"flowers collection 5 - Thai Vanda Orchids!" by atri

Orchids are usually considered "outdoors" plants, first of all for their own sake - the need
for light and moisture, second for the sake of people who keep them - sort of precaution measures. The thing is , according to my friend, Orchids are considered as kind of
"energy-vampires" and might be dangerous for health if kept in the room.

Well, I guess that this kind of explanation not very precise, alhought might have some "rational grain" in it, originating in the nature of these plants to "suck" the moisture and other minerals I guess, from the surrounding air. Although I've heard long ago about other plants from these family,
their eurpoian relatives (sorry - forgot their names - lilacs or something?) growing wild in
the forests etc., having quite strong smell which might be realy dangerous for health, even
cause suffocation or anestesic effect (make one fall asleep and never wake up -:) if carelessly kept in the room overnight.

These flowers are very beautifull. As I remember correctly, they are considered a national flowers in Singapore and there is a big famous Orchids Garden there. Some of them very rare and therefore expensive.

Mr.Piyavit has shown me few in the
catalog, which can get the price min. 1 mln Thai Baht (nowdays exchange rate is aprox.
1USD=42Baht, so it comes to almost 250K baks !!!) Even the small and more or less "ordinary"
(not for contest) may cost from few hundreds , few thousands up to few hundred thsnds Baht.

I wanted to purchase one or two for myself and was asking for details how to keep them properly and then suddenly thought: "Hey, wait a minute ! where are the commonly used pots with soil?" My host acknowledged my perceptiveness with compassionate and ironic smile and kindly explained that Orchids are special plants. They are belong to the family of airbreeded plants. (or air-nurtured ? sorry again - all the scientific terms, you know -:)

That means - their roots hang mostly in the air, not in the soil, taking all the necessary food from the moisture in the air. I was very surprised, actually shocked to find out that. Yet hes said that they do water the roots, especially during the dry season.

These extremely beautifull flowers flourish only few times a year, some of them, particularly with very subtle mind-blowing fragrance, ONLY once a year - such a pity!