Isn't it beautiful?

Oh how exciting!
I hope you find lots of goodies.
And a bright colorful cym.

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Well, I have 4 cyms in a small house but if I were to fine an orange or red one, I couldn't say no. I hoping to find something that I actually have space for. That's getting pretty hard. I need to donate some houseplants to the garden club again.

I've been debating an orange one for a while now.
No more room around the pond though.
I can now commence filling the rest of my yard with orchids.
Which is cool.

I hope you find an orange or red mini cymbidium.
That way it won't be as bad lol...


Im sadly lacking in the house plant area.
I've got some dracaena... My orchids... an African violet, and a gardenia bonsai.

I really need more houseplants.

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I got some bad fish shots...
I couldn't capture all of them. They still run from the camera.


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The fish look pretty happy.
I'm finding that my house plants take up too much space that could be used by orchids. But I'll keep my bougainvillea, streptocarpus and maybe the passion vine. I got to eat passion fruit in the fall, but the damn vine thinks it owns the basement.

I think I see some bullying happening. Between the comets and shubunkin.

Sheesh, bougainvillea and passiflora are house plants?
Those are some huge houseplants.
They are landscaping shrubs and vines in my area.

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You can keep their size under control to an extent. The bougainvllea is worth having because it blooms a long time. When we lived in Ontario where we had sun in the winter, it would bloom all year. Here it blooms spring to fall.

Intriguing...
It's hard to believe that those plants are House plants. Lol.
In my mind they equate to large hardy drought and heat tolerant sun loving vines lol.



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Well... some of the cymbidium are losing their flowers.
Others are experiencing bleaching.
Mainly I think due to the fact that it's starting to get very hot (80*+) during the day. But the tree that would provide dappled light during the heart of day when it's hottest still hasn't awoken from dormancy.
So far the green and red one is that only one that's completely faded.
But the yellow and red one is on its way out as well.
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I envy you those temperatures. Our climate is very mild for Canada, but it is slow to warm in the spring. It's perfect for cyms though, because the nights in summer are quite cool.

Don't envy them.
It's warm yes.. but the sun here is a lot more brutal than up north.
Plus its also that hot at night. Which is awful.
We get a month in spring and fall where it's pleasant. Crisp, clear, warm, but not hot.
Three months of winter. Where is gets very dry and windy, with big humid bouts. And the temps suddenly drop into the 30s.
And the rest of the year it's just hot... all the time.

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You have a good point. Our temperature gradually rises through the day and even it it goes up to 100, it cools down at night where we are. It was different in Southern Ontario. There they have sticky heat waves that can last days and nights.

That sounds nice though... cool nights.
Oh how I wish...
Do you garden?

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I'm thinking about putting a maxillaria tenuifolia with the cyms.
Something tells me that it can handle a lot of light. Winter concerns me though.
Quad do you think?

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Yes, I love to garden. The climate is so different than what I was used to in Ontario, that it can be a challange at times. We didn't have flowers all winter long in Ontario though, and there are even hummingbirds during the winter on some parts of the island here. This winter was the mildest I've ever seen.

I would be very interested to talk gardens with you...
I'm working really hard on mine but its proving difficult.
Maybe that's better left to pm or the off topic section though.

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The pink ones look good.

They are lovely aren't they?



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A slightly better fish shot.

The shubunkin has completely lost its black colouring and its now just a comet.

I'm a little annoyed because I've got 2 solid red comets now.
But I can't exactly condemn it to a fish bowl by returning it now that it's been in such a large pond.

The rest of the goldfish I get will be special ordered from a breeder.

I just really wanted some life in the pond.

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That is a better photo. It's a shame that the shubunkin didn't keep it's colour. Sometimes they can also have blue on them. It's amazing how much fish can change. I had an orange koi that kept getting more white until it was all white.

They've learned I bring the food lol.

You can see the cube of spirulina brine shrimp I used to tempt them.

Indeed... I'm actually going to order one with blue.
Though that's a while off...
I have room for 4 more goldfish. They cost around $60 per plus $60 for shipping.
And I can fit 4 goldfish in one box...

The dark spots on goldfish normally darken once stick out side and that's what I hoped would happen. I knew there was a chance of it losing them to though...

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Boy, those are expensive fish!
I hate it when you loose them after paying all that money and getting attached to them. I just lost one of my younger koi. He wasn't expensive but he was quite pretty.

It's quite traumatic.
I just had to euthanize one of my orandas.
He was a pet store oranda, and lived in a 55 gallon with a Ranchu. I had him for 7 years.
I'm very sad over it...
I did have that thought though "at least he was only $5".
Which made me feel worse lol.

The ones currently in the pond cost me a whopping 27 cents each lol...
Still annoyed two of them look exactly the same now

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It is nice to have fish that are all different. That way you can name them. I always give my koi Japanese names and if I call them by name when I throw them a pellet, they learn their names. I just buried Matsumura under a rose bush. Good fertilizer. I miss him already.

I just buried luciola under a mini rose...
I miss him as well...

Out is nice especially when your limited on room for goldfish.

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Ok... here's another pond update.

