Better Late Than Never

This year has been late for a lot of things, one of which is summer, but I am not going to complain about the lack of heat and humidity! I am quite happy where it is at...SPRING! The first sign of things taking longer than usual was my orchids. They did not bloom in time for the show this past March. A few did, but my trust little mini Phal. did not. They are both currently in bloom right now and have been for a few weeks. My Paph. bellatulum just opened up and is looking gorgeous! My other Paph. delenatii is about to open! It sure has taken its sweet time to mature! I just saw that my Paph. moquettium is starting to spike! YIPEE!!! I haven't seen that in bloom since I bought it in bloom and oh my is it one gorgeous purple! It's also one gorgeous flower!

Here is something I want to show you...it's called a Mari Mari Marimo. What it is supposed to be is a ball of algae. They are most famous in Japan because of how sphereical they get in this lake where they occur. They occur elsewhere too, but just not as round. I've had this one for a few years. It was a bit smaller when I first got it. The jar is only about 2" tall. Upon further research, it did not seem that my "Marimo Ball" looked anything like the others. I think I have a fake! It looks more like a ball of algae fibers someone rolled together, but it is still neat nonetheless. I think some businessman in Hong Kong decided to take the public or something b/c if you look up the company the website ends in ".hk". They do sell ones like this in Japan in little jars, but I'm not sure if they look like mine or not. I did, however, buy a Marimo ball. I had one several years ago, but my fish decided to eat it! Once it was destroyed it went downhill from there, eventually becoming aquarium sludge. They sure have gone up in price since then though! I paid almost double of what it cost me my first one!