hmm any indoor gardeners on the board?

[BCOrchidGuy]

The treatment for tobacco virus is isolation. Brookside has gone into recievership, I used to drive out there once a month at least, I'm sad to see them gone.

Doug

[Delphinus]

Really? That's too bad, I didn't know that.

Their stuff was too expensive though. I could never bring myself to pay >$50 for an unnamed phaleonopsis... But it was nice having them come and bring stuff to our shows... Sorry to hear they're gone.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Tony they had a great little area in their store front and you could buy your flowers in bloom at discount prices. I got a Den Emma white that was at least 3 feet tall for $11, in bloom. Sharry baby's etc but yes I'm sad to see them gone too. Oriental Orchids is just a 5 minutes drive from me but they deal mainly in Phals and I tend to like Phrags and Phaphs more.

Doug

[kris]

Hey Doug i actually worked there. Botth in the green houses and the store front. Yes it dose suck that they are into recivership, they where growing some beutiful plants there. There prices are rather low in my eyes, i see the same orchids in markets for 5 times the price and they are almost done blooming.

Well once you get the tabaco virrus taken cair of maybey i can help you build back your cloection.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Great Kris, I used to recommend Brookeside to everyone. I think I got the virus from a Phal from either Home depot or one of the plants I brought home from the Orchid Society meeting. I'm just not sure,

Doug

[Delphinus]

The stuff that came from Brookside over here (unless it was sold from them themselves at the shows) was the 5-times-the-price-almost-done-blooming stuff. Some of it was very nice but what irked me was that nearly 100% of them have the tags removed making them seriously-devalued orphans. Nice plants yes, but useless for breeding or showing or whatever. $80 for an unnamed Oncidium .... yeah, um, no thanks.

But be that as it may I really don't like hearing about the growers going under. That's really too bad.

Doug I'm into phrags too. I like paphs but only have a handful, don't really have the right conditions for them. I used to really be into Masdevallias and other pleurothallids but the last few years I've had to move away from those because ever since running halides over the tanks I don't have a cool basement anymore (warm and humid is easy to acheive .... cool and humid is not so easy [in a house]). These days I really dig some of the freaky Bulbophyllums but I only keep a handful. Sadly my orchids have taken a backseat to the reefing addiction, so stuff that can handle a little neglect is about the only thing that does well for me anymore.

I have a really cool Dendrobrium spectabile that was a steady bloomer for this time of year, but it has sulked ever since I divided it a few years ago, no more flowers on that one for the time being. I had to split it up, thing was bigger than a tree, and I fought to find one for years and years so I wasn't about to give it up entirely.

Ahhhhhh the old addictions ... hold on I'm gonna go cruise orchidspecies.com for a while and drool over orchid pictures.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Tony I'd love to get masdevalias, a buddy has his home set up for showing/selling orchids. He's built an enclosed backyard with lightly insulated walls and they way he's got fans set up he can grow anything all year round. He's got everything, it's an amazing set up to see.

I wonder what was going on with the stuff you were seeing from Brookside, everything I got from them was labeled, if it wasn't labeled it was cheap.

Like you, warm and humid is easy, cool and humid is not so easy.

Doug

[Delphinus]

Maybe it's the stores that were reselling them that were marking them up and losing tags (I suspect that tags may have been lost legitimately-by-accident, or were pulled out by greenhouse store employees not knowing any better).

I like the smaller stuff like Masdevallias so much better. I tried a Phaius tankervillea for a few years a while back ... darn thing to to be about 7' tall (basically a palm tree with nice flowers). I had to let that one go (sold it to a friend who filled in his backyard with a ~30'-40' greenhouse).

Greenhouse over here is the way to go, not that it gets cold often, but often enough it can be <-20C so outdoor/semi-outdoor growing isn't a huge option. OTOH it is sunny quite often so as long as you can create a humid enough environment you can do well with Vandas over here which is unusual I think given our latitude. I know a few folks with greenhouses doing some amazing things with vandaceous type. Not really a houseplant though requiring >90% humidity.

Errr sorry for stealing the thread, Kris. Didn't mean to do that!

[kris]

Hey Tony, no worries. i think there needs to be more plant talk here.


For the longest time i was into orchids, but when i went to BCIT and moved away most of them did not do umm to well. Where i was living though before all this i had the perfect house. i was able to keep Vandas, Pahps, Masdivelias, Oncidums, and catallyeas. sorry about the spelling. Lately i have been mainly into wierd tropics. My goal is to one day build a conservitory to house my plants. Im also thinking of building a marsh system with unique bog plants that are from the amazon rain forrest. not to sure on this.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by kris

Im also thinking of building a marsh system with unique bog plants that are from the amazon rain forrest. not to sure on this.

or you could do a bog plant set up from the vancouver Island rainforest.

Steve