Hi Maura, just wanted to put you right on Phrag culture ; yes they will stand a lot of water, unless it gets chilly - even grown in bark and moss it is possible to stand them in a saucer of water all summer long, and they will grow very well indeed if you do that. S/H seems a bit o.t.t.and when I have tried it, they went backwards a bit.
And as for pure water - do you use an EC meter to measure ionic concentration ? ( You should ! -I'll tell you more if you want). Well I use EC up to about 700mS in the summer on some "greedy feeders" - but the phrag experts use up to 1000 mS = 1 Siemen ! So , need pure water ? forget it .

Do you know the lovely story about how besseae was discovered ? Quite recently in orchid terms. A party of orchid fanatics ( salt of the earth ! ) were wandering along a path in one of the South American countries, or it may even be driving along a road. It had been travelled a million times before by everyone on the look out for orchids, no one had even seen bessea - and remember it is fiery burning bright in colour. How did our lovely Elizabeth Besse find it ? She answered a call of nature and went behind a bush - and lo and behold.... Is nature not wonderful ?