Mushrooms

For Christmas, one of my friends gave me a Mushroom Mini Farm from Back To The Roots. I had one of these before, well, two. The first one wasn't so successful and nothing grew. The second one languished on my bookshelf and after a couple of months, I found that mushrooms had grown out of it and dried. Not really thinking about it, I threw out the mushrooms. I should have just re-hydrated them.

So now, I bring you iteration 3. I just let it soak over night and it is now it will sit and be sprayed for the next few days. I'll report back on whether anything has grown.

A tolumnia spike!

A spike! A Spike! I've been watching the new fan grow all summer as well as giving it near daily dunks in water.

The last time I watered it, I noticed the new spike growing! It's the first new spike on the first new fan under my car. I am a proud orchid mama!

First flowers of the season

The first flower on Twinkle opened! It's even more exciting because these flowers came from pseudobulbs that grew under my care. The last time Twinkle was open was when I bought it. These are flowers I can claim responsibility for.

Anticipation

I've been waiting eagerly for Twinkle's flowers to open for a few weeks. Maybe it will be a nice Christmas present. In the mean time, it still looks like this:

Mom's orchid

My dendrobium hybrid had been growing very well so I decided that this year was the year I would bring mom's orchid home at Thanksgiving. And so I did.

I pulled it out of the pot to take a look at the root conditions and found myself with two orchids that pulled apart very easily. There were still many viable roots, it just needed new potting medium and a much smaller pot.

Before repotting, they both got a physan bath and are now making themselves comfortable in their new home. They are both incredibly lopsided, but I guess that's just how dendrobiums grow.

I think they produce purple flowers. It's been almost 20 years since I saw it flower and my mom was very excited by it.

New pseudobulb!

I always take a good look at all of my orchids when I'm watering them. This is just to make sure they all look like they're doing well and some times, you find new growth.

Today, on the Pacific Sun Spot, I saw the start of a new pseudobulb! This is an orchid I got in, I think, 2012. It was a division from someone else's plant and it had 3 pseudobulbs. With the new pseudobulb, it will have 6. I am still waiting for it to flower but I hope this just means I am one step closer to seeing actual flowers!

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!!!!!