First off, I like your channel a lot. It helped me acquire a firm knowledge base when I first started my orchid hobby. That being said, you are absolutely going to hate me for what I'm going to write. Yesterday I heard you explain how one needs all these special things to grow Nelly Islers. AC's, humidifiers, the works, or else they will promptly die on you. The Nelly Isler I have here was one of my first orchids (imagine that) when starting the hobby almost 4 yrs ago and it's not only still alive, it thrives! And I have none of those special things. It lives in my living room on a North-facing windowsill in front of a big window and flowers robustly every year. It currently grows a new flower spike. I grow it in full BES-Grow sphagnum moss with a top layer of Orchiata to keep algae at bay. It gets repotted annually. I do rinse it on a regular basis under a lukewarm shower to keep spider mites at bay. Although the Netherlands does not have a sub-tropical climate, we can have some serious scorchers during summer. Last year we saw 41 C! The Nelly Isler didn't even faze. During summer I have the balcony door open 24/7. The Nelly stands next to that door and seems to appreciate the air movement and cooling effect of it. In any case, I managed to keep it alive during one of the hottest summers on record^^ And your jaw will hit the floor when you hear where my Miltoniopsis live. I have two Herr Alexanders and they live happily on the cooking hood in the kitchen (yes, really!). A lot of bright indirect light with a lot of fresh air during summer time. Again, no special things at all. One flowered during the winter on two spikes, and the second one is in the process of developing 3 flower spikes at the moment. Yes, I have the wrinkly leaves, but that's also because I'm still experimenting with the growing media. They are now in Orchiata precision with perlite. With their next repot I will move them back into sphagnum. I like the results with that better. So, I either may be extremely lucky, or I just somehow have a knack for growing these difficult orchids. But your video made me laugh^^

I live in So Florida USA and have an extensive orchid collection indoors and out. I wanted cool/Cold growers for years but nothing I tried worked. I final purchased a WINE COOLER (we have Offer Up here, got it for $50). Glass door, digital temp control. I sprayed the interior white. Bought Strip Grow lights, digital thermometer and USB mini-fans. I just ran the cords through the rubber on the door. Put both on timers. I have Masdevallia's, Cuthbertsonii's (in bloom), 1 Dracula so far. All look great!! I keep the temp control at 46°F. Door closed at night and ajar, about 2 inches, during the day. Temperature rises around 60-72°F with door open. It's working. Yaaay. Yes!!!!! Get the fridg.

OMG, Danny, all of the Miltonias ever grown in a lab hate me! I have promptly killed 5. But never fear, I am ordering 2 more because I must win!!! I must become a good Orchid Mom to these plants. LOL. The challenge is REAL. :)

Me: *Sees a beautiful Phalaenopsis at the store* Brain: “No, you have Phals. Get different types of orchids” Danny: “Why not go for that pretty Phalaenopsis” Me: “More Phals please!” 🤪

You should totally keep a couple of the Lycastes just to concentrate the thrips away from the rest of the collection lol

Because of you my moth orchid is still alive and very happy. It’s my first orchid, my son bought it for me and I love it. Thank you for your videos. So helpful and such a pleasure to watch 👏👏👏

I am trying Masdevallias in London. They are in my bathroom. Everything is fine now. I hope I can keep them during summer time. 🤞 Love this video❤

I live in Northern California Wine Country and my collection of Miltonia/Miltoniopsis are thriving. They started spiking in February and WOW the bloom show I’m getting is amazing!!! New spikes are popping up, too!!! Our house is kept at 68*F and the humidifier is set for 55% and they are just loving it. All of them smell like Fresh Cut Roses ♥️

For your cool growers: what about a fridge for wine bottles? They most often have temperatures between 10 and 18°C and a glass front. Also, great video!

Hello Dani! Greetings from Bogotá, Colombia. I think that you are having pest problems with your cool growers, because of the stress that your subtropical climate inflicts on your orchids. Summer Rayne explained in some of her videos that when plants are not that happy or stressed they produce hormones that specifically attract pests to kill them, the same reason some of them bloom when stressed. In my case, because of my cool-climate my draculas, masdevalias and miltoniopsis thrive, but my cattleyas are soooooo slow to grow. I think your idea to get a drink fridge o dessert fridge is EXCELLENT!!! Would love to see how you adapt it and what you make of it. Also maybe in those fridges, you could build a cool terrarium which cool orchids love, especially with the presence of moss.

