Alliums Coming Up!

These things are growing FAST! This is how they looked yesterday
before I left for Seattle. Will take a pic when I get back!

A Thought About Semi Hydroponics: Too Wet!

I finished re-potting the rest of my orchids today. The semi-hydroponic stuff keeps them way too wet if you water weekly it seems. It's ok if you neglect them a bit in between waterings. I had one paph that I kept upstairs that got that kind of treatment and it has very few rotten roots and a ton of good roots! I repotted it back into bark anyway for it's nutrient needs. Soon as those that are in flower/spike are done I'll re-pot those too!

Re-potting Paphs

I got out of class early today and decided to come home and do something fun! Repotting my Paphs! I got most of them done, but missed a few. I would've finished them off, but my back was hurting. I even repotted a few non-Paphs. That S/H keeps some of them too wet and I found some rotted roots, but luckily those also had some good roots. The Sedeira and Miltonia types seem to hate it as well as the Paphs. Some of the mixes have broken down quite a bit, but some of them are hardly decomposed. I think I will try and summer all my Paphs outside this year. My Paph. wardii seedlings did not seem to have grown many roots at all, but at least they did not lose any either! Hopefully I can get them finished tomorrow!

Recap of Orchid Show 2010

Wednesday: Got there on time at 6pm and found out they were almost done! They had most of the structure up, but I did help out with supplies as well as some other things.

Thursday: Had a L-O-N-G day at the hospital and did not leave on time. Everyone was grumpy and as I was about to leave the house, Dave, my show exhibit partner called to say that our water feature is leaking. GREAT! Ugh. I get there at 6pm only to be told by someone else that our exhibit was leaking. Yes, I know. That just ruined the rest of the day! Ken, Dave's son, came and figured out why our water feature was leaking. THANK YOU KEN! We were able to finish setting up after that. Had everything done by 9:30pm except for covering up the pots with moss, which I did the next day. Missed the vendors coming in so I did not get first pick like usual. :( Picked out some anyway and reserved them!

Friday: Put moss on the pots and helped to clerk the judging! We lucked out and got a small amount to judge! Did not do the preview party...wanted to save my money for orchids! Purchased a few of the orchids I had set aside.

Saturday: Helped Robert's Flower Supply sell orchids. As nice as it was we sold A LOT! I was surprised b/c in the past, good weather = bad sales! Brought home a few more plants!

Sunday: Sold almost ALL the plants for Robert's Flower Supply! WOOHOO! It was another nice day! Even nicer than yesterday! Brought home my last two plants. Didn't get to pick my favorite vendor's brain about un-flasking. :( Will have to email him! Someone dumped out my bottle of wine that no one drank. Grrr! Show is over :(

Snow in March

It's March 19th and there is still snow in my backyard!

Spring Stuff!

Potatoes and Pet Waste

I had these old shrunken wrinkly potatoes that weren't edible anymore that has sprouted. I threw them into my vermicompost bin and to my surprise they had grown! They won't be growing any potatoes since they are not getting any light to grow further, but thought that as interesting!

I also just threw a few worms into the dog poo bucket along with some handfuls of shredded paper. Hopefully they will do their job. If not, oh well!

Snow Melting!

I couldn't believe it when I walked out this morning...the snow was
like 99% gone! It must've rained a lot last night considering that I
could barely see any ground yesterday! I am also finally able to not
put out that chair to save my parking spot anymore! Yipee!

Paph. lowii is still not open yet :/ The bud is quite swollen though!
I reAlly hope it blooms in time for the show next weekend...!
Actually, I need it to bloom before Friday!

-
Cindi
Rabies Challenge Fund :: www.rabieschallengefund.org

Japanese Fantail Pussy Willow

I had seen these last week at the Home and Garden show, but resisted because of what I had heard about growing willows. When my fellow booth mate brought back the coveted gnarly willow and the black one I had to pick her brain about it! She said it was just the curly willow so I bought a bunch of the gnarly looking one, but what I have read online said any water loving plant is an issue. So I dunno....what do I do now? Where do I plant it? It is rooting in a bucket of water now.

Spring!

