Last ditch effort

Home Depot Orchid was the one that kept this madness going. Lately, he has been the one that has been ailing. There was a spike, but the spike only lasted a couple of weeks.

Normally, when the flowers fade, the stem turns brown and dried and shriveled. This is not how it normally looks. If you look down below, one of the leaves turned yellow all of a sudden and the others don't look that good.

The yellow leaf actually fell off while I was taking these pictures. But now, you can see the two topmost leaves. They look dimply. Phalaenopsis leaves shouldn't look dimply. They should be plump and smooth. Also, that yellow green color means that something is off.

The next step is to take this guy out of the pot and have a look at the roots. From above, you can see that there are a couple of viable roots but we need to see what he looks like in the bark.

Home Depot Orchid has some fat and white roots but I think most of those were "above ground". The ones buried in the bark are dried and pretty much dead. From the other side, he looks like this:

He's not fully dead yet so there is still hope! I cut off all the dried and dead parts so you can see the separation of "dead matter" and viable roots:

There's not much of him left but there is hope. That sickly leaf also started to fall off in the process so with a gentle tug, I was also about to separate it from the plant body.

I made it a new home. This container is one of those clear plastic shoeboxes. I filled it with some sphagmum moss. I've never had good luck with the "sphag and bag" method. Sphag and bag involves placing an ailing plant, usually without ANY roots in a plastic bag with either a damp paper towel or a little bit of sphagmum moss. My plant usually ends up grown some fuzzy white moss.

Instead, I'm aiming for a terrarium like environment. The moss is wet so it's got a little bit of moisture. The roots aren't buried but are touching the moss so it can get some moisture.

I've placed it on the window sill but I should probably move it a little bit away since I do have the cover gently sitting on top. I don't want it to get too hot and end up baking to death.

This is a last ditch effort. He will either recover a bit, or we're going to have to say good bye.

More flowers from Home Depot Orchid!

I'm excited to see Home Depot Orchid flowering again! There are three flowers open now with one more in bud.

However, I'm concerned about its health.

All of the leaves are wrinkly like it's not getting enough water. When I check the roots, I see they're still all fat and green. The top most leaf in the picture was only partially developed and not grown out to size. They're all getting a bit splotchy and not a uniform green color which made me wonder if perhaps it was getting too much sun.

I've moved it away from the window and placed it in the middle of the room. I'm hoping that should help.

Phalaenopsis spikes

It's fall and the temperatures are changing. There is a drastic enough temperature difference between night and day to make me have nightmares and for phalaenopsis to start spiking.

Both the Home Depot orchid and the Balden's Kaleidoscope had started growing new leaves a while ago but they have paused the leaf growth in favor of spikes!

Home Depot orchid's spike is happily growing along. I'm trying to be careful since they are delicate when they start. I have managed to snap spikes off with the clip because I was too eager to attach them to the stake so they grow up instead of just out.

Balden's Kaleidoscope is also starting to produce a spike. Very exciting. But then, I also spotted...

can you see on the right side of the stem? I think that's a second spike. A SECOND SPIKE!!!!!

Growing time

The orchids had been slowly growing so there hadn't been anything exciting to report. However, this week, I noticed that both phals are starting new leaves!

I do need to get around to repotting them though.

New growths!

I love seeing new growth on my orchids!

A few weeks ago, I cut off the spike from Home Depot Orchid since the spike wasn't looking great. The leaves were also starting to look dehydrated like they weren't getting any water and so I replanted it. This weekend, I spotted a new leaf growth!

Even more exciting is that while the new dendrobium hybrid has dropped most of its flowers, there is a new cane growth! I was very nervous about this one since I had killed the last miniature dendrobium I owned and it dropped a few leaves when I first got it. Plants aren't like animals that can actually attempt to voice their displeasure. When your dog or cat isn't getting what it needs, it lets you know immediately. Plants slowly die off. I had seen signs of new root growth but an even better indicator is if it starts to grow new leaves, canes, pseudobulbs, etc.

What this is telling me is is that I'm doing SOMETHING right! And maybe I'm willing to my eyes to see things but on the other side of that same cane, it looks like there's another green thing poking out. I wonder if that is perhaps another new cane! We shall see!

Repotting time

Last week, I cut the spike off of the Home Depot Orchid. The spike wasn't looking like its usual plump green self and one of the leaves was getting a bit splotchy. I'm not sure what is wrong with it but figured that its energy could probably be better off directed towards growth, so off went the spike.

A couple of days ago, while I was fiddling around with the Paph (they sit next to each other on the windowsill), I accidentally knocked him over and he pretty much fell out of the pot. I got him situated but he was mostly half falling out so I decide that on the next watering day, it would be a good time to repot. Look at him, half hanging out there!

What you see sticking out of the pot was most of the roots! The old media went into the trash. Repotting time is also a good time for some beauty maintenance. I ran the roots under the faucet so the roots would turn green. It's much easier to see which roots are still alive that way.

 Anything that wasn't plump and didn't fall anywhere on the spectrum of green or brown/green got cut off.

Next, I filled my watering bucket with water and a couple of drops of Physan 20 Fungicide and plopped the roots in. I also threw the plastic container and stake in for good measure. It doesn't take a lot of physan in the water and it helps to keep algae and fungi away.

