Links

Information, networking, socializing:

American Orchid Society

Internet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia

Garden Web Forums

Orchid Geeks Forum

RVO's Orchidtalk Forum

Orchid Board

The Orchid Source

MyFolia

Online stores that friends or I have had good luck in past orders:

Greenhouse MEGA Store I ordered my aluminet shade cloth and my Aquafog humidifier/cooling system from here. I haven't seen anyone yet that beats their prices.

The Greenhouse Catalog A great resource, but I've never ordered anything from them. I've never seen anything bad about them.

Charley's Greenhouse I've never ordered anything from here, but I find their catalog to be very helpful when first setting up the greenhouse. While Greenhouse MEGA Store is cheaper, Charley has items not offered on the other online greenhouse stores listed above. The prices do tend to run a little on the high side.

Andy's Orchids I placed my first order with Andy's Orchids and have to say that it was a fantastic experience. I e-mailed them about a few species that were not listed and figured it would be a slim chance that they might have one of them. To my surprise they had all of them!!! They did a great job on packing as well as details about shipping the order. In the spring when I do a little house keeping in the greenhouse I may order a few more. Also when I saw on the website that the plants were mounted on sticks, I had a fear that they would be little twigs with 2 or 3 pseudobulbs attached with fishing line. Not to worry, they really are good sized sticks and much larger specimens that I expected. Also the plants appear to be very well established. Oh yeah, the kicker on the whole thing was a freebie with "Merry Christmas" on it.

Tropical Orchid Farms I have ordered from here a couple of times and it was a great experience both times. The first order was an Epi. ilense that stays in almost constant bloom for me along with another Epidendrum. I received a free plant that was small growing, but a large specimen. My second order I got a few unusual hybrids and received a freebie that was in spike. This is a great place to buy plants and I always look forward to their mailings and specials.

Oak Hill Gardens I have not ordered from here since the 80's. At that time they were one of the best sources for species orchids. From what I have read and seen on orchid forums, they are still a great source of quality plants.

Santa Barbara Orchid Estate This is the source of my variegated Epiphronitis Veitchii. I had not ordered anything from them since the 80's and they still do not disappoint. Fast service and good sized, healthy plant!

eBay sellers that I have had fantastic success with, however your mileage may vary:

My Preferred Source For Large Amounts Of Hydroton (my almost perfect orchid growing media)- sunsethydro

Sells fantastic plants that are usually in bud or in sheath - Kawamoto Orchids

Orchid Management Database software - bugs007bugs I currently use his Orchid Management Database software to keep track of my collection. I think the only thing I might want added is a "wish list" and "killed list" to track what I want and what didn't make it.

Orchid Wiz (OrchidWiz Encyclopedia) - botnee
OrchidWiz.com OrchidWiz Encyclopedia covers both species and hybrids. You can see the make up of your hybrids and get cultural tips on species. If you plan to breed orchids this could prove indispensible for checking out similar hybrids and seeing what traits are dominant or recessive. He doesn't have a photo of every single orchid or hybrid, but this is one of the best references I've ever seen.

Geek Porn

I coined this term while casually talking to a friend (Are you reading this Jeremy?). He saw something that looked like a magazine tucked under my arm and asked what I had. I reached for it to give him and said "I call it geek porn." He made a funny look (almost like he was afraid he might see some sort of perverted printed material) and when he saw the cover of my "CyberGuys" catalog he totally lost it and couldn't stop laughing. He got the joke since he is like me and loves computers, electronic gadgets & gizmos. So the links here are to places where I bought "geek porn " or software to be part of the greenhouse or that lend themselves to teching up the greenhouse or even the website.

CyberGuys - This is the infamous site mentioned above. They don't always have the best prices, but they do have hard to find and unique items. TIP: If you find something here that you like, get the description & model number. Next make a trip over to Pricegrabber.com and search for it. Frequently you can find it cheaper.

Pricegrabber.com - Before I buy almost anything I check here first. I have used this site to get the best prices on things from optical audio cables to a 71" Samsung DLP HDTV (better price and faster delivery than I could get on anything local even with shipping). I used Pricegrabber to get the best prices on my Davis weather station and the webcam out in the greenhouse. Some of the best features are buyers who rate the products and the vendors. I avoid vendors who have very few reviews and who have less than four stars unless I'm willing to take a gamble.

Davis Instruments - Direct link to details about the wireless Vantage Pro 2 by Davis Instruments. This is a great (but not cheap) way to accurately monitor conditions in your greenhouse. I have the main station (it's solar powered) set up in my greenhouse and data is wirelessly transmitted to the display console. The console in turn transfers information to my computer for use by (in my case) Virtual Weather Station software. This software then uploads data to this website every 5 minutes.

Scientific Sales Inc. - This is where I bought my wireless Davis weather station that I use to monitor conditions inside the greenhouse. You can add a second station to monitor conditions outside the greenhouse. This place had the best price I could find on the Davis weather station that I wanted.

Weather Shop - This is where I got my software that updates info from my Davis weather station to my website. The software is Virtual Weather Station. The software is not perfect and setup is not always intuitively obvious, but it gets the job done. The Internet version is (naturally) the most expensive and feature packed.

TrendNet - Makers of my wireless IP webcam (TV-IP312W). I use this to discretely view and listen to what's going on inside of the greenhouse. The camera and software are a little quirky due to use of ActiveX and full features only work on IE 6 or above. The colors in daylight are way off and I believe this is due to the camera's sensitivity to IR light. Yes, the camera does work at night when the lights are completely off. The camera has a set of IR emitters to illuminate the scene. We don't see IR so it only looks like the IR LEDs are just faintly glowing red.

Active WebCam - This is a fantastic piece of software from Py Soft. They have a free demo that you can download to see how it works with your setup. This software supports USB webcams, image grabbing devices, IP webcams (including my TrendNet webcam), etc. At first I didn't think it worked with my IP webcam since they did not have my camera model specifically listed. Turns out you select TrendNet TV-IP110 or 110W profile and it controls a TV-IP312W just fine. So whatever can be controlled on the webcam, can be controlled either directly (webcams) or indirectly (it launches the Trendnet's IP cam control program in the webcam itself). This can also record video to your hard drive, FTP images and/or video to your website and just generally let you keep an eye on things if you have access to a computer. It has motion detection and supports multiple cameras simultaneously. Once the TrendNet IP webcam worked with this program, I bought it immediately. Great job PySoft!!! Please note that they have some program where you can earn money by directing people to their website. I will NOT participate so I am not making anything off this rave review. If I made money off their products (or any others for that matter), it would lessen my trustworthiness about anything I promote here. No hidden agenda....if I like it, I say so. They offer a number of versions that you can grow into if your system grows and you want more advanced features.

HTC Touch Diamond - The makers of my smart phone. It's not an iPhone, but that's not a problem for me. :-) The phone has all the little geeky things I like including 3 megapixel camera, video recorder, weather, e-mail, GPS, etc. The GPS coupled with Google Maps shows you where you are on the street or overlaid on a satellite image (this thing has got to be close to within 10 feet of my true position). I can also log into my wireless home network to move files around which is sort of cool. There are free TV apps that let you watch TV on your cell phone, but I haven't tried one yet. And yes, it plays music and can connect to a pair of Sony DR-BT10CX bluetooth stereo headphones that double for headset and mic if you need to talk on the phone.