Orchid Sunday

[Leafmite]

Some music might date us but really good music never goes out of style.

[jkofferdahl]

12/4: It's Orchid Sunday! Best wishes to all for a great day! I'm at work today, but that's OK. All major watering was done yesterday, so this morning all I had to do was take care of the mounted plants.

We've finally gotten rain here in Georgia, which is wonderful. Prior to this week we'd not had a drop in something like 45 days - whatever, it was the longest dry spell on record. Even though it's Fall, I can still see life returning to the plants.

Don't ever let music date you, Leafmite! It was the music of our generation, after all. To our ears it is the best music ever, and is what our memories are built upon. Claim it, and enjoy it. For what it's worth, I spent two hours last night listening to King Crimson.

The mice are still around but have been scarce this past week. I wonder if I got the instigators already! Mice seem most attracted to the tips of spikes and to tender, new orchid leaves. I've set traps all over my house, including outside where they come in. Late at night I know that my dogs see them because they bark and fuss at them.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Sunday!

[No-Pro-mwa]

Well here I set on orchid Sunday fighting with this sight. It seems to be getting worse or my computer is one.

I have a nasty mouse also. I think I am going to have to get a new trap as he seems to be getting his way with this one. Dame thing is not working right so he gets the food.

At least he hasn't eaten any of my orchids yet.

[jkofferdahl]

Originally Posted by No-Pro-mwa

Well here I set on orchid Sunday fighting with this sight. It seems to be getting worse or my computer is one.

I have a nasty mouse also. I think I am going to have to get a new trap as he seems to be getting his way with this one. Dame thing is not working right so he gets the food.

At least he hasn't eaten any of my orchids yet.

Shannon, be glad your orchids remain unmolested. The mice invading my house have chewed off the growing tips of three or 4 spikes, shredded a couple of leaves (they only eat P. cornu-cervi at my house) and even chewed up the base of one plant. I'm seriously considering a cat.

[Leafmite]

I am sorry to hear about your mice problem. I remember how frustrated I was. I haven't had them indoors since using the steel wool.

We had a West Highland Terrier that was a really fantastic mouser many years ago but, unfortunately, not all of them are. The three neighborhood cats love to hang out in our yard but I am not sure how effective they are at hunting...I see chipmunks running through the yard now and then and the traps in the garage still catch the occasional mouse. They are cute kitties, though, even if they occasionally knocked over my plants.

[jkofferdahl]

12/11: My most sincere wishes for a Happy Orchid Sunday to everyone! Here in Georgia it finally is feeling like winter (for Georgia), with a temperature in the low 40s. The sun just poked out for a moment, but the sky is mostly a blanket of soft white. A good day for my laundry chores.

Tomorrow morning, my 91 year-old mother is having knee replacement surgery. It's my sister's birthday, but she has gone to Charlotte to help Mom and my father. Between that and some health issues my father is having, this year's will be my family's first Christmas in MY LIFETIME that won't be hosted/catered/whatevered by my parents. It was truly upsetting to them! My sister and my older daughter, both also in NC, have pulled it together, though, and are going to take care of all preparations, cooking, and whatever so we can still celebrate in the parents' cottage. The cottage is in a retirement center, and my mother's rehab will be in the main building there, so we will just wheel her across the street! Family.

Orchid-wise, things are just nice. Early this Spring, I bought a large, truly adult-sized, Phalaenopsis schilleriana v. purpurea. The plant is large enough that I would have expected it to have bloomed at least two previous years, but there you go. Three months after it arrived it sprouted two spikes and now is putting out a nice first-time show. The flower is, to my eye, spectacular and I think is the nicest schilleriana I've personally grown.

And that leads nicely into a sort of quandry I have. About the same time I got the schilleriana in bloom now I also bought 5 schilleriana seedlings as well as 2 stuartiana seedlings. Now, when I call these seedlings, I mean truly immature plants - right now each of the 7 have plants have leaf-spans roughly the same size of a couple of mini-Phals I have. In April, when they arrived, each was estimated to be one to two years from blooming. So naturally, here we are seven months later and each and every one of the 7 plants is in spike. That leads me to the quandry: In my opinion these plants may not be really strong enough to support a bloom cycle this year. I know that orchids will do what they want to do when they want to do it. However, I'm considering a couple of approaches. First is the least dramatic, where I simply let them go to bloom and monitor closely, then clip sprays once I see what I get flower-wise. This is the least dramatic, but also the most likely to be bad for the plants. Middle of the road is to let the MOST vigorous (one has 2 spikes) grow while clipping the spikes of the less vigorous. Finally, I am considering snipping each spike and just letting the plants grow another year. I would absolutely love to hear how others might approach this!

Happy Orchid Sunday!

[estación seca]

I would let them bloom. Plants are much smarter than their keepers.

[rbarata]

I would let them bloom.

Agree! Let nature take its course.

[charlesf6]

Plants are much smarter than their keepers.

I resemble that remark!

[Leafmite]

We had snow today...everything is white and cold.