Of all things, I really hadn't expected orchids to become the interest in "The Great Debate 2010." This whole conversation takes me back seven years. In February 2003, I was attending University majoring in none other than Horticulture with an emphasis in Business and Marketing! Wow! Ironically, I stumbled upon this discussion in hopes I'd find some help for an ailing Tolumnia I intercepted via raffle (free ticket) at our local Orchid Society meeting last evening. Anyhow, back in 2/03, I was shopping at a local Target store and a beautiful bloom caught my eye. Being from a 'lowly' farm, raising 'only' heirloom vegetables in our seven-acre family garden that nearly completely supported us and paid off the section of land and all our buildings on it, I had never even seen an orchid in person. Nor could I specifically remember ever "hearing" about one. I bought this orchid for $15.00 and it came in an ugly pot to boot. I cared for this orchid not knowing a thing of what I was doing and, quite frankly, didn't even bother to buy a book or do research about it. I was too busy and I was only thinking about the bloom in winter when there weren't any other flowers to be found through the snow and bitter cold. I didn't know why there was not tradition soil in the pot and I didn't know what to do to repot so I left it alone for three years! It rebloomed every year and I didn't know why, but I was greatly pleased. I am sure that, by now, you're all wondering why a Horticulture student (with a burning passion for plants) hadn't done any research. It's simply because I didn't have the time. I was going to school at least full time, had a part time job and a work-study job as well. I barely found time to eat and catch my coffee buzz. I must have, at some point, purchased a book about orchids because I have one and can't remember for the life of me where it came from. It's rather great! "Orchid Growing Basics" by Dr. Gustav Schoser. It helped me a great deal with repotting and making sure I was giving it the right conditions. It was all dumb luck. I put it by my bedside over a marble tray because it was pretty. Whoopie! No science, nothing fancy. Last year, when I joined our local orchid society, I realized the fact that it has a tag means SOMETHING. I only kept it because it's my "thing." I even did that with my ever-famous blue lake 274 bush beans (green beans) I grew for our garden and sold them at farmers' market every year. He's a Phalaenopsis "Brother x Lancer" by the way. He's beautiful and has taken lots of abuse from being neglected due to having babies. I have since never seen a tagged orchid in a big box store. I have purchased other orchids in big box stores, but lose my interest and throw them out. I've been soured out by the big box orchids due to finding them with viruses. My poor husband, who knows the way to my heart is through a houseplant (preferably Calatheas, Hoyas and Orchids) rather than a dying cut dozen of roses, bought a Dendrobium for me at Wal-Mart (when we were destitute and poor btw) and it had a serious virus so I had to throw it away. Can't have my blessed Phal. get sick by accident! The poor guy has no idea about orchids. I feel he was let down by the mass producer (from where, I do not know, it was all in Asian lettering) and Wal-Mart. The Dend. was unnamed and came in a nice, pretty pot. When the mass producers don't take care to name the orchid and ensure sterile conditions for the health of the orchid, does the money put into the prettier pot (a marketing scheme for sure) and instructions for care matter anymore? I'm sure he paid more than I would have for the Dend. Not to mention, it ended up a virused one anyhow. Unfortunately, I get the feeling from mensplace, that an orchid is an orchid is an orchid. One size fits all and, if it doesn't, the "orchid specialists" are of superior being than those who aren't "in the know." I've never felt this way. I have had orchids die, I've had to throw them out due to virus and I still have my first one (beginners luck). Why so many options for media, lighting and other care for orchids? It's not really an "aha moment" when you realize that orchids are found in nature all over the world. There are also different climates all over the world. Each orchid has its climate which is most conducive for the species to survive in. If you can't come close to duplicating that climate in your home (or any other chosen growing place) then the orchid fails to thrive and/or survive. As for marketing, the big box stores and the mass-producers *do* open the door for the love of orchids for the most part. Since my first experience in 2003 there have been strides made. The pots are prettier. This year, Wal-Mart is even selling them in beautiful glazed pots for $9.99. Yes, they are the Phalaenopsis (as always). I don't know about instructions for care as I do not purchase (doesn't mean I don't pay attention to what's going on), but at just $9.99 that's probably a free orchid with a pretty pot. The orchids roots will for sure rot if not taken out of the glazed pot as soon as it's purchased (luckily, the Phals. don't drop all the flowers/buds when repotted). I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a nice orchid than a nice pot. Feeling ill informed? Well, maybe someday "Big Brother" will mandate GPS