Sue, coming at this from the other direction, I'm a dummy - an inexperienced orchid grower compared to Ursula and Jim, but have a few nice orchids that I am sure of the names on. I tried what you suggested and clicked on the "Add to Database" link at the base of one of my pictures. It turned out to be not so simple.
I entered the name, and got "no match". Ok, so that orchid isn't in the database. Then I entered just "Encyclia" which is an orchid variety with many different cultivars. Still no match.
Then I entered just "Orchid". What came up was a list of common names of orchids like "Bamboo orchid" and "Nun's Orchid" and "Florida Butterfly Orchid". Well, the Florida Butterfly Orchid is an encyclia, (so there IS an encyclia in the database . . ) but this one I was going to enter doesn't have a common name so it's not on the list. I don't know how to add it.
Am I looking in the wrong place to add a specific orchid type? I think an orchid database needs to have sub-categories for at least the most common orchids like Cattleya, Laelia, Phalaenopsis, Vanda, Encyclia, Epidendrum, Dendrobium etc. Still it will get complicated by orchids that are crosses of the common types, eg. a "Blc" is a Brassolaeliocattleya. Where's that going to go?
What I'm saying is unless someone starts a 'framework' for an orchid database, it's doomed to become a hodgepodge like the one at DG. In fact the list with the common names of orchids already IS a bit of a hodgepodge. There are just so many types and crosses of orchids and most of them don't have common names! They come with tags that say "Brass. David Sander X Rhyncholaelia digbyana"
