Steven A. Frowine - Orchids For Dummies

Orchids are easy to grow. See Chapter 5for tips on how to be successful.

You can start with beginner orchids that any newcomer can be wildly successful with. See Part 3for some plants to start you off.

Orchids cost less than they ever have, and you can easily select just the right one for you. See Chapter 2to make this process a snap.

No group of flowering plants comes close to the delicious perfumes that orchids emit. Pay attention to the Fragrance icon used throughout this book to find the most-fragrant orchids.

Orchids are available from big box stores, specialty growers, orchid shows, garden centers, botanical gardens, orchid societies, and mail-order suppliers. These outlets have large selections, which was unheard of a decade ago. Even better, the orchids are reasonably priced.

Because of the huge diversity of orchids, you’ll never tire of them. You’ll always find new ones to try and enjoy. Check out the chapters in Part 3for some of the many possibilities.

You’ll meet new friends who are as fanatical about these plants as you are. See Appendix Afor lists of orchid societies to join. Their magazines are a marvelous source for information and gorgeous pictures. These are some of the best-quality plant magazines in the world.

Orchids don’t require an expensive greenhouse to grow. They’ll be happy with a windowsill or artificial lights. See Chapter 5for the skinny on how to grow these orchids to perfection in your home.

They’ll beautify your home and life. See Chapter 4for some tips on how to enjoy them to the fullest in your home.

Orchids can live forever, so as they grow you can divide and multiply them to share with your friends or to trade for other orchids. See Chapter 8for more tips on dividing and multiplying your orchids.

Choosing an orchid is an exciting, but sometimes confusing, decision! So many types of orchids, so little space. In this book, I make this process easy for you:

Check out Chapter 2to walk through some of the steps to take in deciding what orchid will fit in with your home environment and suggestions of where you can scope out and purchase them.WHAT IS A NOID?!You may have one and don’t even know it. A NOID is an orchid that’s purchased with no name (thus the word No ID — no identification — is commonly referred to as a NOID.) Usually, it has no name label. You commonly find these orchids at home stores and grocery stores. Does this mean they’re in some way inferior? Not really. It just means that you won’t know the exact name of the orchid you have. You may be wondering why this orchid doesn’t have a name. More than likely it doesn’t have a name because this orchid was mass produced and was never given a registered name.The only real disadvantage of a NOID orchid is that you aren’t able to enter it into a judged orchid show because the judges can’t be sure of its name or its parentage, which are requirements of entries.

Consider starting your orchid collection with moth orchids. They’re the most foolproof of all. See Chapter 10for details about these.

Check out slipper orchids, another easy group. See Chapter 12.

If you want to try hardy orchids to grow outside, look at Chapter 15.

When you’re ready to expand or you want more choices, check out all the other orchids in Part 3.

One of the most intimidating hurdles that the beginning orchid grower faces is the complex names given to orchids. When you realize what an immense group of plants this is, you’ll soon come to realize why most orchids are referred to by their Latin or Greek rather than a common name. Very few orchids even have a common name. In this book, I always use the Latin name, because that’s the universally accepted name, and I add a common name when there is one.

I know the Latin names can be a bit daunting, so much so that some folks wished this language had died with the Romans, but alas, it’s alive and well in the natural-science world, and it’s the standard language used worldwide to name flora and fauna. You’ll start to make friends with Latin as its use becomes more familiar and comfortable to you.

Saying the name a little at a time makes it easier to digest. In the following sections, I show you the names, one word at a time, of a species orchid and then a hybrid.

Unfortunately, these names can change as botanists discover that certain orchids were originally incorrectly assigned a name, or they find that orchids they thought were closely related and given names accordingly weren’t actually related so they needed new names. Also, botanists from different countries don’t completely agree on the name. They follow specific naming guidelines called the Rules of Nomenclature for the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature formulated by the International Botanical Congresses. Also, the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families is a standard reference. Talk about confusing and even aggravating! Just when you’ve finally learned one name for an orchid the name changes. I try to use the most recent name (nomenclature) for orchids, but you can be sure some names are likely to change. In no time you’ll become comfortable, or at least less uneasy, as you become more familiar with these names.

Plants that are sold as they were created by nature, not hybridized by man, are referred to as species orchids. They have two names (and possibly three):

Genus name: It comes first and is capitalized.

Species name: It comes second and is lowercase.Both names are in Latin or Greek, so they’re italicized (which is just the way foreign languages are usually treated).

Botanical variety: You may see a third part to the name, the botanical variety, after the species name. This is a name given to an orchid that varies — it could be a larger flower or one with slightly different coloration — from the standard species. It’s preceded by the letters “var.” and will be in lowercase and in Latin.

The genus name is much like your last name and the species name is like your first name. In other words, orchid naming is backward to the way you say your own name. If my name were written as an orchid’s is, I would be Frowine steven.

Here’s an example of the name of a species orchid: Cattleya walkeriana var. nobilior. Table 1-2explains the orchid’s name.

Oh, it would be so simple if naming stopped here, but man got mixed up in all this and started developing hybrids. Hybrids result from crossing two species (taking the pollen from one orchid to use it to mate with another). A marvelous thing happens when two different species of orchids are crossed or mated to each other. Their progeny is usually stronger, easier to grow, and frequently produces larger flowers than either of its parents — which is why hybrids are so desirable and popular.

Here’s an example of a hybrid orchid name: Brassocattleya Cynthia ‘Pink Lady’ HCC/AOS. (See the color section for a photograph of this orchid.) Table 1-3breaks down the name and explains its various parts.

TABLE 1-2The Components of a Species Orchid Name

TABLE 1-3The Components of a Hybrid Orchid’s Name