Schoenorchis seidenfadenii

It seemed like a post of the first orchid I've successfully bloomed would be a good place to start on the forum. I have a collection of 15 or so now plus 30 Coelogyne seedlings and a few others are close to flower, but this is the first one to get there and I have to say, it feels pretty good!

 

I'm in San Francisco, which makes for a generally easy climate to grapple with. My only space is my apartment, so I make due as best I can. I use my fireplace as the core of my grow space which is nice because the open flue combined with a fan creates excellent air flow and I have a humidifier running 24/7 keeping the humidity generally above 60. The apartment has floor to ceiling windows on the eastern exposure and I'm at a height where this gives me quite a bit of morning light.

So far I haven't killed any orchids (yay!) and have been taking on more challenging species (I have a Dendrobium cuthbertsonii that has held the bloom it came with for a couple months now and has new growth) but my biggest issue is likely to be my light which even with the windows is much less than is possible in a greenhouse. I'm anticipating trouble blooming many species because of this.

I'm also planning a small lath house for my deck which I hope to build over the next month or so. This should allow me to move some of my Dendrobiums and Mazdevallias outside. I worry about putting them out there without at least some protection from the midday sun and the wind. The deck is exposed until 1 pm and can be very windy.

 

I can't tell how to update the subject of a thread. Perhaps not something I can do?

In a thread in the orchid identification section it was determined that this plant is in fact S. seidenfadenii and not S. fragrans.

 

Thanks!