Madagascar or Mexican?

I've been waiting to talk about this for some time, for no reason other than it's nerdy.

As some of you know, I have a strong interest in gardening, some might say I'm obsessed. Now, being that we live on the 10th floor of an apartment that I could only assume was built by the Minoans, our green space is non-existent. I have, however, done quite a bit of research and, using a combination of shade tolerant plants, a well-lit window, supplemental grow lighting, humidity trays and the heat from our blazing radiators, I've managed to create a fairly effective apartment greenhouse.

The highlight of our collection is the Vanilla Orchid I purchased off of eBay in September. Yes, I did say Vanilla Orchid. At this point, I would like to defer to the words of a friend who is far more gifted in prose than I:

"So hang on. You're going to grow a vanilla orchid and... extract the vanilla from it? Like, as in "why not try some of my ice cream, made with fresh vanilla from that delightful orchid by the settee"?"

Yes I am, and well said, BW. The process is very time consuming as the orchid will not produce flowers for another two years or so. The flowers only last one day and have to be hand-pollinated. Also, the curing process takes at least a few weeks (from my understanding).

Included in the "greenhouse" are (or should I say "is?" This is where my English fails me because I am about to make a list with multiple nouns, but it will begin with a singular one....help?) a gardenia, two different kinds of basil, some thyme (not doing so hot) and a cactus (which would probably grow in my oven if I were strapped for space)...

Here the specimens (the vanilla has doubled in size since I got it and the gardenia has a flower on it now):