Blooming Right Now – XV November 9, 2009

The last few  months were pretty quiet on the orchid front. Three orchids bloomed recently or are still in bloom. I was surprised that our Potinara Ahchung yoyo bloomed again; it’s the third time in about 18 months. The fact that it bloomed again was all the more surprising when I discovered there was a fungus growing in its pot. It was white and somewhat resembled cotton, definitely not a good thing so I re-potted it after the blooms fell off.

I took the Haraella odorata out of its terrarium a month or two ago because it was too humid in there and buds kept dropping off. Now that it’s on our shelves under lights and in lower humidity, it bloomed.

Finally, my Brassio laelia cattleya Zauberflote ‘Rainbow’ orchid graced us with a large beautiful bloom. Its possibly been two years since it bloomed. Its the largest potted orchid we have and the new growth is close to tipping the whole thing over.

Blc. Lawless Zauberflote ‘Rainbow’

Potinara Ahchung yoyo

Haraella odorata

Orchids in Literature November 6, 2009

A couple weeks ago I finished a novel called The Disorder of Longing by Natasha Bauman. I really enjoyed it and wished I had recommended it to my book club because it would’ve generated great discussions. The novel is about a young woman, Ada Price, living in the early 1900’s who is constrained by women’s role in society and her husband’s expectations that she simply be a “good wife.” When she goes for a walk in the town’s plaza by herself and when she has lunch with her servants, her husband starts a list of her misbehaviors, which he ultimately uses as evidence of her “hysteria.” At the same time that Ada is growing more frustrated by the suffocating boundaries of her life, her husband takes an interest in orchids and builds a greenhouse for his collection. Ada is enticed into the world of orchids and even secretly buys a vanda.  When she gets home with it, she realizes she can’t keep it anywhere her husband will see it, so Ada makes her servant girl keep the vanda in her room.

Orchids are not the focus of this novel, but they help illustrate how repressed the husband is in contrast with the orchid’s flamboyant and exotic nature. They also represent the unrestrained beauty, sensuousness, and freedom that Ada longs for. She eventually runs away to Brazil to try her hand at orchid hunting, but disguised as a man. While this allows Ada more independence than she’s ever experienced before, she still has to hide her female identity, which is another form of restriction and denial of self. I really liked this book and appreciated how the author brought the world of early 20th century America and that of the orchid hunter to life. I wished the ending offered a more clear resolution to Ada’s crisis of identity and gender roles, but perhaps that wasn’t possible in real life either.

 

Watch Our Garden Grow! September 24, 2009

In early August, we found out a plot was available in our local community garden. The plot is 9′ x 5′ and is in the inner sunset where we get a lot of fog and cool weather. The soil in our plot was very rocky so we spent about 6 hours sifting out the junk and adding in compost to prepare it for planting. The garden is organic, so we don’t use commercial fertilizers or pesticides.

Since it was a little late in the summer planting season, the starter plants we found at the Berkeley Horticultural Nursery were primarily greens: mixed lettuces, swiss chard, collards, kale, leeks, green onions, and basil. Later, we found a few more starters at Sloat Garden Center in the city, including cardoon, spinach, and broccoli. By about August 8, we had put our plants in the ground and selected radishes, carrots, bush beans, and cabbage to grow from seed.

After our initial planting, we let a few warm days pass before going back to water. Unfortunately, we lost several of the lettuces and chards. Since then, we’ve been watering about every 3 days. The compost we used, which is generated in the garden, was full of nasturtium seeds and all kinds of other weeds apparently, because we’ve had to pull up lots of new growth during each visit. Today, Nathaniel suggested that in the future we use a sheet of black plastic over the plot to keep the weeds at bay. I don’t mind the weeding though; it’s the type of work that has a tangible result, unlike a lot of other things we do these days.

