| Dear annelemos,
I am not familiar with the Sunset Orchid book, but the Ortho book explains a great deal in very comprehensible terms. I probably learned as much about orchid care from this one little book as I did fom all my other books combined. For example, the part on potting shows pictures of all sorts of possible ingredients and what they do.
One important thing is to choose orchids that will grow and bloom in the conditions you already have to offer. There is a thread on this forum about how to choose orchids. I posted a bit on that thread about how to figure out what conditions you have.
I can't say how much I benefitted from joining a good orchid society early on and joining the American Orchid Society (AOS). Orchid societies usually have a few really good growers who can give lots of helpful info specific to your part of the country.
Also, ask lots of questions here too. Another thing I did when starting out was add to my collection relatively slowly, watching what grows well and then buying similar things.
Happy Growing!
-Kevin  |