New here from Mexico

[chapala]

Hi, I'm Reta, orginally from Santa Cruz, California, where I grew a few orchids, Cymbidiums outdoors, and Phalos indoors. I've been living here in the Central Highlands of Mexico at 5,000' (very temperate, year-round climate) for seven years, and having been an avid gardener for lots of years, the orchids just found their way to me! I now have somewhere between 75 and 100, many of them Mexican species. They are all grown outdoors, though we are a little cool for the warm growers, like many Dendrobiums, etc. About two months ago I got a shadehouse put up to allow room for more orchids. I've been on 2 orchid trips with the local orchid club to various locations and orchid nurseries in Mexico. Last month it was to an annual orchid show in Cuernavaca, and with a stop at a nursery, as well as the show vendors, naturally I came home with more orchids!

Being fairly new to orchids, I'm still learning. Many of us here grow especially the Mexican species in wooden slat baskets, hanging in trees where they seem to do quite well. Also mounted. I have quite a few in pots too, in the shadehouse.

I look forward to hearing more about all of you, your collections, successes and problems.

[Marcia_pa]

Welcome, Reta. Wow, I'd love to see some photos of all your orchids. (I'm a beginner with orchids--I have 6 phals that I just rescued from a big box store.)

My son and daughter-in-law were married on the beach at Santa Cruz 3 years ago. It's a beautiful place. My husband and I live here in the cold north east.

Hope to hear more about your orchids.
Marcia

[atcrosby]

Reta -
Welcome to the forum. The site is full of information and if you have a question, just ask ! The people here are friendly and very knowledgable. It's been a fun experience being associated with this site!

What type of orchids do you have?

[chapala]

Thanks for the welcome.

I have quite a few Mexican species and some others including some hybrids, so Prostecheas (aka Anechelia), Barkerias, Brassias, Cattleya (2 species and a few hybrids, not many), Coilstylus parkinsoniana, Cyrtopodium, Encyclias, Epidendrums, Laelias, Maxillarias, Oncidiums, Phalaenopsis (only 3), Zygopetalum, plus assorted others. I really like the Mexican Laelias and Encyclias, and I've been enjoying the long bloom of the Barkerias.

Reta

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Sounds to me that you have the ideal weather to grow the plants that the Santa Barbara Orchid Estates specializes in, those they call temperature tolerant. You might want to look at the list of orchids they have on their internet site to see what they consider temp tollerant, noted in the description of each plant if it is, just to get ideas of more orchids that would grow well for you. Here is their site if you don't have it.
http://www.sborchid.com/index.php
I would love to see pictures of your Cyrtopodiums in flower. I would like to collect these, but we never see them offered (California).

[Orchid_lady]

Hola Chapala, bienvenido al foro.

[chapala]

Originally Posted by Orchid_lady

Hola Chapala, bienvenido al foro.

Gracias!
Reta

[chapala]

Thank you Cynthia. I have looked at the Santa Barbara Orchid site before, but not for awhile. Helps avoid frustration since the problem here in Mexico is that not all these lovely orchids are available, so we are limited in what we can find. Another good reason to have a lot of Mexican species!

Re Cyrtopodiums, mine is just losing its leaves now. As I recall it blooms in about April. I have to re-pot mine, but last year it had 11 spikes. Very carefree terrestrial orchid - just water and fertilizer while it's growing, none when it's dormant. And it does like sun.
Reta

[arleneg]

Reta, hi and welcome to the forum. I'd love to see pics of your orchid collection.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

One more list of tolerant plants. Maybe some are Mexican.
http://www.sdorchids.com/expanded.htm

[chapala]

Thanks for the outdoor orchid list - I've added that to my favorites! I do have a number that are on the list, and I see quite a few Mexican species.

A few photos. One is from the October Cuernavaca orchid show of a Laelia albida, lovely prize winning specimen with so many flower spikes! Another is of an orchid I bought in October, with spike but no flowers open. It was marked only Brassia, but I couldn't id it further. I sent a photo to the nursery owner, and he told me it was a Miltassia Olmec (Miltonia x Brassia), though I can't find any that look like this one. Perhaps another Miltassia. The first next to the Phal. is a Mexican species, Rhynchostele bictoniensis.

Reta

[mlorchids]

In your local travels in MX especially in the mountains, have come across Govenia Species in the wild?? if so let me know, I have been trying to get seed of Govenia utriculata to try to culture it for re-introduction to Florida. The plant is supposed to be very common in the mountains near Monterey and San Luis Potosi.....you can send me a private email at mlorchids@comcast.net

[chapala]

The states of San Luis Potosi and Monterrey are pretty far from here. We do drive through both if we drive to Texas, the closest U.S. crossing, but not much to see on the highway! I'm guessing this species is in remote areas.

I'm not familiar with this terrestrial orchid. I see that a couple of the species are from South America, with two others being found in Mexico, one in Oaxaca, the other just saying Guatemala and further south as well, so I'm guessing it's the southern part of Mexico, Chiapas probably. No mention of another species further north in Mexico, but maybe it is a species not found on the site where I looked.

If you speak Spanish or know someone who does, you might want to try communicating with the botanical departments of universities in Monterrey and San Luis Potosi for more information. You can go to google mexico and put in universidad and the respective city, with pages just in Mexico. Good luck!
Reta