Woo hoo! actually got some orchids

[Vertigo]

Too cool. I went into a local supermarket with my girlfriend over the weekend, and we decided to look at the flowers that they had. To my suprise we found 2 phals for $0.99, 1 for $2.00 and the woman discounted another from $15.99 to $1.99 for me.

Then later on that night we decided to go to Lowe's. Apparently someone had dropped a pot and put the orchid back on the shelf. It was a Dendrobium (sp?) that had split in half (it's a red something, has buds that haven't opened yet, I'll try to post the species later), so she picked it up and asked the manager how much. He was like, "How about a $1?". So basically we got 2 Dendrobiums for $1.

Quite surprised, but very happy.

So that's the story of how we got 4 Phals and 2 Dendrobiums for $7.95. Feels like a good start to a small collection.

 

[Merlin]

That's great

Good luck with 'em. What potting mixture are you using?

 

[Vertigo]

Well, I picked them up last night so right now it looks like they're covered with lfs, and it looked like there was charcoal and maybe styrofoam coming out of a drainage hole. I was going to clean them up, flush them, and repot hopefully later tonight. Still trying to figure out what the best mix is. Any suggestions?

 

[Merlin]

Everybody's got there own favorite mixes, but you can simply use bark with a very little lfs for the Dends and bark with a little more lfs for the Phals.  The Dends like to be under-potted and it's important that they dry out between waterings.  The Phals like to be a little wetter but they should also have a chance to dry out.

The commercially available bags of "Orchid Potting Mix" would probably be fine 'as is' for the Dends and just need a little extra lfs for the Phals.