I feel your pain. I had a, “love at first sight,” moment with the Dracula but I also could tell as a beginner that they were not for me just yet. I appreciate the heads-up! I will stick with my Phals and maybe a Cattleya until I get more experience.

Guess which two orchids I purchased recently? A Miltoniopsis and a Nelly Isler... But I've watched so many of your videos that I feel confident I'm not a beginner anymore. I actually keep them in the north-facing bathroom, where the humidity is around 70% or even more when I take a shower/bath. It's 15-20 °C during the day and I warm up the bathroom only for one hour a day when I have to shower, so that doesn't really hurt them so much. Video suggestion: ORCHIDS IN BATHROOMS

🤣 Great sense of humor. 🤣 My husband found Dracula Saulii and stated that it's 'must have'. 😱 yeah, right. 'We' collect orchids, but 'I' care for them. 🤣 I was jealous of yours milsbo and i decided, i'm going to do my own greenhouse cabinet for summer bloomer phals in winter and cool grower in summer. In summer phals will go on normal shelf and i want to put in cabinet cool growers with mini air conditioning. 😊 i curious if it can help somehow. 😊

Phals are so well-suited to home conditions that I've been able to get my phal bellina seedling to put out roots and a new leaf within just a couple of months after arriving partially rotted from several weeks wet in transport...and in winter!

Top tip: try keeping your Miltoniopsis and hybrids of the same in the bathroom. (as long as you have a nice bright window to put them in) I was struggling with mine until I put them in the bathroom and now they look great. They get a daily dose of humidity when I take a shower and generally it's cooler in there than the other rooms. Not saying it'll work for everyone but it works for me and it's worth a try?

I had the orange Nelly Isler ("Boon"). And I loved it! Of course it died 🙈

I think beginners can grow these orchids great as long as you have the right climate. A miltoniopsis was my 3rd or 4th orchid ever and I still have it. Then, I got a Dracula and a masdevallia as maybe one of the first 20 orchids in my collection. Now, I grow lots of masdevallias, lepanthes and miltoniopsis and they grow great for me and bloom regularly. However, it is only very hot where I live for 3 months in the year. The rest of the year is cold or intermediate. However, in the winter, my house is EXTREMELY dry. The masdevallias and miltoniopsis still grow great despite the dry air as long as they remain evenly moist. The lepanthes go in a terrarium bc they can't handle the dry.

I purchased a Dracula and Masdevallia late last year. I have a drafty window and run a humidifier in New York. They have grown a lot, but still waiting for blooms. 🤞🏼

I would love to see the glass tower setup once you start that. It sounds interesting and a bit like the orchid version of Repunzel XD

I live in West Wales in the UK, wet and windy. I have about 30 Miltoniopsis and Nellies all doing well. My Sharry Baby however is a nightmare 😫. It lost all its roots, developed rot and is now in 3 small pieces. ( I know which I would rather have though 😄)

For easy growing Masdevallias try M. regina and M. princeps, or hybrids that use them. They are warm & dry tolerant, and make excellent beginner Masdevallias. Also try growing Masdevallias in straight moss in clay pots, which creates an evaporative cooling effect.

3 separate thoughts! 1- Many florist shops have refrigerators specifically for floral arrangements that should work for live plants if a fan, etc... is installed. 2 - I would love to see a very specific video regarding warm, intermediate and cool growers, with specifics regarding humidity, etc...sometimes it gets confusing. For example a cool grower needing high humidity. I think this would be a very helpful bit of information. 3 - For those who comment, knowing approximately where you live in the world is great for comparison regarding individual orchid care, thank you. I'm in Maine, USA.. Love your dedication, Dani! ♡

Yep, nothing errodes your confidence more than killing orchids. I killed half dozen Miltonias before I figured out what I was doing wrong. I now have a dozen miltonias that are doing just fine. Phaius have been difficult at best, and yes, I've killed a few Lycaste, and Masdevalias. Sometimes you just have to reailze that your zone is not right for some orchids and move on.

