Back to OB after a very long absence!

[camille1585]

It's been a long time (well over a year) since I've been here on a regular basis, so wonder how many familiar faces are left... Not many I'll guess.

I lost interest in my orchids over the past few years, so naturally came here less. Not because I'm not crazy about them any more, but because I was sick and tired of battling mealy bugs (9 year ongoing battle) and completely dejected when they started spreading all sorts of diseases in my collection, both virus and fungal/bacterial. As a result, I lost interest, it was becoming an unrewarding hobby. So now I'm taking the final step and destroying what's left of my original collection, sterilize the growing area, and start all over. I'm saving a few orchids which were unaffected by the mealies, and that's it.

It's kind of fitting that I'm restarting my collection nearly at the same time as the 10 year anniversary of my OB membership- the original start of the addiction! My new orchids will stay on the windowsill at my work until I'm able to declare my home to be insect free.

We'll see how often I manage to come here and post, my life has changed quite a bit in recent years and free time is scarce. To sum it up, 3 years ago I suffered a bad concussion that kept me out of work for nearly 6 months and took over a year to fully recover. I then finished my PhD, then taught horticulture/plant biology to undergrads at a local college for a year, and in May I started a new job the Dutch equivalent of the USDA, working as a scientist in vegetable seed health. The downside- my work is 100km from home, so I'm in the car a ridiculous amount of time every day I'm not a morning person, so I'm finding it really rough to get up at 5:30 in order to beat rush hour...

Bonus of my job- it houses the main diagnostics center in the country, so can have any diseased orchids tested for free, whenever I want. One colleague is eagerly awaiting samples of my diseased plants before I trash them.

That's enough for now, I hope I can pop in here on at least a weekly basis! (And share all the new orchids I'm ordering next week!)

[Leafmite]

Hello! Great to have you return!

[rbarata]

Hello Camille!
Welcome back!

[Orchid Whisperer]

Welcome back!

I sympathize regarding your commute. Four days a week, I leave the house 4:30 am, long drive followed by public transportation, 10-hour work day, if I am lucky I'm back home by 7:30 pm. The things that make it worthwhile are great co-workers, interesting work in the environmental field, and of course 3-day weekends every week!

[orchidsarefun]

Yes, welcome back. There aren't that many "old" members left....
To finally beat the mealy bug curse, make sure you closely check any houseplants carefully. I found an unlikely source of reinfection recently - African violets! They clustered on the underside of the tiny flowers and as part of my eradication efforts, stripped off all the flowers - about 10 plants. Strangely enough the foliage on all the plants was clean/clear and has remained so.

[charlesf6]

Welcome Back! Glad to meet you, and happy about your recovery.

[Dollythehun]

Welcome back, Camille! I hate the drive to work too. Too many semis and orange barrels. Fortunately, I only do it one day a week.

[Pattywack]

Welcome back, good to see you are recovering and jumping back into orchids. If I'm not mistaken, you have/had a nice collection of Neofinetia. I'm new at growing them and absolutely love them.

I hope you will continue to drop in when you have the time. It is nice to see you at back!

[estación seca]

Welcome back! I'm glad you're recovering. I hope you can soon enjoy orchids in your home again.

[camille1585]

For the mealybugs, I don't have many houseplants left either, and the only problematic one is my amaryllis; the mealies love it. But I've put it out on the balcony and it will stay there until it goes dormant.

Yes, I used to have a few nice Neofinetia, but I lost those quite a while ago- they never thrived for me.

My drive to work could be worse; it's mainly highway driving and since my working hours are flexible enough to avoid peak rush hour, it usually takes 1h15min. The thing that gets me mentally is that I basically going from one side of the country to the other every day! (I live-work on a line at the narrowest part of the country). Luckily I work from home every friday, and am arranging use of a room in one of the company houses to sleep there 1-2 nights a week as needed.