Hi all, I guess I should have posted here first to introduce myself, I looked around and just didn't find it until Boojum pointed me in the right direction. I'm Neal, I grow mostly Odonts, plus some other cool growers. I got started with orchids growing a few Cattleys species on the glassed-in back porch where I used to live in Palo Alto, CA. One day a friend told me about Rod McLellan Co, then a huge orchid grower in South San Francisco, and the obsession began. Pretty soon the kitchen room table has covered with Phals and a few other things and I built my first greenhouse. That filled up with Cattleyas and various species orchids. We moved to E. Palo Alto in the 80's and I built a larger greenhouse (about 500 sq ft) and eventually switched over to growing Miltoniopsis and weird species. An unfortunate event a couple years ago (cause by a power surge that fried my exhaust fans and most of the internal fans and controls) opened up a considerable amount of bench space, so I decided to get into Odonts, which really have always been my favs (but generally hard to get and somewhat expensive to get good ones). I grow mostly in coir, but have been experimenting with growing in redwood fiber (gorilla hair) after seeing great results by my friend Tom Perlite of Golden Gate Orchids. I'm a member (and past Pres.) of the Peninsula Orchid Society. When I have time, I attend the Santa Clara Valley Orchid Society meetings and occasionally the SF Orchid Society meetings. We are lucky to have five active orchid societies, plus Cymbidium and Paph groups here in the Bay Area. Right now I'm looking forward to attending the Pacific Orchid Exhibition, coming up in early March. Well, that's it for now, thanks for letting me join you. Here's a pic of the latest thing to bloom in the greenhouse,
Wilsonara Sheila Anne '#1' , a cross made by Tom Perlite:
BTW, My avatar is Odm Black Diamond, also a Tom Perlite cross.
. I really like lowii, but I always manage to break the spike because of it's rambling nature. I lost the one I had this spring to erwina.