Danny you and garden answers are my two top KZfaq channel! 😁

Ah that moment when the first orchids i bought that started my collection were a Nellie and a pink Miltoniopsis from a supermarket. They promptly died of course

I can’t grow oncidium but I’m pretty good with all these one you just talk about!!! I guess I’m lucky cause they are my favourite!!! The dendrobium and phalaenopsis are good for me too!!!!

I have the Nelly Isler and love it I have 2 different versions and manage very well with it. However I live in the north of England on the coast and it’s cold and damp. I put it down to that on how they stay alive.

I grew the Nelly Isler and a Brassia rex in the shower (it had a big skylight so lighting was intense but no direct sun) and they flourished! I had to divide the plant within two years, and got blooming a few times! Even with the soap I splashed on them on the daily😂😂 it was obviously one of my firsts

Humidifiers help if you have an enclosed space. If its *big* it is hard to have enough humidifiers/keep up with refilling and cleaning them to up the humidity enough. In winter my space can go as low as 19% humidity. I have a miltoniopsis that is super happy in my care and I've realized the most important thing is watering it deeply. I mean like filling its tray fully and saturating the medium (I do mixed leca, sphagnum moss and large bark -- mostly sphagnum) in a repot me plastic pot. Blooming for me for the second time this year! Having good medium and keeping it wet--but then letting it dry fully, will do the work of maintaining humidity as well as hopefully having other plants to stabilize the humidity around you. At least what I've noticed works for me growing it indoors in zone 6a in the US. Happy growing!!

I grow ultrahighland Nepenthes which have similar care to cold growing orchids. If you’re in an area where you need cooling for cool/cold orchids I would recommend a chest freezer with a temp controller, it’s pretty great my plants get 10c at night and 25-28c in the day. Brads Greenhouse has a great video on it. I know several growers who use a wine fridge for orchids or UHL Nepenthes but they’re very small and inefficient, a chest freezer or even a restaurant style fridge with an industrial temp controller is much more energy and space efficient.

I recomend masdevallia tuerckheimii as a very hardy masdevallia, and I also recomend to have the lycaste outside in the shade, I leave them there and just ignore them until winter comes. Good luck with these difficult orchids!

I started to laugh when you described the looks of the nelly isler not in bloom and how may look to people in general. Thank's for a great video! 🤩 Have a lovely day!

I love miltoniopsis and nelly isler too. For me, nellys have done best in full water culture with or without live sphagum moss . Even dead sphagum moss doesn’t really work all that well.

Refreshing and sincere information..but yes, we still keep trying to grow them for their beauty!

That coral Nellie Isler makes me want to get my heart broken all over again 🤩 Also I've never had a Zygonisia murasaki komachii ever do well for me. Every single one I've had will get mushy brown leaves even if I look at it the wrong way

For anyone in Europe looking for the coral nelly isler Inca orchids has them now so they do appear in flower shops and garden centers (in Germany I found one in obi!!!)

Good morning Danny and thank you for sharing!! OMYGOD these Orchids are GORGEOUS!!💖💖💖🙏🏼

I enjoyed a good laugh with this video. I’ve suffered the same issues and I soooo understand your frustrations. Like you, I hate throwing it the towel on a orchid I love. 👍🤣

I highly recommend a wine fridge! They can run warmer than a standard fridge and have glass front doors!

I'm sticking to phals, they seem to really like being next to my south facing kitchen window.

Cool and humid weather... seems to describe the weather in England, or Brittany! They are so gorgeous though, I can see why you can't resist! It's always nice to take on a challenge and figure things out, it makes life interesting I guess.... Good luck with the fridge idea, either that or a cold room like what they use in commercial kitchens and restaurants, plus grow lights etc... yikes, that gets expensive!!!

