Lets just hope someone flushed :rofl:

Gee, I hate to be a party pooper but;
1. When I got up this morning I looked out the window and the green side of the grass was showing!! Off to a good start!

2. Yesterday, the high was 104 degrees. Tomorrow, they say 80!! Things are looking even better!

3. I have actually made a little room in the greenhouse. Great improvement. Maybe there is room for the plants coming from Tropical Orchid Farm this week!!

4. Can't wait for fall/winter to set in! Should get some rain (or what they call rain out here) since we haven't had ANY since early last spring.

5. Maybe I will be able to keep greenhouse temps where they belong for a few months. Hard to do when temps are 100 - 110.

6. We are surrounded by mountains on 3 sides. A little later on if I feel that I just HAVE to see some snow close up, I will ask my spouse to drive me up there (sorry Ross).

7. I even noticed that one of the fired tomato plants is beginning to show some green again. A few years ago, I went out and picked enough fresh tomatoes for our Xmas dinner. Maybe again this year!! Life's great!!

:cheer:

I should add this free stuff site was advertised as product testing which I have done before so thought it was the same thing but I have not had anything useful from them LOL

oh god don't get me started on the penis enlarging pills this gals got quite a complex! They keep sending me the emails and I cant find mine so I must REALLY need those pills :rofl:

Tantrum thread
 

oh god don't get me started on the penis enlarging pills this gals got quite a complex! They keep sending me the emails and I cant find mine so I must REALLY need those pills :rofl:[/QUOTE]

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:coverlaugh:

Ok.

Here it goes. Sigh.

I hate my Vanda. My large Vanda. My first vanda. LOLOLOL

I bought it exactly last year in October during Baldan's "getting rid of plants nursery sale." It cost me 100.00. At the time, it had one large vanda and 3 keikis attached to it.

I hate to curse, but it looked like sh^t. The basket was all rotted, the leaves were coated in this rust colored "thing," and it was just--well in need of a lot of TLC. Baldan's actually had an entire row of humongous vandas all the way across their back wall--many of which were overgrown and tangled with each other.

Why did I buy it, you ask? (since Maria doesn't even like sheaths much less rotted vanda baskets) Sigh. The flowers were gorgeous!! Deep yellow with red spots. Just gorgeous. I was in love.


I took the vanda home. It took me 2 weeks to wrench it out of its rotted basket. I put it out under my mango tree.....It started dropping leaves.

I moved it to another place--it stopped dropping leaves. Fine. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned it, but it still had that rust like residue on it.

I gave up on that for the time being. I had a surgery to recover from.

I finally hung it bare root--the roots were skinny and dry. So I decided to cut off some of the roots. It grew new roots.

The vanda was still alive!! Not doing much though. Since it was my first vanda, I had no idea what the hell I was doing culturally, so I sort of left it outside during the "winter", except for the coldest days. I read that I needed to water it every day, and unlike in my professional life, I failed to read the fine print--except when it's so *&&^% cold that the water will feeze." OOPSIE.

So, my vanda and I survived the winter months. I noticed that while it was getting new roots (YAY!) no sign of spring flowering. Nothing. Nada. The keikis were growing though. The roots DID NOT look like anything I saw online and in other members' plants--thick fat healthy roots--mine looked like little bones strung along a huge thread. I watered some more.

Nothing.

I think it was at this point I started to hate my vanda. I thought of throwing it away, but those 100.00 flashed in my mind. I read that some people used little pouches of fertilizer and left them there--I tried but all that happened was lots of rivulets of blue. No growth. Plus--the little pouches started to irritate me. I take them off and keep watering.


I develop bad elbows from reaching up with the hose.

I decided I needed to water some more. My granny starts complaining of the water bill. I stare back innocently and contiue watering.

After much agonizing and consulting the only orchid guru I know in person (Roly) who told me, "Your vanda needs more sun," I decide to give it more sun. At this point, my vanda and I are no longer on speaking terms. I'm like, "fine!!!!!!!!!." I decide to let Roly live instead of turning him into fertilizer every time he informs me of his beautiful 2 million vandas in bloom. I think Roly is grateful because I have allowed him to live.

As I'm moving the vanda to a place with "more sun" (which is really a few inches further out, despite Rolando's instructions) I slip from the small ladder (SHIT!!) grab onto anything for support (which happens to be the plant).

