A blog? Really?

I've been very much against blogs, but I think the road to killing my NoID (no identification, aka no parental history) orchid collections deserves some cataloging. Afterall, if it's on the Internet, it will exist in some form forever, right?

I currently have 9 orchids, 8 of which are NoIDs. They're all an assorted mix of genera, so that will make the experience of keeping them alive even more...interesting. A couple of them I bought without any tags whatsoever, and I've tentatively identified their genera, but I'm afraid I'm not good enough to conclusively figure some of them out (I'm looking at you miltonia and miltoniopsis).

The plants were bought from assorted locations, but I have the sinking suspicion that most of them originate from the same breeder/nursery. The largest mass production orchid nursery in California that I've seen is either Matsui Nursery, Inc. or Rocket Farms. I've seen orchids tagged with one or the other at varying stores (Safeway, Costco, Trader Joe's, etc.), with a few being tagged from somewhere called 'Salinas Orchids', whose defunct Geocities website reeks of a 90's company acquired by another larger company, with the tags retained over time. Nevertheless, they're good at positively identifying the genus of the plant, serving their bare minimum purpose.

So the goal? To keep them alive for at least a year, and to instigate new growth. The ultimate goal would be to propagate some of the newer growth into its own pot, and to force/coax new flower spikes in a year or so.

But I have the tendency to overwater and baby these suckers (but hey, it's summer, and they need more water right...?), so we'll see.

I think the only solution is to buy so many, that I have no time to water them. Neglect is wonderful for these things.