Caring for houseplants, and that is what orchids in the home are, is not intuitieve nor 'easy'. It can be easier than it is sometimes made (i.e. 'it's easy when you know how) but specialist knowledge needs to be on hand. Someone with basic knowlege of houseplant culture would know that a 1/2 cup of water (4 ounces) is nothing. Nor would repeating an application of four ounces of water in 24 hours be cause for alarm. When I get new plants I hit each of them with a full quart (24 ounces) because I don't know when they last had a drink and also I want to get them started on my schedule. The lions share of that quart will run out of the pot but I can be certain the bark is well wetted. I am not certain of what could cause new plants to decline so spectacularly in so short a time but it is probably environmental: draft, too close to heat register, too cold, too hot, etc. I think the present plants are a write-off. If the o.p. really wants to get involved with orchids and try again I would suggest getting the "All About Growing Houseplants" by Ortho as well as their "All About Growing Orchids". I've seen the houseplant title for 99 cents. FWIW. H

Jeanne, I am keeping my fingers crossed. A 60% chance of rain here on Thursday night and Friday. I don't care if we have severe weather as long as it rains!!!!!!! My experience most years mirrors Jeannes. The type IIs always brown out, most of the type IIIs don't. However this year even some of the the viticellas have browned out but with the abnormally hot and dry weather this year, I am not surprised that even they did. If you figure out what the secret combination of factors is flowergirl, then you could write a book and become the authority on how not to have brown out occur. I can't fathom a reason why the issue would be something that has just recently started occurring for you.

It looks just like sunburn, but if they were out in the sun I don't see how that could be. Were they out in overcast weather for a week and then you had bright sunshine yesterday? Also, in case it's a tomato disease, you should take note of whether is was older or newer or all leaves that were affected. I am extremely reluctant to try to identify tomato diseases through photos, even have trouble with my own plants right in front of my face. So unless somebody else is much more experienced than I am and can give you an answer right off the bat, here's all I can recommend. Virginia's common tomato diseases have a lot of overlap with those in Georgia, where I live. This site lists common tomato diseases in Virginia. Even though it's for Georgia, I've included the link below because it has clear pictures of diseases that might infect some Virginia tomatoes (cross-reference it with the link above), and pictures are usually more helpful in identifying disease problems than text! The only disease that has anything that looks like your leaves is Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus. But for heaven's sake, don't take my word for it -- it might just be sunburn. You can at least eliminate those diseases which aren't obviously the problem and zero in on the ones that it might be. If you are stumped, you can take samples or a whole plant to your County Extension office or a nearby university that has some plant experts -- you should get answers pretty quickly. Wish I could be more helpful. Here is a link that might be useful: Common Tomato Diseases (in Georgia)

Yes, that looks close. OP doesn't know what he's got, yet somehow, the bar is raised much higher for a guy sitting at a desk perhaps 100 miles away. Welcome to the internet! OP, the salient features of this discussion are that you have some trees in very advanced states of senescence, a fancy word meaning death. Those trees are not at all savable. As to what's happening, better call your County Extension person quick, before Governor Slash And Burn axes those guys. Or at the least, provide some more information, so we can have some hope of getting to the bottom of this thing you report-lots of dead and dying trees in your neighborhood. The internet is a real change in society, but we can't work outright miracles with it. +oM