I Had a Cattleya Orchid, and I Killed It

For most hobbyists, trial and error is still the greatest teacher. All Cattleya orchid growers send heir share of plants to orchid heaven, especially when they first start out. Sometimes it takes a little while to get used to orchids. Each grower's environment is different in some way than every other grower's environment, and what works for one may not work for another. Some orchids will grow much better for some people, while others will grow better for others. Each environment is individual. If you are having success with a Cattleya orchid, then continue doing what you are doing. If you are having failures, then take a look at what those failures are telling you.

When today's greatest Cattleya orchid growers are interviewed about their successes, one "secret" is common to nearly all of them: Try to find out as much as possible about each particular orchid's habitat in the wild (if it is a species), especially noting the elevation for teperature clues, and then try to aproximate that habitat artificially. For hybrids, these good growers say, it usually helps to discover what species are in the background pedigree, and again, try to aproximate what those species want. It's simple advice, a learning process that requires a little reading, but a powerful key to success.

It's also important to learn what works for you and what doesn't. Thomas Edison was famous for trying one unsuccessful item after another in his experiments to find electric light filaments and a host of other inventions. He was asked more than once if he'd gotten discouraged by lack of results. "No results?" he answered with a laugh. "Why, I got a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work." For as Edison well understood, learning what doesn't work is as important as learning what does.