Botanical Gardens - Orchid lover's dream

[BettyE]

[QUOTE=RandomGemini;626610]One thing I wanted to suggest that someone else on the forum mentioned and I'm sorry I can't remember who it was...

I purchased a phal from Trader Joe's with hard water stains on the leaves. It looked very similar to one of the plants in your photos.

OB to the rescue! MAYONNAISE! No joke! Dab a TEENY bit on a paper towel and rub it over the leaf in a circular motion, then wipe the leaf down with a paper towel dampened with hydrogen peroxide to remove any of the mayo. The leaves look gorgeous now. If you're gonna go to all the work to repot everybody and get them happy, you may as well make them look fabulous too!

Good work you're doing! You must be so proud of all of them![/QUOTE

I use milk, or a mild vinegar/water solution to clean leaves By the way...THANK YOU VERY MUCH: from the orchids!
You have a full time job doing all of this re-potting. You deserve a metal...BettyE

[jmmehler]

We are making steady progress. My buddy (and mentor), Ronnie B joined me a couple of Saturdays ago, and we spent over 7 hours repotting large Cattleyas. I've been stopping off on my way to work most mornings for 30 to 45 minutes, and repotting a few at a time. We have finished all the large cats, and are now working on the smaller ones. See first picture. Haven't begun on the Dendrobiums next pic, or the Enc. Onc, et al. 3rd pic.

[AmyG]

Wow. Kudos to you jmmehler! Thanks for sharing your story an updating the community! I know your hard work will be rewarded with knowledge, new relationships and the satisfaction of saving all those beauties!

[jmmehler]

Making steady progress. All Phals, small Catts, large uni-foliate Catts and a host of others (Brassavolas, BLCs, SC, etc) have been re-potted. At least 200 in all. Still have about 30 – 40 large bi-foliate Catts to re-pot, but my friend Ronnie B. suggests that I wait for new roots to start coming out before repotting them.

We took a little time to plan next strategies, and better locate the plants. Dendrobiums are now out from underneath the misters, and are looking much better, even though, on closer inspection, many of them just lift right out of the pots, because all their roots have completely rotted off. The Phals which were repotted about a month ago, are starting to spike. Many of the spikes are already 4 – 6 inches long. For those of you who get AOS magazine, those 3 ½ foot Bulbaphyillums in this month’s issue… we have about 20 of them hanging from up above. Some doing better than others. I climbed up on the table for a closer inspection. Found one giant flower. Word to the wise. Do not EVER stick your nose into one of those blosoms. Talk about stink. It takes a long while to get the smell out of your nose. The ones that are not doing so well seem to be lacking water. I will be speaking with the staff, and reviewing watering schedules. Probably will label the tables (Hanging baskets twice a week, Dendrobiums every 2 weeks, Catts every 10 days, everything else, once a week).

I found a giant pile consisting of dozens of 18 inch long slabs of cork. In honor of my newest orchid buddy, Lorraine, who loves mounting her orchids, we found an aggressive Brassavola, broke it into pieces, and have now mounted our first orchid. Hope you all enjoy the picture. Thanks Lorraine, and I hope to call you soon to get a very detailed description on how you set up your orchid shows.

In the meantime, I cannot express the pleasure, of detouring on my morning commute to work, and spending 30 – 45 minutes playing with the orchids. Stress? What’s stress?

[jmmehler]

All the Cattleyas have been re-potted. I am now working on the Dendrobiums. One of the most interesting lessons learned on the Cattleyas concerned the sheaths. Part of the re-potting process involved cutting off back bulbs, old spikes, and what seemed to be very old sheaths. On several occasions we noticed that there were actual blooms inside these very old sheaths. Not being the orchid expert that I’d like to be, I can only assume that some blooms take a very long time to develop, and come through the sheaths. Any comments on the varying length of time between the formation of the sheathing, and the appearance of the actual blooms would be appreciated.

[jmmehler]

Favorite orchid du jour is now the Rhynchostylis. Found this one in deplorable condition. It was sitting in an open tray with a little rotted bark on the bottom. one of the plants had a little piece of rotted driftwood attached to the roots. One day I noticed the very tight little berry like blooms. About a week later, they had opened up. Nowhere near as many as what I've seen in pictures, but I'm sure that is attributable to the condition of the plant.

In honor of Lorraine, I mounted it on a nice piece of bark. Used a little bit of spagham moss, and wrapped the roots down tight using 4 lb test monofilament.

Found this other one, also in an open tray, with shredded newspaper. Anyone know what it is? Would love some input.

[gravotrope]

Great work!! What an invaluable service and also experience for you. I've noticed rotten roots and mold causing serious problems during your project. I grow outdoors and have had a lot of success cleaning up my plants with uncoated aspirin from the dollar store. 1 tab per gallon or a weaker solution helps inhibit fungus and also stimulate the plant immune system, but also seems to pause growth until two-three weeks after you stop using it, then from what I can tell makes the growth more vigorous. it is a mild acid so I only use it with RO water since the tap water here in florida doesn't need a lower pH.

I think of it as a great CHEAP way to stimulate plant growth and fight fungus.

That Rhynchostylis looks like the 'gigantea' species, try and hunt a photo down for comparison.

[My Green Pets]

The last two pics look like they could be Paphs? Or Phrags? Any chance of that?

[WeirdGuySeattle]

Sounds like you know what to do:
Potting / repotting / more repotting.
I'd trim off the dead roots and scale down on pot size where you can. I think they will all go bananas once they get new pots.

I am not sure you will be able to do much with the water quality - at least on the misters. If you do anything, you might tell them to scale back on watering the medium - once or twice a week is probably well enough if they mist like you say - every 10 m?

If they wouldn't mind trying to figure out a rain collection system - it would certainly help - but my guess is that is more work they are willing to go for (can't blame them).

[Connie Star]

You are awesome! This must be a labor of love. It's too bad that the orchids got to be in such bad shape but a tribute to their toughness that they are still alive to be saved.
If I lived nearby I'd help you.