While it was having its Physan soak, I wet my sphagmum moss. A lot of people hate (HATE!) finding orchids planted in moss. Moss holds a lot of water and holds onto that water for quite a while. One of the biggest mistakes made my new orchid growers is over watering and having most of the big box store orchids come packed in moss is something that makes a lot of people crazy. The trick with the moss is that you need to let it dry out to a "crispy dry" before you water again and you don't want to pack it in tightly. My Phal Baldan's Kaleidescope is packed in moss and it has been a happy orchid for three years! I also suspect that Home Depot Orchid hasn't been getting as much water is it needed since you can start to see some lines in the leaves. Phalaenopsis orchids can hold water in the stem and leaves and if they start shriveling, then that means they're not getting enough water.

The next part has always been tricky for me: getting the orchid root system back in the pot along with new media. Wetting the roots help to make them a little more flexible. I grabbed the roots I intended to shove back into the pot and stuck them in. If the base of the crown was still too far out of the pot, I would twist the roots down a bit more until he was sitting at an acceptable level. I hold him down with one hand and start adding moss with the other. The moss needs to be squeezed of excess water first. Then, I just try to fill in the gaps. Remember, don't over pack the moss, those roots need air flow!

The purpose of the moss (or any other growing medium for that matter) is two fold. First, it holds the roots down in the pot. Second, it retains moisture to create a humid, but not sopping wet, environment so the roots can slowly take in the water and nutrients it needs.

You can see the pockets of air in the pot and how he's no longer falling out of the pot! I hope he's a happier orchid now!

Phalaenopsis in bloom!

I wonder what the plural of phalaenopsis is. Both are blooming and it's a lovely view from my desk. They're each sitting on a window sill and I can see them from my desk!

The color on the very first flower to open on Home Depot orchid is starting to fade and it looks like the flower itself is as well. All of the buds are open.

As for Balden's Kaleidoscope, I had concerns about the color on the first flower. It was muddied but it seems to have settled in so that you can see the yellow flowers and the veins stand out. There are a few buds that are still developing so it's not done with flowers yet. There are also a couple of nodes that have growths beyond the little sheath that are just there. I don't know if they plan on continuing development after all of the flowers have opened or if that's it for them. I also wonder how long the flowers will run this time. The last flower show, I had a flower on this guy for 2 years straight!

Home Depot Orchid in bloom!

Home Depot Orchid is currently sitting on my desk so I can admire all of the blooms. They're almost all open!

He has always been a confidence booster, the one that said to me, "Yes, you can grow orchids!"

Blooming phalaenopsis

Home Depot Orchid has flowers opening! I expect that big bud you see in the back to open this week.

Flowers opening, rooting rosemary

Rooting rosemary in water

Yesterday, I cut one of the green growing tips off the rosemary plant, removed the bottom leaves and stuck it in water. I've rooted rosemary this way before so hopefully, in another 2-3 weeks, there will be roots developing at the bottom and I can plant it in some soil.

First flower opened

As for the Home Depot Orchid, The first flower has opened. It's now sitting on the corner of my desk so I can admire the flowers.

Second flower opening

The second flower is starting to open as well! I'm really excited to see it go!

First bloom of the spike!

This is exciting! The first flower of the spike on the Home Depot Orchid is opening!

Let's start at the very beginning

I used to have a black thumb. I was convinced that everything I grew would eventually die, you know that story. I grew orchids because my mom had an orchid. She passed away, I inherited all of her plants, and because I was still in school at the time, I left it in the care of family friends who I knew could keep plants alive. She loved that orchid and I really didn't want to kill it. So I tried and I tried with various orchids but no luck. There was no way I was going to take possession of her orchid if I kept killing them!

Four years ago, I moved into my current apartment. This place has 12 ft ceilings and east and south facing windows. Yup, I get lots of natural light, lucky me! The window sills are also deep and great for sitting plants on. I bought my last (or so I thought) orchid from Home Depot. It's one of those NOID phalaenopsis orchids because it's pretty generic and bred to survive the hardy neglect that most people will apply to it. I call it my Home Depot Orchid. If I couldn't keep it alive, I was done. If I could manage to get it to spike again, I could then go and buy another orchid. That was the deal.

I knew with a previous orchid, out of sight, out of mind and I could go months without watering it because I had forgotten about it. It died eventually. That was not going to happen with Home Depot Orchid, especially with all the space on my window sills. So I watered it weekly and sometimes would let it go a little longer. The flowers on the spike eventually shriveled and fell off and then the true test began.

Because it sits on my window sill and my windows aren't exactly the most energy efficient, lo and behold, when the weather started changing and we started to get shifts between day and night time temperatures, a spike developed! I was so excited when I saw that spike. IT LOVES ME! IT REALLY LOVES ME! I'M DOING IT RIGHT!

I staked it out and those new spikes, they're flexible but to a certain extent so I ended up breaking of the tip in my attempt to spike it. Oops. But again, it was happy so it sent up another spike.

Home Depot Orchid

And so, orchid acquisition began.

It's been a couple of years since then and a few spikes have come and gone. Home Depot Orchid has been repotted a couple of times and survived each of those experiences. The roots look good and healthy. This winter, we've had some really wacky day to day temperature fluctuations so there is currently a spike growing. The buds are developing and I can't wait to see them open.

Home Depot Orchid - spike close up