Hort, who are these professionals? You will be hard pressed to find them. I've been trying to grow things for 37 years and still plants cark it. That is why we need an orchid forum. Sometimes you will find in posts little hints that make a difference. Anyway, it all comes down to conditions, conditions, conditions. Your Wal-Mart Dendrobium is probably a hard-cane, i've got about thirty of them and not many people grow them around these parts because they are considered "Difficult" . As for the disease, your plant is just showing what happens when conditions do not suit. I had one that grew too big, thought i would trial it outside a glasshouse and put it in a sheltered position of the front porch, sheltered position, morning sun. It declined! Moved it to my shadehouse. It declined more and then died. Your plant has declined to such a point that perhaps you should discard it and start off with a new one. These are the "weeds" of Florida, Hawaii, Queensland, Australia. They like moderate humidity, warmth, even watering, though slightly less in winter and sunlight filtered by some like shade-cloth. How can i tell you how to grow them seeing my total orchid experience is here? That is the real problem with orchid growing, you have to do some research and follow that up with some interpretation in relating what you read to your growing place(s). Even then many you try will just die.

I used to do daycare so all poisonous plants had to kept out of the play area. Totally understandable to me. When you have a bunch of 2 year olds its better to play it safe. I no longer do daycare and my children are older. So I have no problem planting brugs or anything else in all areas of my yard. I dont put them close to the fence by my one neighbor cause they have puppies and I would hate to harm them if they were stupid enough to eat them. My other side of the yard there are no puppies or small children so it is loaded. lol My children are older and they know better. But to know better they have to be tought better and usually that doesnt happen. BTW regarding the drug wars. Kids will learn better with the basic facts. Trying to make it cute or funny doesnt work. When I was a teen the this is your brain and this is your brain on drugs with the egg in the skillet was the big THIS WILL KEEP THEM FROM DOING DRUGS. Lol I know more kids that tried it cause it had to be good if they were making that big of a deal of it. Ok this got long, but the short of it is, if that commercial was more along the lines of you will be nothing with no money and no life when you get older, those kids might have thought twice Carey

Yes, I think with the edge on this one that I will definitely keep it for further evaluation. Today's picture makes the flower look more gold when it really was more yellow. Jan, I tried to count the fans on the seedling with 5 scapes. It is really hard because I planted all the seedlings 6 - 8 " apart and now they all have multiple fans and are no longer very far apart. I counted at least 5 fans, so I guess 5 scapes makes perfect sense. Thanks Ann

Wow...O_O What people with a lot of space will do with it...tsk tsk. :P My coelogyne would never get that big - it would be divided repeatedly and kept cute and small :) Jokes aside, gread display and photo. Paltry indeed!