The Gateway Orchid
One of my first orchids that wasn't from a grocery store came from a neat place (that is sadly now closed) in Rochester, NY called Marlow Orchids. They were well known in the orchid community - but for me, their greenhouse served as a marvelous, magical place for my collector beginnings.
They had everything - from well known Phalaenopsis and Cattleya, to rare and hard-to-find Eria and Pleurothallis species. For someone who had never seen anything but the colorful, spotted Phals of Wegmans and Home Depot, I was pretty floored.
Walking through the greenhouse I walked through all the sections, taking it all in. I kept coming back to one little orchid on the South-side of the greenhouse, a little potted, baby Vanda (it was listed as near-blooming-size). I think I came back to it 3 or 4 times - I was being called to it!
I picked it up and carried it with me for a while and I knew it had to come home with me. It was my first Vanda, and the first non-Phalaenopsis orchid, that I would own: Vanda Wai Ron x Rhynchostylis coelestis ("Ron" for short).
I had no idea what I was going to do with it but thankfully Marlow's staff was letting me ask them forty-thousand questions before leaving that day. Pictured is the photo I took when I brought it home!
Vanda Wai Ron is a hybrid of V. vietnamica and V. miniatum, both miniature orchid species. Then, this hybrid was crossed with Rhy. coelestis. The result is a miniature plant that produces white-violet-blueish flowers that have a light fragrance.
It grows in bright, indirect light and likes to stay warm up to 90F during the day and down to 60F at night. It also will appreciate lots of air at the roots, (typical of Vandas) and daily water - I grow mine hanging in it's original mini-basket with its roots dangling in the wind!
So, there it started, the gateway to my fascination of orchids - "Ron". And while I was successful at keeping "Ron" alive, it wouldn't bloom for multiple years, even though it was "near" blooming size.
I determined I was the problem - I wasn't giving it what it needed to bloom and so I had to (slowly) figure out what that was. And like most orchid blooming issues, it came down to: not enough light.
When I built my grow-room inside my mudroom, I made an area on one side that put out bright, bright light for those light-loving orchids I was starting to collect. And FINALLY in 2023 (4 years after purchasing), "Ron" had it's first bloom: a spectacular, violet colored, spray of mini-flowers that smelled slightly of roses. Success! (pictured blooms from 2023 in my grow-room).
I'll forever be thankful for "Ron" for opening the door to what is now E.B. Orchids <3