So I'm not a beginner 😆 I have four miltoniopsis and 1 Nelly Isler. They are very happy and healthy 😌

Me: oh, what a beautiful orchid! Looks like an oncidium! I wonder that it is... Danny: the first orchid on the list is the Oncidopsis Nelly Isler

I live in Hāna on Maui and the Miltoniopsis love the humidity and temperate climate 😁

Hey, I was thinking about getting some orchid, but sometimes I go out of town for like 2 weeks, and I dont have a solution to water my orchid, can you make a video about it? Im sure it'll help others too🤗

This is really a highly entertaining video. Extremely. You definitely have comedic abilities.

Burrageara Nelly Isler and Masdevallia was my first orchids 3 years agi and still have it 😊 I have a almost dead Miltoniopsis since holidays, recued from supermarket for free, it's hard, but he is not dead^^

Funny. Sitting here wondering how I can make my Milltoniopsis happy and eager to make it. The blooms were just so gorgeous!

Try an Oncidium (Burr.) Francine Roseglow. Look it up, looks just like the nelly Isler but much more vigorous.

Hi Dany. Thanks to you, 12 of my 13 phalenopsis are still alive, thanks a million for your advices. I saw your video concerning how to have them bloom everyday. You said that I have to diversify the species. As a beginner, I don t know what is the next ''easy'' to start with. Can you make a video showing which species are convenient for beginners, ranking them from 1 to 5 for example? As far as i can read on internet, the next esay one is dendrobium, and phragmipedium, not sure...and how i should care them properly. Thank you !

For the Masdevallias i heard that minuta and wendlandiana are warmth tolerant and intermediate growers and they are small so you could try them

A small grower in Italy told me the total opposite on what he realized worked for him with miltoniopsis, it was letting them dry totally before the next watering.

very beautiful your orchids thanks for sharing ideas for all who want to start to care orchids

Because I live in a small house the Florida Keys all of my orchids are outside. I have two Vandas that vex me. They both put out flower spikes that immediately died. They are my pest magnets! Thrips got them before I knew it.

You are right, Danny. Some Zygopetalums are hard to grow too!

That pink orange Nelly Isler looks like Nelly Isler "Ibiza Sunset" I saw on Petren Orchids.

Great video. Makes me laugh 😂. Seems like we always want the orchid that’s a challenge. What can you say ? I enjoyed watching.🤗🌴🥀

Nah, I'll just go "to the left, to the left" and grab the colorfull phalaenopsis 😍😍 The hardest to grow is the dendrobium victoria reginae, hoping that yours is doing great, such a finicky and beautiful orchid 😰

That nelly isler with orange makes me wanna give that toxic relationship where only I give the effort into it another chance 🥺# fml

I'm all excited over an orchid I found, yet without looking up info via my little orchid goddess (you) as I would usually I went for it! I went slightly numb as i watched everything I could praying to absorb enough to understand no matter what it just might not be meant to be......... I had just purchased a Miltoniopsis at the grocery store!

It's funny, I have killed more 'boxstore' phals over any other orchid (although miltoniopsis still die on me too because of my environment and lack of experience)

The first non-phalaenopsis orchid available in a grocery store near me.... was a miltoniopsis. I resisted the urge to bring it home because I knew what would happen to it!

Oh no. Danny I just watched your not for beginners orchids and I think I bought one. It at a nursery and had these beautiful deep purple blooms. Ever since then I just have the nodes and an occasional green leaf that quickly browns and dies. I'm thinking it was probably a lyosate. So bummed. I don't want to get rid of it, but nothing has really grown since last year and the root system was trash when I went to repot it. Ugh. Thanks I guess.

Get yourself a wine fridge. They can be set to cool temperatures and they have lights and glass doors

Hi! Love your videos!

This was the funniest video yet! I’m struggling with my phal that I rescued. That’s enough for me. 😅

The coral nelly isler looks amazing wow

I’d add Cataserinae to the list of difficult orchids, not suitable for beginners. I also find summer blooming Phalaenopsis in cooler areas difficult to bloom.

Ironically, I find phals one of the harder ones to grow. I have booted them from my normal growth spaces. They can go live in the kitchen now, maybe they like it better than anything other orchids like...

Maybe the Dracula's will be happy in Transylvania. Or London (a close 2nd).

