just so you'll know........you can write to a hib. society and get free trop. hib. seeds. they'll also tell you what the cross is. sorry i don't have the proper name of the place but somebody on the hib. forum will know.

There are many candidates. You didn't say, but that says to me "species" rather than hybrids, but there are many rare and exotic hybrids, particularly some of the older ones where there are only a few known plants. Orchid collecting is like any other collecting hobby. When we start off, any old stamp will do. We are looking to get a bunch. Then we start to be a bit selective and also learn about taking proper care of the collection. Eventually we may decide to specialize and grow only a limited group. For example, my collection is "new world epiphytes" consisting of Masdevallia hybrids, and Encyclia, Laelia and Cattleya species. I have other plants, but I am getting more and more selective and am willing to spend more and more money on an individual plant. I have tuned my conditions as much as possible to make these plants happy. I usually get one or two plants at a time so I can enjoy them. I trade and sell excess and divisions and plants that fall outside the collection. This week at San Francisco I sold two and made deals to trade two. What I am saying is make your collection fit your environment, then select what you are interested in. Have some idea of a plan for the collection even if you change your mind later. Good luck.

Nice choices, Maria! Residence almost looks double, but it's hard to tell from the picture at Royal Colors' website... I really like Bogota, it's on my "wish list"... so is Supreme Garden, Pink Floyd, Santa Fe and a few others... I'm beginning to understand how this hobby quickly develops into a full-blown addiction! Every variety I see has merits that make it desirable... even the more common ones! I'm not so sure I'll be able to collect as slowly as I want to... the more I look at them all, the more I realize I want most of them!!! I can fully understand how and why Dizzy bought her latest unlabeled purchase! They're hard to resist! I even find the Crinum and Lycoris bulbs attractive, and some of the other rare types, as well... where does one draw the line?! I find that I'd really like to try to grow several types of Amaryllidaceae! This could get out of hand really fast! I'm running out of window space! Help... someone save me! :-)

You aren't kidding! Nothing grows at the North Pole!! :D Just watch Logee's plants, I used to order from them all the time and got some plant diseases on some succulents I had purchased and then they transferred to my Christmas cacti which I was bummed about, so I had to pitch them. To be fair Logee's said they would help if I wanted them to, but I didn't bother. They have excellent exotics, though some are pricey.