The radishes developed quickly so we’ve harvested several in the last week or so. Unfortunately, there are little grubs that love to eat the radishes and they’ve beat us to the punch at least half the time. We also have to check for and remove butterfly eggs and caterpillars off the backside of the greens. In spite of all that, I’ve collected some spinach, chard, and kale so far. Harvesting and cooking vegetables from our own garden is very satisfying!

initial planting

6 weeks of growth

lettuce

radishes

Tea Cup Planters September 17, 2009

Several months ago we checked out the Flora Grubb nursery in the city and I saw some cute succulents planted in beautiful new China cups. I thought the idea was adorable and mentally filed it away. Then about three weekends ago we happened to walk by a garage sale in our neighborhood. I almost never visit garage sales because we have enough ’stuff’ as it is. But we walked in and found a bunch of well-worn China tea cups and saucers. I picked out around 15 mismatched pieces and asked how much they wanted – it turned out to be a steal at $2!

The next weekend I found a variety of little succulents at Plant It Earth and Three Bees Nursery. I also did some research to find tips for growing plants successfully in tea cups. These were the suggestions that I came across and I’m following so far:

• place a thin layer of gravel or pebbles at the bottom of the cup (helps with drainage)
• water sparingly (1-2 tbsp a week or use an eyedropper)
• avoid direct sun
• use small plants like succulents, violets, or mini-ivy

I also added a thin layer of pebbles on top of the soil for cosmetic purposes. It helps the plants look more ‘finished’. If you are using a sturdier kind of planter, you can try drilling a hole in the bottom for drainage, but the China seems much too delicate.

I’ve placed the tea cups and saucers on a little plant stand in our living room and I think they’re super cute! They would also make great gifts. 

succulent

succulent

succulent

succulents on plant shelf

Blooming Right Now – XIV August 24, 2009

I had a big hurricane vase stuffed in a cabinet that I was ready to get rid of until Nate wisely decided to re-purpose it for orchids. At the March POE, he was looking for orchids that might do well in it and decided on a Spiranthes Odorata (aka Fragrant Ladies’ Tresses). Spiranthes is a terrestrial orchid that usually grows in marshes or wet grasslands, so he planted it in soil and keeps it fairly moist and in a sunny window. It seems like the plant is happy because its grown a lot of new leaves and developed four flower spikes. I’m attaching a few photos so you can see the vase and how the developing buds slowly unfolded from the asparagus-like tips. The scent is really muted so far, even though we were told it would smell up the whole room. The flowers remind me a lot of the jewel orchid blooms in that they are small, white, and snout-shaped.

Spiranthes Odorata in hurricane vase

Spiranthes Odorata buds

Spiranthes Odorata blooms

Monterey and Georgia August 14, 2009

So these photos are about six to eight weeks old, but I feel like getting them out there. For our wedding anniversary this year, we spent a long weekend in Carmel and Monterey. On a hike around Point Lobos, we got remarkably close to several animals. There were seals and sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks, but we also stood about 18 inches from a tiny bunny that could’ve easily fit in my palm. In fact, Nate had to specifically instruct me not to pick it up.

Further around the point, we stood at the edge of a cliff where we could hear a clacking noise. Something made me wonder if it was an otter and soon enough it came into view. He was diving down to catch crustaceans and then coming back up and smashing them against a rock laid on his stomach before gobbling them up.  It was a very cool sight to see. He was far enough away that the camera couldn’t pickup much, so the photo below is from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We also briefly saw quail at Point Lobos and several deer that didn’t seem to pay us any mind.

After the 4th, we went to South Georgia for a family visit. We were blessed with warm weather, rather than sizzling heat and humidity. The blueberries even lasted long enough for us to get there and pick them. The figs were still green when we arrived, but somehow they were ripe four days later. Lucky for us, we got to enjoy baking a blueberry pie, making blueberry sauce (aka, jam that didn’t set) and fig preserves!

I happened to spot a lone pitcher plant near the road and on someone’s farm. We also saw cotton fields full of cotton flowers in pink and white.

blueberries

bunny

cotton

deer

pond overgrown w/ lilies

otter

picking figs

pitcher plant

Point Lobos

seahorse

Wild Kingdom August 3, 2009

The animal kingdom showed us its merciless side on our visit to the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden this past weekend. More about that in a moment…

We walked around the California section of the gardens, much of it for the first time, and saw a lot of dried out plants that were probably very nice in the spring. We’re familiar with their pleione orchids that bloom outside in the spring, but we also discovered that they have some Epipactis Gigantea too. All of the blooms were gone and some seed pods were present. Later in our exploration, we found they also have Bletilla Ochracea growing in a couple spots outside. One specimen was quite large and full of blooms.

