Hi, I"m new to the forum

[NickEngler]

Hi, I"m new to the forum, and new to posting on news groups. If I break proticol let me know.

I've been growing orchids for 32 years. Currently I have a lot of plants in a lot of different genera -- probably about 300-350 plants. I'm afraid to count. I won't even hazard a guess about how many genera that represents, possibly 30-35 if all the various combinations of Cattleya, Laelia, Brassavola, and so on are taken as one. I mostly grow intermediate growers, but with careful care placing have a few cool and warm growers. I try to stick with compact to smaller size plants. I have one Stanhopea and a large standard white Cattleya (Bob Betts?) I inherited when a friend passed away. The majority of my plants are under lights, flourescent tubes as opposed to HIDs, but some have permanent homes on my windowsills, which seem to be fewer and more occupied than I thought. I garden also and have tried two different Cyrprepediums in my garden -- C. montana which bloomed the first year but didn't come back,and I tried a C. calceolus this last spring so I'll see what happens this coming spring. It is all under about 6 inches of snow at present. Late in spring I also add my Cymbidiums to the garden, and create a chelter on my deck for many of the other plants that can go outside.

So glad to meet all of you, and hopefullly will talk again soon. Nick