First Time Growing Outside
You Should See the Results!

by Kathy Kozak
(Kennett Square, PA)

Well, I live across the highway from Longwood Gardens. Longwood has a beautiful orchid room if you have not seen it, put it on your "to do list".

Having said that, my personal orchids for the first time I put outside this summer. Of course I doubted Jeree's newsletter saying to put them outside, so I emailed him. He just knows everything about orchids!

I followed his advice, put them on my deck table and dropped the umbrella to about 1/4 open to shade the direct sun. Had a little problem with them "floating" when we got heavy rain, so got those pots Jeree told me about with the holes in the sides at Lowes. They work so well and allow the excess to just run off.

Anyway, to my surprise the orchids all grew like weeds! Every time I looked at them they were getting more leaves!! Temps have been down in the 50's, and I know I could leave some outside but out of the 9 orchids, 6 are Phalaenopis, three others are different types of Cattleya. So, I decided to bring them in last night (Sept 7th). I am such a scary cat. I will now move them to our garden tub where they will get good light and hope for beautiful blooms.

Oh, I also have slowly transferred just about all into the Hydoponic stone system with the water gauges. Love them, and to my surprise so do the plants! Of course Jeree told me that too.... duh Kathy