I've been scouting out catts... they are expensive. I can get three cymbidium for the price of one so it's going to be a one or two at a time thing.
Also... Just got a water lily.

After much debate I went with a shady pond classic.
The tropical water lily dauben.
It's got a small spread, and attractive light blue mildly fragranced flowers.
It's also known to take considerable amounts of shade.
With reports saying it's still flowers on as little as 3 hours of sun.
Here's to hoping.


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I would love to be able to grow the tropical water lilies. It isn't worth growing them here because wintering them would be difficult. I love the blue ones.

How much are they up there?
My family further north treats them as annuals.


I'll let you on on a secret.
The pond is heated lol

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One more shot of the lily.
In the sun.

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There is a water garden place in Ontario that carries
tropical water lilies. I think they are around $45. I wouldn't pay that for an annual. My pond is too large to heat, it would be expensive. I used to have a beautiful lotus in Ontario. The one problem I had with it is that it needs to be grown in a huge pot which was difficult to move. There I would sink it to the bottom of the pond for the winter.

That certainly is a bit much.

I got this one for $25 which is around what I would pay for a large showy annual.

This pound is tiny and easily heated.
It takes one large aquarium heater lol.
Though it's almost time to take It out.
I have it in to help the scrawny goldfish from the store survive until I fatten them up lol.

My one hardy lily is taking forever to grow.
I'm wondering if the soil is poor quality.

I'm really lost on what kind of soil to get though.


I have a lotus as well...
Have you heard of exquisite teacup of the bowl lotus?
Think dwarf.
Mine is called "babydoll" and its got lovely fragrant white flowers and only reached 1.5 feet tall..
It's quite small..

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A heavy clay soil works best for water lilies but it is important to feed them. I found out the hard way that the soil here is completely wrong. It makes a mess of the pond. Here we use sand and either water lily fertilizer or bury slow release like you use for your annuals, nutricote or such. I bought some little baskets on ebay that are for this purpose. Then put a layer of gravel on top to keep the fish from digging around.

---------- Post added at 12:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:23 AM ----------

I forgot to mention the lotus. No, I haven't heard of the dwarf ones. I should look into that. The huge flowers and leaves on the big ones are impressive. I have watched birds drinking from them.

Hmm....
That's what I planted my one hardy in and its not really doing much.
And I use lily specific fertiliser tabs...
This is its first year though.
I ordered it really late in summer last year and never got to see it flower.
Actually it shrank severely in size and aborted it's flowers.
And now it's going really slow...

Maybe I'm too quick to judge.


Google them!

My babydoll lotus is tiny in comparison but it still gets fairly large leaves and flowers.


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The little lotus sounds great. I will look into it. I'm not sure if I could get one here on the Island though, and it costs an arm and a leg for shipping.

I hope you find one.
If you want one.

They have different types and colours, I just went with babydoll..
Not sure if pondmegastore ships to Canada... that's where I got mine....

You live in an island? That's cool....
I've always wanted to love on an island.
Not a tropical island though... I loathe the tropics..
Well... I loathe heat and humidity.
The tropics themselves are beautiful.

I kind of understand your pain.
I'm sure shipping to you costs more, but alot of extra charges are added in when you ship to California.

My last order online added $40 on top of the $30 shipping fee because it was coming here.
Plus the actual order....


How should I be fertilising my hardy lily?

What schedule should I keep it on?

It's making lots and lots of leaves under the water. But none have felt inclined to reach for the surface.




Also considering adding in a night blooming lily...
The dauben is great but it doesn't open till 12 and it closes around 5.
I would like something that fills in the gap.

Is that too many lilies though?
In concerned that it might not bloom due to lack of light. And it will over crowd the pond.
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With the slow release fertilizer you only need to fertilize once. I took a guess on the amount, judging by the instructions on the container. I actually filled a couple of fertilizer baskets for my largest containers and one for the small.
There is one water garden place here that may have the lotus. I remember seeing some when we were there a couple of years ago.
We are on a large island and we have a milder climate then most of Canada because of the ocean currents. It's rain forest and mountains. Really pretty.

Did you comment?
I'm trying to view this comment but don't are it anywhere?
This is what happens when I tried quoting vandalover...
Lol...

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I have no idea if mine is slow release or not...
I'll have to check...

Lotus are amazing and I fully encourage spending money on one...
Even if it's not an orchid lol...


So essentially... you live in my ideal location.
Can we trade houses for a month? Like that one movie..

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Ok so... scouted out the cattleya scene...
Lowe's has them and only Lowe's.
They $30... but they do come with tags...
I saw one in interested in... but for me.. not the pond lol.
Might be getting those in installments lol...
Also... considering a log twisting around the waterfall... mounted with oncidium intergenerics. And a few catts.
I also think that when my local nursery gets some max tenuifolia in ill try one of those

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Oops...
Also my water lily had opened a second flower. And a third bud.
The second flower is much bluer than the first.
I heard the more shade they get the more blue.
I'm really enjoying this lily...
Still not sure if I want another dauben... or a night blooming lily.
I'm not sure I can find a night blooming lily suitable enough. Meaning small and shade tolerant lol.
Here's some comparison photos and a shot of the pond.


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