Thanks for allowing me to join the forum. I grew up in Houston Texas where I discovered a wonderful orchid nursery when I was 16. The two owners were kind enough to let me spend most afternoons there and they really mentored me in growing orchids. When I moved to New Hampshire 45 years later, I gifted 50+ orchids to friends. After a couple of years here I bought a couple of grocery store phals to keep the orchid part of my brain occupied. Somehow, the phals didn't occupy me enough because I started growing a new collection and currently have quite a few--I need to count. I found that many are happy to spend the summer in our gazebo. Now that winter is coming, they have all moved indoors on shelves close to windows. My new lighted shelves will be set up this week and my sunroom will become the winter orchid room. Currently I only have two slippers; a yellow Cypripedium Parviflorum which is growing in the ground. I will be covering it with straw soon, and a Paphiopedilum Ho Chi Minh which had two blooms this year and has a new growth. I want to get a Paph philippinense or rothschildianum. I hope to meet new orchid friends on this forum!