units be put into the pots of the orchids so you can automatically receive culture sheets for your orchids in your mail box as well as advertisements for more orchids, pots, fertilizer, media etc. Until then, we've all learned about places such as the public library. You can utilize modern technology such as the WWW (specifically GardenWeb forums - many newbies to orchids meander this way) or search for an orchid book on Amazon.com. All these are common places for the everyday joe. I think I may have purchased my book at Barnes and Noble as I was partial to B&N in college for the coffee and quiet study time. On to scientific nomenclature: just so you know, *all* plants have Latin names. Latin, as I am sure you know, is the "dead language." It can never be misinterpreted and/or changed. When referring to any plant by genus and species (in some cases subspecies also), you can only be speaking of plant "A" whereas if you use a common name you could be speaking of plant "A" or plant "B" or even plant "C" depending upon where you live. For instance, if you start talking to me about "Swiss Cheese Plant" I'm going to assume you're talking about Monstera deliciosa, but you could be talking about Monstera obliqua. In any given situation, the care for plant "A" could be (and usually is) different than the care for plant "B." Latin names describe the features of a plant. Nearly four years ago, I made the choice to be a stay-at-home mom because I could not stand to be away from my baby and didn't want him to be raised by a stranger. We live off one income and it's very modest. We micromanage our money so we can provide for our children and still have family fun. Unfortunately, this also means I can't really afford to go out and buy orchids at my leisure; especially not the good ones. That's what I thought until last year when I joined our local orchid society! I got TWO NAMED orchids last night for $10.00. I also got a free orchid with my membership last year. It's a seedling and won't bloom for another few years, but who cares? I love plants and I love orchids. I only want ones with names because I am serious about them. What if I want to show them someday? I'll be able to with the name tags. Are we orchid growers, hobbyists and/or specialists snobs? In some way, yes. We all have our preferences for our own reasons. I have strong preferences for Calatheas and other rare tropicals, Hoyas (which you can also pay a pretty penny for - just head on over to the Hoya forum and find out) and Orchids (mixed preferences within genera). What I find lacking in the posts by mensplace is factual information pertaining specifically to orchids. The reason "we" only go for certain orchids are for personal preference, whether or not we want to show (for which there ARE standards to win ribbons and awards for each) and what kind of growing conditions we have to offer. Before you judge "us" and make further attacks, I urge you to learn more about the processes of growing and showing orchids. Don't be afraid to ask "Why? What? When? How?" when you don't understand. We don't judge here. We each offer our own personal experiences, preferences and growing conditions. Take what you will, leave what you won't. No one is going to hand-feed you instructions to match your situation perfectly. No one gave me a manual for these boys that I have! I have to find the best information to fit my situation and it's all trial and error. It's the same with orchids, but much easier.

It might be prudent to purchase a small bag of sterile sand at a garden center to use as the medium for cuttage... I have read in more than one book on propagation that moist sand is the best medium for rooting. I noticed that the local garden center here sells small bags of "horticultural sand", kept on the same shelf as the bonsai mix. Vermiculite might work for you, though... I didn't have any luck using vermiculite as a rooting medium... for some reason, it developed a thin layer of mold on top... I am planning to start an entire flat of hippi seeds outdoors, at the same time I start some of my other seeds for the garden... I will be using a seed starter mix, but I'm going to mix in quite a bit of sand to see if that helps germination. I'll plant the seeds right around Mother's Day, May 11th... this will only be four days before the frost cut-off date for this area. I'm not sure why, but I had poor luck germinating some batches of hippi seeds... while others sprouted just fine. I had a very good rate of germination with my Limona seeds, no germination with seeds from Maria, some germination with seeds from Cindee... I haven't tried all the seeds from Cindee yet. I'm wondering if the seeds were somehow affected by the weather when they were shipped? They were all freshly harvested, so I can't think of any other reason that they wouldn't sprout. My theory is that I simply don't have the right set-up for proper propagation indoors... the grow lights I have are not good ones. I'm thinking I'll have much better success growing all of my seeds outdoors where there's plenty of warm sunlight and fresh circulating air. If I am correct and this works as well as I think it will, I'll be storing next year's harvest for the following spring, and starting them all outdoors, just as I would any other seeds I'd grow for the garden.

