| Point well taken about playing the field. Most hobbiests I know...in fact I can't off the top of my head think of one for whom this is not true...have very diverse collections until they get about 100-200 plants then they start zeroing in on what they like the most and/or what grows well for them in their conditions then their collections start to head in that direction. When I had about 200 orchids I had about 45 different genera. Now that I have 500, I have only about 15 different genera.
And yeah, practically from day 1 I have found Paphs and Phrags much easier to get to grow and bloom than Phals. It may be due to my conditions but I grow mostly in my home so I should have conditions similar to most Phal growers. Even now I have only about 3-4 Phals. One is big, has bloomed 3 times for me and is doing great. The others are slow and don't seem to do anything. Eventhough between my US and Australian collections I have owned around 500 Paphs (probably about 20 times more than thenumber of Phals I've owned), I have had fewer Paph deaths than Phal deaths, and I have never had a Phrag die in my care. I also get Paphs & Phrags to grow and bloom more consistently than Phals.
I often encourage people to try Paphs and Phrgs because they are so easy. Like allorchids I encourage folks to get a cheap noid to practice on then try more as they are more successful.
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