I suddenly look at the ground, and my brain tells me, "THERE'S A VANDA ON THE FLOOR!!" I look and the vanda has snapped in two---the three keikis are staring at me from the floor, and the mother plant is smirking at me.

I'm pissed. I want to torch it and make some nice S'mores. I remember the 100.00 and the sea of water I have devoted to it. So, I pot them up.

So now, my vandas (now I have 2) have decided to grow thick fat healthy roots. I cleaned both of them today with dawn soap and a soft toothbrush--lovingly cleaning each leaf. I notice the mother plant has 6 new leaves growing at the same time. The keikis are humongous and fat.

But, still no flowers. Because, I think my vanda hates me. Now I love them both though. Why? I have no idea. I think I'm in love with the "idea" that someday it will give me blooms. This is what I keep telling myself. Maybe I have reached a "zen" place of understanding with living things--it doesn't matter if it blooms, "I am their caretaker." Maybe I am a masochist who insists on torturing herself with lost causes. Maybe it will stop punishing me. Soon.

Sigh.


I think Baldan's may still have some for sale. Hmmmm......they are only 100.00!!

Maria it felt good to let all of that anger out didn't it !!!!! You have to give me one of those keikis and I'll give it my treatment and see if I get blooms next year. If it works you better follow my instructions !!!!!

I always like a story with a happy ending! Well, almost happy ending.
Thanks Maria, for the chuckle this morning.
I hate my Den.!
Al

I felt that way about my cyms, until this year. I was about to throw out out 2 cymbidiums to a friend of mine who has great success with these orchids. I decided at the beginning of the year if they didn't flower they were going out or they'd be left outside, in the hope that we'd have some frost and that would kill them off!:evil:

I mentioned my problem on OB, and someone wrote back (it think it was Camille) saying that fertiliser once a month was the way to have them flower. I went for it and religiously watered them with the required fertiliser once a month, in the hope that it would work. Low and behold, I have 2 cymbidiums, one with 1 flower spike, the other with 3 spikes, all growing with gusto, and looking very healthy! It goes without saying that I shan't be leaving them out this winter! They've earned their winter rest in the warm! The next surprise will be waiting to see the colours, as I can't remember what colour they were, as it's been 2 years since they flowered. Only goes to show that OB is useful, and I can hear my cyms thanking you all!:bowing

Darn Neighbors
 

I can't believe she would do this......

I live in a condo and the lady??? in the condo next to me is afraid she will catch something from my orchids. She complained to the management. They called in a specialist to come in and test my air for mold, odor, chemical toxins, and biological pathogens. WOW, that is quite a procedure. He came in with all his equipment and tested several areas.

I didn't sleep very well for the next couple of nights. :hmm:hmm:hmm

The report came back: My humidity level is higher than they would prefer, and they detected mold spores in the air samples.

Now I need to scrub down my walls for mold, which I can't even see, with an anti-mold product. And I also had to buy an air purefier..... they aren't cheap. I keep thinking about all the orchids I could have bought with that money. :yikes::yikes::poke: At least I don't need to pay for having all the testing done because I didn't order it. The condo management request it and said they will pay for it.

After I finish scrubbing down all the mold, which I can't even see, I will post some pictures of a couple of new Masd plants. At least something good happened this week to cheer me up.

Marilyn

That's too bad!

I hope they tested for mold spores in other condos too for comparison since they're generally found everywhere.

This is why I'd never live in a condo or development. Ignorance and fear rule.

Cheers.
Jim

Sorry you have to deal with this. A number of years ago my condo building had a similar situation. Not involving orchids, but problems with construction defects and water ingress to the building. Unfortunately a common problem in the Northwest. I had a neighbor like yours that was convinced that her unit was rotting out and mold was everywhere and making her sick. Similar testing had to be done and nothing conclusive was found. However, this crazy woman would not give up. She ended up trying to sue the condo association, the building's developer, and contractor. Ultimately she dropped the suit on the association. She was really and truly a whack job. The lawyers involved with the remaining lawsuits finally told her that they would clean up her unit and she would go away or they would take her to court and prove what a nut job she was. She agreed, then sold the unit and left :banana:.

Susan

The whole mold spore testing and treatment biz is just a gimmick to get people to spend money. Mold spores are everywhere all the time. That along with bits of skin, dust mites, fern spores, moss spores and bacteria.

She's sick most likely from the formaldehyde gas coming from her carpet or the various other gases given off by our indoor environments..