While the spring equinox doesn't arrive till the 20th it is currently
56*F right now and most of the snow has melted. Even my hose has
thawed out! I was finally able to rinse my car of the salt it had
accumulated since the last visit to the car wash.

Today I noticed my daffodils, hyacinths & allium have made their
presence known! I think winter is finally behind us! February's four
feet of snow was enough!

Because the snow has receded from my garlic patch, I was finally able
to plant my sugar snap peas! Planted all I had left from the packet I
bought, but I also planted the seeds I saved last year. It'll be
interesting to see if my saved seeds do well too!

The snow had also receded some from my front yard and I was able to
plant some radish seeds to improve the soil. I should've planted some
in the backyard too, but didn't think about it at the time! Maybe when
I get home I will do so if there is enough daylight left to see still.

Anyhow, on my way to the home show to volunteer for Phipps!

Signs of Life!

That Bud is Getting Bigger!

Bananas For My Paph. lowii

Yep, you heard that right! Bananas! I am getting desperate LOL I'm hoping that the fruit in the same room thing works and that it will speed up the flower development! So before coming home after work today I went and picked up 5 bananas. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Blooms for Show

Now that we are less than two weeks away from the show I don't think my Phal. equestris' are going to bloom in time. Interesting, especially since everything else bloomed early! Maybe leaving the keikis on there delayed their growth? I think I will have a Dendrobium kingnianum and possibly a Paph. lowii if that bud would just get fatter faster! Those big fat petals might take some time to make! I also may have a Masdevallia with two buds on it bloom in time, we'll see! Anything else we won't have in time. :(

My New Hat

Spring Show Installation at Phipps

So I signed up to help with the spring show installation at Phipps and forgot since I did not make it an alarm on my phone. Luckily I was up early today, but still not quite early enough to make it there on time! I had to pick up dog food though since I had forgotten to pick it up yesterday and had to decide whether to skip volunteering or not so I decided to see how frozen the dog food was. I did end up going, albeit quite a bit late. I got there slightly before noon and stayed till 2:30-ish. It went pretty quick with so many people helping. I guess I should've taken a pic of our work, but that didn't cross my mind at the time. I did take some pics of some of the other stuff though.

I always have to visit the gift shop every time I volunteer there. They had these white sweatshirt hoodies with the Phipps logo on them, but they were asking $45 for them! Still wasn't worth it after my discount unfortunately. Instead, I got a baseball cap instead. I got khaki. There was a green, which was really nice, but I thought it was too manly and I also already have a dark hat. I didn't want the white one b/c I thought it would get dirty too easily so khaki it was!

More Spikes

The show is in two weeks and I think I will have maybe three plants ready! Found another Phal in spike! Wish some of my paphs would bloom! But it is only about 65˚F in the basement so....not seeing much going on with those guys. Replaced a bulb too that had been out for a long time, but I never got around to changing it till now! I'm sure they'll be MUCH happier now! Paph lowii needs to move along a teensy bit faster!

Carnivorous Plants

Pinguicula 'Aphrodite' blooms

Pinguicula emarginata

Just got these....Drosera lake badgerup
(nitidula ssp. omissa x occidentalis ssp.occidentalis)

Just got these too....Drosera roseana

I didn't realize how TINY pygmy Droseras were until I got these! Of course, they may not be full grown yet b/c my last pygmy was much larger! It's hard to tell how big they are, but they are real small!

Paph. Lowii's Growing Bud

Apologies to the Squirrels

My suet cakes had been disappearing really fast lately as well as the cable ties that keep the door closed on the feeder. I thought the squirrels were getting to it. Afterall...they have before! But the last time, even though the cable ties were gone, the door was still shut! Mysteries! Well I think I have figured it out....bravely I put out another suet cake and it was devoured in no time! These robin sized fat black birds with skinny yellow beaks have been visiting and they are voracious as heck! They are also a bit bossy preventing the other birds from feeding! At least the birds are eating it instead of the squirrels stealing the whole dang thing! Anyway, my aplogies to the squirrels for suspecting them! :)

Paph. lowii in spike in my kitchen window.