At one point, Nate spotted a small red fox ahead of us on the path. The fox let us watch him briefly before trotting off but I wasn’t quick enough with the camera.

On our way down to the Japanese garden and pond, we saw a large yellow and black-striped dragonfly that turned out to be eating a bee! This was a hint of things to come… As I’ve mentioned in my blog before, there are newts that mate in the pond in the spring. There were still some newts in the pond along with some tadpoles and garter snakes, mostly hiding out among the lilypads. Spellbound and with the camera handy, we watched a garter snake attack a baby newt by biting its hind parts! We actually saw it drag the newt out of the pond and onto dry land where we figure it had an easier job of swallowing the poor newt.

Blooming Right Now – XIII July 16, 2009

June and July were big months for blooming orchids at our house. And I’m really behind on posting pictures!

We’ve owned a Leptotes Bicolor for probably two years now and we’ve seen it start developing buds many times, only to watch them wither. Finally about four buds made it to the blooming stage, each about a week apart. I don’t know why the blooms didn’t make it the previous times, but we were happy to see blooms on it for the first time.

One that snuck up on us recently was a Neofinetia. We’ve had it for at least 18 months and its grown a lot of new foliage and roots in that time. It managed to send out a delicate white bloom before we even noticed it was doing anything and a second flower quickly followed.

Another sobralia also flowered briefly last month. Still don’t know the name or cross but it was a lovely buttery color with a finely ruffled lip. It actually put out a second bloom last week while we were out of town, so we only got to the see the wilted flower.

Our Schoenorchis Fragrans put out two big racemes of flowers this time but for some reason, no scent!

 

Blooming Right Now – XII June 5, 2009

We have a nice set of blooming orchids right now and another couple that are developing buds. Last weekend I noticed that a sobralia of ours had a bud, which was somewhat surprising since it’s got a bad case of thrip that I’ve been trying to treat. The bud opened a few days ago and wilted within 36 hours, clarifying once and for all whether it was of the ephemeral type. We have three sobralias of varying sizes from an Orchid Society raffle and meeting last year where Bruce Rogers was speaking. This is the second plant to successfully produce a bloom. Unfortunately, the tags they came with only had 4-digit #s and no names.

Nate’s Ascocentrum Christensonianum is also blooming again. We aren’t absolutely certain about the species because we misplaced the tag, but it’s sure a close match visually for christensonianum. On a related note, I’m embarrassed to admit that one of my orchids that I’ve been calling a vanda forever is actually an Ascocenda. It’s the only one of my ‘vandas’ to ever bloom for me, so maybe the different genus actually has something to do with that!  This year it bloomed about 2-3 weeks earlier than in the past and with more flowers – eight this time.

The last two bloomers are from this week’s Orchid Society raffle. The Orchid Zone donated them to the raffle without name tags.

 

Sobralia

Ascocentrum Christensonianum ?

Ascocenda Princess Mikasa

Lycaste

Miltoniopsis

June SF Orchid Society Meeting June 5, 2009

This week we attended the SF Orchid Society Meeting and saw some beautiful orchids on the share table. I couldn’t find or see the name tags on a couple of them, but I also had a hard time confirming the names of others that were labeled. It’s an odd feeling when no one else on the internet seems to have a photo of a particular orchid… or they’re calling it by another name.

The evening’s speaker was Samantha Kha from The Orchid Zone in Salinas. She shared a slideshow of over 250 photos from their greenhouses.  She and her husband, Terry Root, specialize in hybridizing orchids and only do wholesale. In fact, they don’t even have a website, but apparently it hasn’t prevented them from developing esteemed reputations in the orchid world.

My husband stayed for the evening raffle and won a beautiful Miltoniopsis and a Lycaste. I’ll include them in my next post.

 

Bulbophyllum Annamense ?

Dryadella Edwardia ?

Epigenium Lyonni

Epipactis Helleborine

Masdevallia Sunset Jaguar ‘Sunset Giraffe’

Phalaenopsis Sweet Memory ‘Bubbles’

Thunia Gatronensis ‘Adalai’ ?

unknown

unknown