H
howardhenry
Guest
Hi,
New user and orchid enthusiast from Chicago. I'm a complete orchid neophyte but am looking forward to learning about and growing them. I'm primarily interested in Paphs (for now) and especially delenatii hybrids. I got interested in orchids earlier this year when I was asked to do a museum exhibit in Chicago. My work as a visual artist involves issues of hybridity, transnational migration, and assimiliation, and I was looking for an elegant object to use as a metaphor for those issues. The more I read about orchids and they way they propagate, grow, and can be hydridized, the more interested I became.
I'll try to attach photos of the orchid piece. I acquired a bunch of delenatii hybrids (Paph. Ho Chi Minh varieties specifically, and other varieties that had origins in Vietnam). I arranged them inside a gallery vitrine in the museum, and for the entire time they were on exhibit I watered them with rainwater that I had harvested in Vietnam and carried back with me earlier this year. (The act of carrying water over borders is a link to the story of how a French lieutenant named D'elenat carried back orchid cuttings from French Indochina in the 1920s.) It was interesting to watch the blooms turn toward the lighting setup in the vitrine, and it was challenging trying to create a microclimate inside the vitrine that would nourish the plants. I put a hygrometer inside the vitrine, and used wet pine bark to increase humidity levels. Over time, when I went to water them, I saw spiders and slugs crawling on the leaves and in the potting medium. Alot of visitors remarked that they've seen photographic exhibitions of orchids, but rarely live orchid plants in a museum that wasn't decoration in the museum cafe.
The Paphs are back in my condo now, on a windowsill. I've snipped the spikes, but new growths are sprouting. This makes me happy.
A big shout out to Jason Fischer of Orchids Unlimited in Minnesota, from whom I acquired my first (and subsequent) batch of plants and for his patience and time in explaining orchid culture to someone with ALOT of questions.
Looking forward to learning more about orchids! The exhibit is over but the interest in orchids has remained. (Especially interested in keeping them alive during a dry winter inside an apartment over a Chicago winter.)
Best,
Howard.
For some reason I am having trouble attaching photos, so I'll start with this one.
New user and orchid enthusiast from Chicago. I'm a complete orchid neophyte but am looking forward to learning about and growing them. I'm primarily interested in Paphs (for now) and especially delenatii hybrids. I got interested in orchids earlier this year when I was asked to do a museum exhibit in Chicago. My work as a visual artist involves issues of hybridity, transnational migration, and assimiliation, and I was looking for an elegant object to use as a metaphor for those issues. The more I read about orchids and they way they propagate, grow, and can be hydridized, the more interested I became.
I'll try to attach photos of the orchid piece. I acquired a bunch of delenatii hybrids (Paph. Ho Chi Minh varieties specifically, and other varieties that had origins in Vietnam). I arranged them inside a gallery vitrine in the museum, and for the entire time they were on exhibit I watered them with rainwater that I had harvested in Vietnam and carried back with me earlier this year. (The act of carrying water over borders is a link to the story of how a French lieutenant named D'elenat carried back orchid cuttings from French Indochina in the 1920s.) It was interesting to watch the blooms turn toward the lighting setup in the vitrine, and it was challenging trying to create a microclimate inside the vitrine that would nourish the plants. I put a hygrometer inside the vitrine, and used wet pine bark to increase humidity levels. Over time, when I went to water them, I saw spiders and slugs crawling on the leaves and in the potting medium. Alot of visitors remarked that they've seen photographic exhibitions of orchids, but rarely live orchid plants in a museum that wasn't decoration in the museum cafe.
The Paphs are back in my condo now, on a windowsill. I've snipped the spikes, but new growths are sprouting. This makes me happy.
A big shout out to Jason Fischer of Orchids Unlimited in Minnesota, from whom I acquired my first (and subsequent) batch of plants and for his patience and time in explaining orchid culture to someone with ALOT of questions.
Looking forward to learning more about orchids! The exhibit is over but the interest in orchids has remained. (Especially interested in keeping them alive during a dry winter inside an apartment over a Chicago winter.)
Best,
Howard.
For some reason I am having trouble attaching photos, so I'll start with this one.