I could not exist in a condo for sure. I wish people would be rational.

wow what a pain.

Exactly why I live in the country, no close neighbors too make my life miserable .
There was a nut like that in So. Calif . lived next to a friend of mine every time she saw any kind of bug outside or inside she called the health Dept. and blamed my friend:scratchhead:

That's terrible...what a lonely boring life they must have if your beautiful orchid collection angers them :(

Sorry to hear you're having such a problem, Marilyn :(

my unlucky month of Oct
 

:_(

A couple weeks ago, I was rearranging the grow area. The top part of a clip fan broke off and went flying, hit the side of my giant $30 CFL, and cracked it. Then it hit several of my Dend. moniliforme and broke off several canes on a few plants. Those canes had buds forming on them. One of my moniliforme is in a Japanese Raku pot, which, the fan also hit and cracked part the rim off.

After that disaster, I moved on to another grow shelf to hang some neos against the window. I tripped on the step stool, went towards the window and got my long hair caught on a yellow sticky trap I had hanging. The door bell rang. I had to answer it with that yellow piece of grid paper stuck to the side of my head.:loser:

Things were not bad enough so they had to get worse. I ordered a plant last week from a vendor who I've ordered from many times. I needed a heat pack because we have temps in the 30's F. She was busy with shows and couldn't get a heat pack until this monday. It went out Mon. "Track and Confirm" with USPS online was down most of last night. When it came back up, it said my box was shipped at 3pm on Wed and returned at 4:23pm because of "unknown addressee". Could not call USPS, closed. After much deliberation with shadytrake and psyguy10 in the OB chatroom, I decided I would think up an excuse to get out of part of my 9am jury duty this morning, find the nearest station and hunt down my plant.

Got up at 5:30am today, checked online again. Nagoran-shima had left the Minneapolis sorting facility at midnight and is on it's way back to sunny CA. Relieved that I did not have to lie to the jury office about having diarrhea but sad that my not so cheap, variegated Sedirea had left miserable MN. I emailed the vendor last night and she apologized about possibly not writing the correct address on the box and that she'd replace the plant if it went to Japanese orchid Heaven by the time she gets it. They do not do FEDEX, USPS is the only way they ship. I had no insurance on it. Why? I am an idot, of course. I waited to get this plant since last winter. It was too cold to ship safely then. By Spring, she was out of stock. I waited months for her to import another one from Japan. The positive thing about all this is.....I had the chat room regulars to whine to about it last night during the peak of my "freak out fest". God bless the unfortunate people in the chat room last night and thanks for letting me complain.

Oh Tracy...you lost me at the visual of you answering the door with a yellow sticky trap stuck to your head! :rofl:

ahhh now it is all good ....a good rant can lower the Bp and make it better in general...LOL I love the chat room.

Damn now Im compleatly off topic HUH no rant for the tantrum thread

We except laud and praise here, also. ;)

Tracy, I'm so sorry that you couldn't retrieve it from the sorting center. Well it was worth a try anyway. At least the vendor was nice enough to offer to replace it. Maybe it will turn out okay in the end. Can you tell I am an optimist? :agree:

I have had enough of rain...
 

When will the Monsoon Season end??? :faint:

My orchids are going to grow gills.

It poured all day yesterday and just when I thought it was going to end it started storming harder. :((

I guess some of my chids will enjoy 85% humidity inside the GH, but my fan is going gangbusters.

I need some Sunlight otherwise I am going to have very pretty foliage plants next year and NO blooms.

:nono::nono:

So come on SUN....where are you? :tapfoot:

I checked the track and confirm thing again the next day and the info had changed. It said the package left the Minneapolis facility at 7:59pm that day instead of 12am when I checked that morning. So it was still there all day while I was at jury duty. It's officially back in CA now and the vendor has given me a refund on the plant as I requested. She apologized profusely and is sending me something else in the mail free of charge for all the trouble. So yes, it did turn out ok in the end;)

To all Ranters previous I sympathise! Life can be be cruel and a motto I try to always remember is "That which does not kill us only makes us stronger." It applies to so many things, yet we still need to let of steam ;)

As such, I do have my own little rant of the moment.
Someone is stealing blooms from my garden! :((
A small patch of mini sunflowers came into bloom and were in their prime. I went out the next day and well they had all been picked! The only remaining ones were those that had not bloomed yet.

WHY!?