Josh-- "I would love to try the Hydroton method, I just am not really sure where to buy it or the pots? I'm assuming online? Can you link me?" Sorry, no link, though I believe you can buy this stuff on Amazon. In fact I think many places sell it, but it becomes expensive to ship, especially with the USPS in its death-throes. Ha! But I can tell you that more and more places here in Colorado are selling it. Honestly, I think mostly because of Denver making pot legal. I personally do not partake in this type of gardening myself, though who am I to say what people can and cannot grow? Anyway, this has helped the hydroponics market here because of the high demand. In fact, once while in a hydro store, one of the fellow patrons asked me how I grow my plants and so I told him and he asked about my results-- when I told him how amazing my blooms were he was utterly confused. He thought I meant pot when really I was speaking on orchids. We all need our hobbies... So my suggestion to you is to call around. Search Google for a hydroponics supplier and if all those fail, there is Amazon and ebay. Buy a small bag and give it a try to decide if that's where you want to go with growing more plants this way. That's what I did. It started off with orchids and then I heard of the myriad of other plants people grew in this stuff and I gave it a whirl. As for the pot-- depends on what you want to grow it in. Easiest is plastic. Walmart has gallon-sized square storage containers-- in the isle where they have all their plastic food storage and lunch boxes etc. It's there "Main Stay" brand. Works perfectly for one hippie bulb (or one orchid, as the case may be). Below is a link on how to set up the rest. The creator of semi-hydroponics is Ray from First Rays Orchids in Pennsylvania, not far from my home town. Follow his instructions, but think "bigger" scale than the smaller containers he uses for orchids. Noni this goes for you too-- read Ray's page and let me know what questions you may have. His method is excellent but I've made adjustments according to my own growing environment. For instance, my reservoirs are deeper because at 10% relative humidity many times of the year plus windy conditions, the plants will use up a lot of their reservoir. As for fertilizer, I use Grow More's Phal fertilizer. I believe its something like 20-16-20 plus the micro nutrients-- I deliver the water via a hand-pumped pressurized tank that holds two gallons. I put at most a teaspoon of fertilizer in for those two gallons-- a weak solution but its given with every watering. I should mention though that the orchids get watered rarely. Each orchid goes through a freshwater flushing every few weeks. Hippies feed a bit heavier and get a flushing every few weeks and then some-- they don't seem to be bothered much by biproduct build up though during their growing season outside, they get flushed all the time by storms or by the garden hose. Orchids are much more sensitive to any mineral or fertilizer buildup. In general, if I see "crystals" forming on the hydroton, that pot gets flushed. Noni I never share water between plants, especially with the real possibility of viruses. I'm by no means an expert on this so please don't take anything I have to say to heart-- the only thing you can do is read up on the subject and figure it out for your conditions. With that said, I love this growing method and plan to keep on with it. ooooooooooooooook Gardenweb is totally lame and won't let me post the link.... so here it is in plain text, though I'm sure somewhere someone in Gardenweb is clenched and angry. Gawd this place has declined.... ok it won't even let me post it as plain text.... Isn't a forum supposed to be a place to learn and share and teach? If anyone is interested in this further, I urge you to go to the Landspro forum. Very disappointed, DR

Okay, first you need some fig cuttings. Ideally, you get them in the morning from a willing donor (or you wander the neighborhood looking for damaged limbs, branches sticking out in the street or over the path et al . . . this is not recommended. Best to stick a note in the mailbox asking is it Ok for you to nip a few branch ends? Offer to give them a couple of the 'children' you produce (if you are lucky, you'll be able to give them a different variety should you do this with several trees. Do keep track of what they are if that is what you want to do.) You might also offer other plants, seeds, perennial divisions, firstborn male children, whatever you have spare. Now you have some legal branch ends (I find they work best.) Keep them in a plastic bag with a wet towel until you get home. Now, at home, put a kettle on to boil, and cop a few bottles from the recycle bin. Keeping track of the alcoholics in your neighborhood will make this easier if you don't generate enough Miller High Life containers on your own. Rinse them. When the water boils let it sit until it is not quite so hot and GENTLY pour about two inches in each bottle. The idea is not to let any air bubbles form, no shaking, just flat flat water. Sit the bottles off to cool further, and get your cutters. Wash them with alcohol or a ten to one dilute bleach solution (Ten parts WATER to one part BLEACH). Do not let your cutters get contaminated again. Be a real nit about this. It makes a difference. Put a bowl of water in the sink. You could use some of the boiled water but I do not know if it will make a difference. Now for your rooting hormone. You can use the gooey gel sort or the dust or the liquid : whatever you do put a little in a container and use that. You do not want to contaminate your hormone by dunking a cutting in it. Just put some on a saucer and use it up. Grab your first cutting. Hold the cut end under water in the bowl, and with your nippers, cut diagonally BELOW a bud. I like to have branch ends as there is always a nice bud at the tip, but try for about three below that one. Now you have a nice diagonal cut. Dip it in the rooting hormone, then set it aside. Repeat. Keep different figs apart, the Brunswick over here, the Alma over there, and give some of the Panachee, Italian Honey, and Petite Negri to me (I don't have those.) When you have done this to all of your figs, put them into the bottles (GENTLY! NO BUBBLES!) Stick the bottles on a windowsill and wait . . . . I like to dump the water out every couple of days and put more boiled and cooled water in. The little dots and bumps on the sticks will start to poke out a bit, like adolescent zits. Then they will get white. Then they will come out and be roots. ( Replace the fig cutting bottle and jump up and down at this point.) Let the roots get about an inch long, then VERY GENTLY put them in a container (a DEEP container you can cut off of them later, or gently pull them out of). Push soil about the fragile roots and water, with the boiled cooled water if you like (again, I don't know if it helps but hey it is cheap.) Some sticks will die but I have had pretty good luck. The baby fig trees are popular with kids who enjoy checking out their growth daily. I did this this summer, twice (I have my second batch sprouting white roots now.) So that is it. It is not that hard, if you follow the rules; keep the nippers clean, boil the water and be gentle with it so you get no air, and treat the little treelets with tender care. Good luck.