It occurred to me that this forum no longer has a growing area thread.
I happily finished today the task of emptying out the greenhouse and moving the Orchids downstairs into the cage, and I wanted to share some pictures. So, a new thread!!

Here is a view from the deck

and from the backyard

It is somewhat impossible to show ever corner and every plant inside the cage, but here are few shots to give you an idea. It does look a bit wild, but once you are standing inside the cage, things are actually pretty well organized.

And the Iwanagaara and my budding Coelogyne Burfordiense and a few more things on the deck


Please feel free to add your growing area to this thread!!

It looks wonderful, Ursula. Such a lot of interesting blooms there.

Mine is just one section of our pool cage,where I have set up two misting heads on timers. They are used whenever we are away traveling, or even when we have a busy time at home and I know I won't have time to mist the orchids by hand.

The trellis comes off the wall when we leave town, and moves over to where the automatic misters are. The little shelf unit in the corner has the Phals and my two little Paphs (plus anybody newly potted) under an overhang so I can control how much water they get when the weather is rainy. Even that northeast facing corner gets a little sunshine early in the morning at this time of year, which they don't seem to mind.

Forgot the shots of the quarantine area out under the big oak branch, and of course the big branch itself is home to Enc. tampensis (cloud of little flowers in the left half of the picture) and also a couple of scraggly Bc. Little Lulu that are alive but only one has bloomed so far, 3 years into the experiment. Thunder and black clouds all around us, fingers crossed for RAIN!

Wow, Ursula, very nice and I can now better understand what a huge job it is to move all of those plants twice each year.

Also a nice set-up, Elaine. Automatic misters are on my short list. We are planning on a 10 day trip to Peru later this summer and I would like to have them in place before that.

And here are some shots of the OC that I had built back in 2011. No hauling orchids around anymore for me. Note the 15,000 gal. humidifier in the middle of the place.




Jim

Jim, It really turned out nice! An amazing difference!

Thanks, Carol. We can sit, cook and eat out there all while enjoying the orchids and looking out over the lake.

Jim

Holy cow Ursula what a job you have moving all those Orchids.

Elaine, your misting system is something I need to do also. I drag the hose over to and put the nozzle on mist.

Jim, How on earth do you keep everything so Clean !! with all those Orchids. Beautiful.

We're busy tomorrow buy hopefully I can get some pics of my setup soon.

Ohh, wow, I am loving this!
We just came back from a birthday party and I am seeing you added great stuff here!
Elaine, I like that set up you have, misting system and all! Those plants in the quarantine area look way to good to be there and I love the tampensis in such a natural setting.

Jim, your OC looks like paradise! Just beautiful and so super clean!! I love it! It is just great how it all integrates with your house!
It must be lovely to be able to keep it all together like that instead of lugging things in and out as the weather dictates.

Around here in this climate it is the practical or should I say necessary thing, to move everything outside for the Summer to give the Orchids a bit of a vacation. At this stage I still view it as good exercise, carrying everything down the steps through the house and out into the backyard. I suppose I do it as long as I can, hopefully another 20 years….
Now comes the second part of this exercise, scrubbing out the greenhouse!
Jim, how do you keep the glass so superclean, do you clean those panels often? Once every couple of months?

Jim, your OC is just so wonderful. Even though I've seen it in person, I'd forgotten how great it is. I suppose you keep the windows open in the summer? Still, as Mj says it must be a huge job keeping all that glass clean! That's certainly the prettiest humidifier I've ever seen.

Only one improvement I'd love to make to my misting system. At the moment it uses well water, which is quite high pH and I really notice the difference when I can turn off the misters and rely on rain to water the orchids instead. Same for the rest of the garden, though, but those plants take a lot less time to recover than the orchids do. Eventually I'll have the 'feed' for the misting system running off rain water from the cisterns.

Forgot to show the Cymbidium Corner. They get morning sun here, and are shaded nicely by the bamboo in the afternoons. When I swim, I splash the clay pots with water, thinking this may keep them a little cooler through the afternoons. Sadly, they also provide a hiding place for the raccoon when he visits and the other night he blundered through the pots and broke off a big pseudobulb! We are plotting a remote-controlled hose sprayer that I can scare him with, so maybe he will be discouraged from visiting. Barring that, I'll most likely have to trap him and have Animal Control remove him.

I've been ing over all of your gorgeous pictures, and collections! Stunningly beautiful!
@Ursula, I'd love to know what the huge plant in picture #14 is. To the right, Looks kind of like "herringbone". Simply gorgeous!

Thanks Tara!
This Herringbone/braids is Dendrobium anceps. I think it would do well for you, I grow it warm with daily soaks of water. I keep it mainly for the interesting growth, but it does flower nicely too. It probably still is flowering, I have to pick up the braids and look underneath at the backside of those growths.

Ursula, thank you! I'm going to be searching for one now. I was reading about them, and someone stated that they have a fragrance of 'apple pie'. Do you agree with that?
I was thinking that the interesting growth pattern would be my reason for growing it also. Flowers would just be a bonus! Beautiful!

Hmm, Apple pie? That is possible, but I would not call it a strong scent. You know, I think the scent is probably drowned out by stronger scented blooming Orchid blooming nearby.
Here is what the plant and blooms looked like in February of this year



I bought my plant from Parkside Orchids btw

I am just looking at these pictures again. I think Jim's OC should be called OP/Orchid Palace!

Good morning all, I thought I would even out the playing field for those windowsill and porch growers, so here is my south facing patio. Memphis has high temps and high humidity but not always together, so fans and playground mister is needed more than you would think. Now I do have to bring in a few genera when the temps stay above 90'sbut the biggest problem may be not having a dinural cooling off, so I'm keeping a list of possible passalongs. Strap leaf paph may be the first, unless I can get them to bloom this year, they look so healthy.


I can't find my general porch pictures, so these are last years.

And here I thought "conservatory" was snooty!

Jim

snooty! I love it! Not snooty at all, Jim! Simply gorgeous!

Roberta, that is a very beautiful Cattleya!! Looks like a very nice porch, packed with goodies!

Y'all have some nice setups! Here is my new future orchid home (the last photo). You can see the old shade house next to it. We are going to turn that into a storage room when the new greenhouse is completed. I haven't done my spring cleaning yet so no photos at the moment, but here are a few old ones. BTW, that is water on the leaves, not pests! (optical illusion)

Melissa, your collection is wonderful! I see lots of different and unusual plants and they will surely love the new greenhouse. Heh, we would!
I see some S/H growing conditions too, I think you might bring with that a different growing method to our group.
What is that last cute weirdo with the fringed lip? Is the white Stanhopea mounted?

I am happy you are sharing your pictures with us, thanks!