I'm not a cruel vindictive person and to be brutally honest if they had left me a note I wouldn't be as bothered. They could have even knocked on the door and asked for the flowers I would have gladly cut some for them!
But oh no! Those ideas did not get into their ignorant little minds.

And today! Guess what! Three more have disappeared! Yes I could call the cops, but they have more important things to deal with. If it keeps happening I'm thinking about investing in more spiky plants for the borders, make them think twice at least.

Oh well on with the day.
Rant on!

Oh that is so annoying Triffid!

I like your idea of spiky plants!

OK, so recently we got a letter from the police to say that there had been a complaint about 'Anti Social Behaviour' from kids on our street.

The 'Anti Social Behaviour' was the kids playing football on the corner of the road just outside our house. (There are no rules in the area about ball games so no reason they shouldn't.)

Now let me ask you... how is kids of all ages ranging from toddlers to teenage (the teenages beeing very careful to look after the younger kids) from a mixture of famillies, all playing nicely together, smilling at passers by, moving out the way/waiting when cars or pedestrians are gong past... how is that 'Anti Social Behaviour'!

None of them were my kids, I don't have kids, but I was really annoyed that anyone should have complained. Ok the football has hit our car once or twice and has even hit our house windows (they didn't break) and it's gone over our fence as well, but this is just kids having fun and being kids and no damage has been done!

Kids can cause problems in our area, but why critisise them when they are actually being social and friendly and just playing. :evil:

I have to agree with you Rosie. Seems to me that kids today can't win. If they stay inside watching the box or playing computer games people complain. And yet when they do actually go outside and play (part of the learning to socialise process) there's always some busy body with nothing better to do then complain about it.

I know this is the tantrum thread ... but this quote puts things into perspective ... I has for me many times when I have been in a quagmire of questioning life around me and caught up in the chaos ... I wish to share it with everyone ...

"People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered;
forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
be kind anyway.
If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you;
be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others may destroy overnight;
create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous;
be happy anyway.
The good you do today will often be forgotten;
do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it may never be enough;
give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God;
it was never between you and them anyway."
- Mother Teresa

Please don't let this stop you from complaining ...
Self expression clears the mind ... we need clarity to maintain and care for our orchids! :nod:

I like that Dorothy :nod:

Me too! Reminds you that "People are People", and lets face it if we were all the same life would be awfully dull! :D

Mother Teresa 'knew'!

Indeed! :)

I took my son to an allergist yesterday, to see if he was outgrowing some of his food allergies (peanut, egg and dairy). They did a skin prick test and said that I could try giving him baked goods with eggs in it. I was all excited. I made a batch of choc chip cookies. I let him have 2 before dinner.He was so happy. Then he had really bad stomach pains for a few hours afterward. I'm really upset over this. I was hoping that I'd be able to bake for my family again. I hate that he has to miss out on so much :((
Beverly

Beverly, I think I might be able to come up with some alternatives for you. A friend's little girl is also allergic to eggs but I know she bakes some alternatives to cookies, so I've dropped her an email to ask for the recipes she uses. Once I hear from her I'll drop you a PM and maybe post them in the culinary thread! I'm sorry you've had such a disappointment (and I feel for you - I love to bake too) but fingers crossed there are some good alternatives.

Thanks Nic
I would love some new recipes. I've been dealing with this for a couple years now. It's hard to find recipes without eggs that taste good.
Beverly

Why not no-bake cookies like Rice Crispies Treats. There are other similar cookies that use cereals and something to hold them together, but no eggs.

Susan

Ya know what sucks?
 

What sucks is when you're having a wonderful weekend and then getting a phone call notifying you that you may be a victim of identity theft! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!! :angry:

I'm so ticked off right now, I can feel the pulse in my neck beating :((

I notified the credit companies and cancelled my credit cards but what a pain in the butt :fight

My people experience in the past few days has gone from one end of the rainbow to the other...fantastic Fri/Sat with Linda shopping for plants, great early Saturday playing with all the plants I bought and enjoying the potting of the most generous box-o-chids gift from a wonderful person here at OB and then sitting back relaxing with the pups :cloud9:

Then BOOM! :fire:

That does totally suck! I hope it stops with your Credit cards. It can get real messy! Good Luck

I don't know how they taste but you can check out this thread I did awhile back. I did notice that these didn't have egg's
Pennsylvania Dutch Pastry
Earthquake cake

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...-any-cake.html