Members participating in orchid project

[sandra]

Well, we're up and running now everyone!

Do you think we should give this project a timeline, to add a little of the competion feel into the mix here? Of course, it can remain ongoing beyond flowering but I thought reaching a goal like this might be fun?

The next step will be compiling a list of EASY growing, near blooming sized orchids to vote on! So, I guess we should (in a separate thread) start compiling our wish list for the project.

[pikevi]

I stand up to be counted too

[mayres]

Since quite a few people mentioned Oak Hill Gardens as a good source of plants and they are centrally located among all members I emailed them for a list of potential plants. Here is their response.......

Thanks for the feedback and the interest!

Your best bet might be to get something off of our wholesale list. There are some decent sized low-medium light, n.b.s. plants on that list for discounted prices. There are four pages of species plants from which to choose, starting with page 1 linked below:

Oak Hill Gardens

There are also some hybrids and mericlones on the list as well.

Phal bastianii, Phal schilleriana, Phal stuartiana and Phal equestris are four low-medium light near-blooming-size (n.b.s.) plants on the list that come to mind. These should all bloom next W-S. There are many other genera to choose from as well.

Check out the list and let me or Liese know if you have questions. We have plenty of these plants to serve the quantities you described.

What would you think Sandra of everyone going to this link and doing something like picking their top 5 choices (or something like that) and the two top vote getters we could either re-vote or even do two plants (everyone would of course have the option of doing both or either one?). Another thought. Regardless, I defer to you on this - you started the concept and once you decide on the course of action I will be behind you 100%. (honk honk )

[sandra]

And I stand behind you Mike (Honk Honk, back at ya) and everyone else. It's a group project. I'm just glad we're all so enthusiastic about this. I'm trying to get the some semblence by establishing steps in our progress before it actually begins. I'm not the commander here, just the instigator, lol.

Regarding Oak Hill Gardens, would this wholesale list be available to us even though they would be sending these orchids to more than one address?

[jerrymeola]

I do not want to repeat everything I said in the other post.

http://www.orchidgeeks.com/forum/orc...uggestion.html

Be careful of pitfalls, especially with species. Rhychostylsis giganta looks great but can take 12-14 years to flower and grows so slow you can not see the growth over several months.

I have other plants that can flower in one season [Cattleya, Dendrobium (not common den-Phals) and Encyclia]. I keep a good tract on these since they are very profitable when I can buy them small and sell flowering the next season.

I am not pushing to sell the plants since I do not intend to make anything, but trying to keep cost to a range where everyone can participate. I would also be willing to set up a control group of 15 plants treated the same to show variation in growth.

[Vivienne]

Jerry - do you have anything in the medium light realm?

[mayres]

Jerry - that would be really cool if you did this as well - to compare how a commercial grower's progress compares to the individual growths at different places. It would also be interesting to see the best and worst of the same plant under the same conditions - I have wondered about this myself. Two plants are supposed to be the same but seems like they don't always respond idendically. As Vivienne noted - I'd be interested if you had something to suggest as well............

[jerrymeola]

Mayes

Two plants never react the same.

[kellyincville]

Wow! Lots of chit chat on the orchid project front! I think I'm one of the members that selected Oak Hill originally. I just did so since they are centrally located for US members and because their reputation is generally positive. If we decide to go in another direction, I'm fine with that.

As to the plant chosen I'm pretty flexible. I would prefer no to choose a den or catt for lighting reasons (and just because they don't float my boat). I love species but if the majority goes with a hybrid, I'll go with the flow.

[pikevi]

jerrymeola: That is indeed a nice thing for you to set up a 'control group', if needed.

That would really elevate this project to that of a legitimate experiment.

Thank you.

[snowballsarebad]

Hmm this sounds like a fun idea AND a way for me to get another orchid! As long as it isn't huge...space is becoming scarce in my orchid room! Count me in, if you're still taking people! (I haven't been around in a few days, just saw all of these project threads).

[Sharyn]

For those of us in the US, I think we should consider Jerry's very generous and kind offer. His plants are always very healthy and packed and shipped in A-1 condition. We would also have the advantage of Jerry overseeing our growing project and perhaps contributing his expert advice.

I love to grow and experiment with different orchids, but my growing conditions (mostly indoors) put limitations on the types of orchids that will do well for me. I'm sure we all have the same thoughts.

Personally, I don't care what kind of orchid we decide on. I'm not looking to get into any scientific orchid studies or any competitions among us - just want to participate in having fun growing the same type of orchid and getting updates from all of you growing in many different conditions.

Any thoughts?

[Ak_Orchid]

Should we make the list into 2 groups of people? One for the US 1 for overseas. Just so we have an idea of how many people will be purchasing from different vendors.

[brookn]

What Sharyn said.

[sandra]

MEMBERS PARTICIPATING in Project #1

Ak Orchid (Anchorage, Alaska)
articuno75 (Portland, Indiana)
brookn (Missouri)
chefatplay (Vero Beach, Florida)
clarita
cytojo (Northfield Center, Ohio)
dipasquo (San Francisco, California)
evagentry (Romania)
exasperatus2002 (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
flowerchild (Ontario, Canada)
Hummer344 (San Jose, California)
jay (Palm Springs, California)
jctusa (Michigan)
kellyincville (Virginia)
mayres (Keizer, Oregon)
NancyG (Broward County, Florida)
patticake (Halfmoon, New York)
PhalPal (Placentia, California)
pikevi (Ontario, Canada)
pitik101 (Philippines/Singapore)
prisana ?? (Broward County, Florida)
Rocinante (Long Island, New York)
rodbender (Port Charlotte, Florida)
Sandra (Palm Beach County, Florida)
Sharyn (Chicago, Illinois)
shiningrock (MA.)
snowballsarebad (Fairfax, Virginia)
Tobi (Upstate New York)
Tom499 (Birmingham, United Kingdom)
Vivienne (Colorado Springs, Colorado)

[patticake]

I say go with Jerry- He has generously offered to handle the plant distribution plus a control group. Being a fellow geek, I say yay for Jerry!

[patticake]

25 so far...COOL!

[jbigio]

Count me in
Joe Bushkill PA

[patlee]

If you decide to grow a paph, I am in. For some reason I can grow phals,but not paphs. Maybe I'll learn what I am doing wrong...