Introduction and Calypso Orchid picture

[christinabee]

Hi fellow orchid geeks! I'm glad to see there is a forum dedicated to this hobby! I now have 12 or so orchid plants. About half of them are dwarf or miniature orchids. I don't have a favorite orchid, but seem to be collecting one of each right now. I'm sure that one day I will have to get a greenhouse for all of these, since I only have so much windowsill space!

This weekend we went hiking in Colorado just outside Boulder and Lyons along the St. Vrain trail. There, the Calypso Orchid grows wild! They are everywhere along this trail, living in shady areas in the moss and pine needles. I have included a picture of this in the photo gallery as well.

Enjoy!

[jay]

Hello and welcome to the forum. What types of orchids have you collected so far?

Very nice, thanks for sharing the wild orchid picture. It is always fascinating to see orchids still in their natural environment.

[made4engineering]

Welcome to our orchid club of evil! I like your avatar... is it a species? Calypso bulbosa I think is one of the most (if not the most) beautiful of orchids ever. Unfortunately, they would most certainly die here in Texas..

[patlee]

ChristinaBee, to the forum!! We have several people who grow miniatures--We have a member who supplied us orchids for a growing project and one was called Phal Naples Nights. It is a beautiful mottle-leaved type. White petals and sepals with a gorgeous pink blush and yellow lip And we don't expect it to be more than 10 or 12 inches at maturity. We would love to hear about what you have in the way of miniatures. I love my full size phals.,but have found out the hard way that my window space will not hold everybody...

Anyway, we soooooooo glad you're here!!

[fred]

welcome to the forum ChristinaBee
nice to have you with us.
we have a very caring and knowledgeable lot of members here so if you have any questions don't be shy just ask away as we are all here to help

[patticake]

Hi Christinabee! Great to have you with us! Thanks for the awesome picture of the Calypso! How cool! I would love to see them for myself! If you can't do a greenhouse yet, there are always grow-lights!

[christinabee]

Thanks everyone! It's great to be here, and I'm glad you've enjoyed the Calypso pictures. I haven't been able to suck my friends and family into orchids yet, so it's great to tell people when I find a beauty! Even in my home in Colorado, I would be worried I couldn't give the right conditions to these Calypsos. The places where they were growing along the trail seemed so specific, but, at least I know where I can go visit them!

I've already gotten one small growing light for my two orchids I keep at work, so I'm sure that once I run out of space on my windowsill, I will be getting better and more powerful ones!

So far, I have collected the following :
I started off with regular sized plants, and my first was a Miltoniopsis from the local nursery (not the best idea, since everything I've gotten from a store like that doesn't do so well). They tend to have ones with genetic crinkling of the leaves (I've tried more watering, less, different medium etc, but just this one plant likes to be wrinkled)! It still flowers regularly, so it seems to be as happy as it can be - just not the best looking!
Now I get my plants from Fantasy Orchids, and these do very well.

Then I got a large Dendrobium, with green flowers (not sure what the full name is on this guy). My husband was nice enough to then get me an Oncidium Sharry Baby for Valentine's day (what could be better than chocolate scented flowers??). Then I realized I was going to run out of space and found a book on miniature orchids.

I also have a Jewel orchid (velvety green leaves with a goldish hue to the leaves), a Paphiopedilum Maudiae, a larger Phalenopsis (white with pink spots), a smaller Catleya Yellow Kitty (haven't seen this one bloom yet), another mystery Catleya, a Dendrobium Kingianum, and I just purchased a Cadetia Chionantha and a Massdevallia yesterday. I also have one more mystery plant which was given to me. He's a little on the small (as in immature) side, so it might be a while before he blooms and I can identify what it is.

The Phal Naples Nights sounds interesting! Are there pictures?

Cheers!

[kmarch]

Hi christinabee and welcome to the forum! It sounds like you have a varied and interesting collection!

A couple things to note about your collection, Dendrobium kingianum and Cadetia chioantha are species orchids; they're found naturally in the wild. As such the second part of their name, otherwise known as the species name or specific epithet, is not capitalized (see how I've done it in this post). Only hybrid names are fully capitalized.

Enjoy your stay here and happy growing!

[sandra]

I've never seen orchids growing naturally and it's such a treat when members take and post photos of these. I love it!

Thanks so much.

[christinabee]

Originally Posted by kmarch

Hi christinabee and welcome to the forum! It sounds like you have a varied and interesting collection!

A couple things to note about your collection, Dendrobium kingianum and Cadetia chioantha are species orchids; they're found naturally in the wild. As such the second part of their name, otherwise known as the species name or specific epithet, is not capitalized (see how I've done it in this post). Only hybrid names are fully capitalized.

Enjoy your stay here and happy growing!

Thanks for the tip on the capitalization. You will have to forgive me if I forget, since my grammer is pretty terrible as it is!

[kid a]

Hi and welcome to the forum! We have a few members that live in Colorado as well!

[solay]

Welcome. I think you are like me in a sense that we want all kinds of orchids. Not picky at all. I love the wild orchids. How wonderful to be able to see it in person. Thanks for the picture.

[psyc1210]

Welcome!! Thanks for sharing that picture, very neat to see!

[myorchid]

Welcome! There is a whole thread on the Phal Naples Nights as it is a project orchid. The mottled leaves are very pretty, and the flower is even better!