Easiest and most Difficult Orchids to Grow

[Diane]

Well, we have got to liven this place up. Tooooo quiet. So hear are a couple of questions for any and all to answer.

1. Which type of orchid, in your experience is the easiest to grow/ hardest to kill?

2. Which type of orchid, in your experience, is the most difficult to grow?

3. Which type of orchid etc, etc,.. is the easiest to rebloom?

4. Yada Yada... most difficult to rebloom?

[uncasteeb]

1.Dens just seem to take care of themselves(especially in s/h).Den kingianum even grew a keike in my unheated bedroom window(window is always open) & it flowered.Temps where freezing for a number of days & this never even phased it.
2.Catts. I have a number of species catts & they,ve done nowt in a year basically.
Zygo,s are a pain as well .I can flower them but i can,t keep leaves on them.Tried all different positions in the house(g/h & growroom) but i can,t find anywhere they like.
3.Psychopsis papilio.When the flowers drop off all i do is wait for 3 weeks & i get 2 more .
Hybrid Phals , Onc hybrids , Phrag hybrids & Den hybrids seem to flower pretty readily

[starwhiz]

Like uncasteeb, I think dend is easier to grow. I have acquired 2 in July thru a raffle at CS orchid society I joined in July. They are still alive.

I have killed about 3 phals thru root rot. It must be too much watering.
They died after flowering...i have killed a miltonia at 35% CS humidity (i think it liked about 80% humidity). My phaphio is not doing very well after
i sprinked it with cinnamon powder(I think Loius mentioned cinnamon may inhibit root growth).

[bench72]

Here's another vote for the Aussie Dendrobiums as the easiest to grow... especially kingianum. I would put speciosum in there as well, but sometimes they do take their time to get to matured flowering size.

And of course re-flowering goes the same way, some hybrids especially those with Dendrobium tetragonum in the background tend to almost be in constant flower from spring to autumn!

I've also not had any luck with Zygopetalums, the leaves always seems to rot, even when I try not to wet them, they will still rot from the bulb up...

For most difficult to rebloom, I'd have to say I have a Bulbophyllum lobbii which I got with in bud.. those did their thing and made me fall in love with em, and then it stopped growing... alive but not growing!!! grrr!!!

cheers
tim

[Diane]

Interesting - I can't grow or rebloom a Dend to save my life. I don't know what it is, but I just kill them

I grow a lot of Catts and with no trouble, also Phals are very easy.

Easiest to rebloom are Phals and Paphs - oh of course my Onc. Kahili, which has recovered from my breaking off it's first bud and has a new one soon to open...

Toughest rebloom, well phrags I guess because they can take forever to mature.. and a couple of my Catts are a little fussy about drying out over winter...

[Gin]

Easiest to grow and bloom Phals. Catts. Dends. Impossible in my conditions Odontoglossum .Also killed my share of Macodes . Gin

[Lore]

Easiest for me is phals, most difficult is vandas for me, although I haven't killed one yet, and they are also on my list for most difficult to rebloom. They should have by now, but haven't. Easiest to rebloom in my opinion- dends and phals.