My dad suggested that I get a Dracula and I am definitely a beginner

I have a masdevallia it was a gift from a friend, and boy I was terrified of it but it is so easy to grow here... The ones I can't keep alive are paphios.

get a cheese cave fridge they are the most temperature controlled

They are so so gorgeous😍😍😍

I feel like the Nelly is more used to high winds, strong rain and constant cloud humidity

Hi ..i often watch ur interesting videos. I have many dendrobiums nearly 30 of them ,flower is a rare thing for them. Plants are very healthy leaves r very lively so as roots .Anything for Continuous flowering. Im from India.

I bought a few different orchids that I’m not sure what to do with and one of them is an orchid you indicated here. It’s beautiful but not sure how long it will last and there are spiders that are freaking me out.

I love this beautiful creature!

Call it beginner's luck, but the milts I bought a couple of yrs ago were the first ones i managed to rebloom and put out new growths consistently. Probably has a lot to do with where I live and our temps here.

I started with the Nelly. They like me:)

Your nail polish really reminds me of the phalaenopsis tetraspis c1 😍🤣

I have my miltoniopsis near my cool mist humidifier. Feeling hopeful.

Hi wanted to say that your videos have been very helpful. Thank you for them and also do you have a video on what your orchids leaves could be telling you. I have a split one, o e that has some dry browning areas and some that have sap. Thank you 😊

Interesting, I actually live in a really cool climate and wonder if that changes the recommendations as a number of the orchids listed don't like heat? Our house is normally 60 - 75 degrees (F), though probably not as humid as orchids might like.

I have problems with my wild IIonopsis minutiflora they are fairly common here, i collected two one was flowering but now it looks stressed and dehydrated idk why the other one looks nice also i found them in the same bush as a couple of Trizeuxis falcata that also look healthy.

I'm sorry for being that person. I think it really depends on your climate. I live in Germany and I used to grow and re-bloom Nelly Islers as a teenager without any experience with orchids. For me, it withered away after 5 years in the same pot which I now know was due to decomposed media haha. Same for the Miltoniopsis - I have killed one that came with no roots but I have two really happy ones that keep growing and re-bloom constantly... The one I killed was so pretty though... With dark purple flowers 😿 I really want to venture into Masdevallias... Any tips ons nicely fragrant species?

Hi Danny - Do you have any ideas why the long leaves of Miltoniopsis or Brassia get kinks (is this the right word for it ? maybe dog-ear?) is it lack of water? lack of fertilizer? - would be great if you could help - by the way - I really like your videos keep on doing them - please - regards from Vienna/Austria - Gerhard

I owned an Oncidium hybrid and I was in the middle of rejuvenating the shriveled up bulb when I first got it. I was unexpectedly hospitalized for a week and it completely kicked the bucket on me 💔

When 1st you don't succeed.....Just keep going

I have 2 oncidiums... I have had them for nearly a year and they are still alive. Got some new greenery but no flowers yet...

Have you thought about using a wine fridge for the ones you want to keep at 10'C?

My second orchid ever was a Dracula Lotax 😔

I have a phragmipedium species that has been the bane of my existence. Keeps getting leaf damage that almost looks like spider mite damage, but I can't see any bugs! I'm between thinking I let it get too dry, and being convinced it's diseased and it's not my fault. Someone send help, this orchid drives me nuts.

Love Your Videos I always takes your advice and they do really work. ¿What is the difference between growing Orchid inside your home compared to outside???

When did you get Aspidogyne argentea?! It is so pretty!

Me: *imports masdv & dracs as a beginner and grows them in wine cooler* Also me: *clicks on video telling me I shouldn't get masdv & dracs*

I'm known for my inability to keep phalanopsis alive 😂 and the 3 that I do have refuse to flower! I'm currently trying lots of different species to find out what works as I'm in the UK and have a conservatory, so I'm able to give very low winter temperatures and very high summer temperatures. I'm largely doing OK, but my epidendrum is determined to die on me 😔

Have you tried Masdevallia Floribunda? That is a warm grower :)

I have 2 baby Phalaen . But I’m frustrated because I can’t seem to keep them alive.

Hi, Can you tell which phalaenopsis variety was the las orchid shown in this video? Thanks!