I love to plant in the fall. The perennial roots have time to get established over the winter before pushing up new growth and blooms. I DO NOT plant coreopsis in the fall or plants where my zone is at the edge of cold that they can handle. I've had great success with echinaceas that were planted in the fall. Cameron Planted in fall 2008: Early summer 2009 photo of some of those new plants:

Goldfinches also LOVE the seeds of the dried Echinacea cones. The brown seedheads look kind of ugly but I leave them up because I enjoy watching the Goldfinches picking at seeds in the garden. Even though they eat most of them, I still get plenty of seedlings sprouting. Last year I cut off some dried Coneflower stems and tied them to branches under a large Yew in my bird feeding area. The Goldfinches picked at the seeds through the winter. The stems could be tied to a trellis or bird feeder or woven through a fench or lattice and if you have Goldfinches, they will find them. I think I might put some Cones someplace right outside a window this year. Here are a couple Goldfinches picking over some leftover seeds last April.

Unfortunately the flowers do not last forever. Some stay open for a few hours others can last for months. Vandas can take bright light. Direct morning sun and bright afternoon shade if possible...Hot summer days they like water twice a day. All the rest once a day. Sooner or later it will bloom again. You can wait it out or did the orchid bug bite you then go buy another one...cut the stem.

"Do you know (assuming that this is a Cheyenne Sprit plant) if the seeds from individuals in the seed strain tend to grow true to parent type? So, red from red, yellow from yellow, spoon from spoon? Or are resulting seedlings pretty variable? I’m guessing the latter..." You correct in assuming the latter :-)) Seedlings can be extremely variable w/ no regard to parent characteristics. If there was more distinction or a reliable trait passed on consistently from the parent plant, then they would likely be separated out as a unique cultivar.