) I fertilized the Ghost Orchid pretty often from last September to March, but I slacked off when it actually started blooming. During that period from September to March, I was also using Superthrive in the fertilizing solution. I use "Orthene" as a systemic pesticide. It works good for me, and I have used it on the Ghost Orchid to get rid of wooly scale, but it has a bad odor. I have had good luck with the Ghost Orchid; this is the second year it has bloomed. Hope this information will be helpful.