I'm just about to water my orchids with water from the tap because my rainwater tank is just about empty. The chemicals in most city water will not harm your orchids. Chlorine will just evaporate. The only reason i installed the rainwater tank is that i want to be able to water on a day i choose (sunny) rather on the Wednesday and Sunday the designated watering days. Check the analysis of your tap water. Most utilities have a web-site with this info.

Hi Katy, There are no longer a lot of flasks available to hobbyists, as you always have to look at the cost of the flask versus what you might get if you sold the individual plants. Few people want to buy a flask for say, $30, get five plants, grow them out for years until they flower and then have trouble getting more than $15 for them. The market is oversaturated with Phalaenopsis, which has really driven down the price for these lovely orchids. Some small hobbyists might be doing their own breeding, and would likely either advertise flasks for sale on eBay or sell them at their local orchid society and/or shows. You could also take a look at Roberd Bedard and Bedford Orchids - both of their websites are grossly out of date, but you could try contacting them to see if they have anything available. You might also want to try to branch out - there are still flasks of more "exotic" plants more or less readily available. Woodstream Orchids, Paphanatics, Zephyrus Orchids and the Orchid Inn, for example, all carry Paphiopedilum flasks (generally not hard to grow, especially the Maudiae types, but can be slower than Phalaenopsis), and the Meyers Conservatory has flasks of tons of species available (they do have a few Phalaenopsis flasks available soon, but the challenge factor can be higher here), etc. These are the only ones I've ever dealt with personally and I've always been satisfied. Hope this helps. Julie

Yup, I love Howard's flasks. I'm always torn between compotting and potting alone, but either way, it's always rewarding to see them grow - kind of like raising kids with much less fuss. Enjoy! Julie

Great job - wasn't that fun. What an interesting cross you picked. The only thing I would have done differently is the three or four biggest seedlings would have either been potted in a two plant compot or in their own 2" pot with drainage material in the bottom. Your smallest seedlings in their smaller compot should dry fairly evenly. The big compot will have a slight drying issue in the middle of the pot. I kept all my small seedlings in a three or four inch pot and potted them around the edge with no plants in the middle. You water the compots exactly like you water a phal planted in sphag - when the top is dry, time to water. Phal seedlings are tough as nails. Don't be afraid to repot the seedlings every three months. It spurs their growth and they appreciate the new media. Brooke