Who addicted you? :)

[bullsie]

1970's. I loved growing plants and also found the ads on orchids in the back of horticultural magazines. I parted with the African violets. Loved reading - Rebecca Northern's books were a great start. And joined the AOS. They had huge! issues of the monthly publication and always full of advertisers.

I ordered from Armacost and Royston, Ilgenfritz, Stewarts, Hausermann's and others Wish I had kept all my orchid catalogs including those from Jones and Scully (still have the last of the issued Lager and Hurrell catalogs). Even more so, wish I had all the orchids that I got from them!!!!!! But, time and personal responsibility takes its toll.

I returned to orchids in the early 2000's. What a shock! I sure missed a lot - and quite sadly an entirely different orchid world.

 

[Happypaphy7]

Anyone who has stepped inside your apartment or seen those pictures would disagree.

First of all, I am not addicted!

 

[troy]

Eric you are addicted!!! admit it, I did, I'm totally obsessed and love it lol...

 

[ehanes7612]

Hoodview orchids (Bill Leonard) in the early nineties till 1997 (sold everything) in the red, about 3 grand
Came back to growing in 2001 ..White River Orchids (Janice Hanson) (sold everything in 2004)..in the red, about 2 grand
Came back again in 2008 (Sam , Orchid Inn)..so far, in the red , about 5 grand

 

[cnycharles]

When I went back to school I had a nice small collection, but when a dispute broke out with an unruly house member from our student housing co-op my grow shelf and light got trashed outside and many died. After returning from northern Virginia the internet allowed deeply extensive searches for rare phal species! My dog wouldn't even bother to bring me his tennis ball when I got catalog enthralled on my computer .
Soon I was introduced to the Syracuse orchid club and members who liked to search for local native orchids (many all nearby). At one fen I met Matt young who shared all sorts of locations and soon met friend Rick braue who was a retired army major who knew even more. I got into photography and then in making an educational display of all NYS orchids, met ken hull and we were going everywhere getting pictures, many that you've seen posted here.
One favorite phal species grower was Dwayne Lowder of dowery orchids who sent me many excellent ones in flower, and hausermans, oak hill and the ny vendors all fueled the addiction. Gary lee in the moose river plains also supplied many natives locations

Unfortunately, after building a big collection in grow carts things slid downhill because too many, landlord and job moving issues and not good places to grow. A handful of repotting experiments that backfired and even recently a scale invasion from an east coast vendor has severely depleted my collection. You know the adage, 'trying something new, don't do it to all until testing'? HEED THAT ADVICE lol

Elmer Nj

 

[dave b]

Watched a PBS show on TV many years ago about orchids and the delicate and bizarre relationship they had with their pollinators. Was fascinated by it but knew nothing about orchids. Launched into a frenzy of research thru books and internet. Probably skimmed every book in our public and University libraries. Found a local Society and all down hill from there. One member in particular, Jim, had a local orchid business and I was there every weekend learning and buying. We used to order a lot of stuff from Hoosiers and Oak Hill. Read Orchid Fever, and Orchid Thief early on and they really spurred my interests as well.

Forgot to add...tho i like paphs and phrags, Angraecoids have always been at the top of list. Dont know why, just is and has been. Books...African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation, and of course Angraecoid orchids.

 

[SFLguy]

Like eOrchids, my love for plants started with carnivores (which I still grow more than orchids) my mom had always grown Cattleya, Oncidium, Phals, etc. One day we visited Jade orchids in Naples while visiting some relatives. That's where I saw my first Paph and from then on I've been slowly acquiring more and more orchids haha
Whoever said addictions were a bad thing?

 

[abax]

I really, really miss Dwayne/ Dowery. I still have many
Phals. I bought from him.

 

[Ray]

Probably courtesy of my Mom' influence, I always had house plants in the dorms and apartments in college. In 1971 I started volunteering my time at the public greenhouses in Piedmont Park - now the Atlanta Botanical Gardens - in a large greenhouse that was a rainforest at one end, and a desert at the other, with a transition in between. I had cuttings and cuttings. Before I left there for my first job, I had plant sales to get rid of over 500 of them.

After a while, orchid grower there (whose name I can't recall) asked me to help feeding and watering in the other greenhouse, full of those odd, flowering plants. A few months later, he gave me a big cattleya. It took me over two years of root rot desiccation torture to kill it.

Back then, I was the "Plant Doctor" on the Ga Tech campus. I DID NOT KILL PLANTS. If you had a sick plant, I'd revive it and you'd pay me a couple of bucks. If I didn't, I got to keep the pot.

Killing that Catt simply got me determined to learn how to not do that.

Fast forward 45 years, and I have determined that I really DO kill plants!