My Orchid Genera

The list below include some of the orchid genera that I grow.

• Sophronitis
• Cattleya
• Laelia
• Cymbidium
• Paphiopedilum
• Phragmipedium
• Vanda
• Dendrobium
• Oncidium/Miltonia
• Masdevallia/Dracula
• Stanhopea
• Phalaenopsis (indoor in the winter)
• Lycaste

Of course there are some miscellaneous genera that would make this list much too long. I grow mainly species and most do pretty well outdoor especially in the summer. The winter is a different story and I have to do some shuffling of plants to make sure that the cold tender ones have to be moved indoors or protected in some way.

Couple years ago, our winter was very severe. There were many nights when temperatures dropped low enough for frost. I think I lost over two hundred individual plants. Many were rare or otherwise expensive. I still have a clay pot full of the plastic labels from all the dead orchids. I don't know why I keep them since it is a bit depressing to look at them, as they represent failure and a lot of money. Oh well, it was a learning experience.

But I was also happy to learn that there were several orchids that survived really well despite the cold nights. Of those that survived were the little Sophronitis orchids. I have to say that they even thrived in the winter weather. I wanted to share a photo of one of my favorite orchids, Sophronitis coccinea aurea. This flowered this past winter, which made me feel a lot better about having lost so many plants the year before.