The worst betrayal!😉

[Dollythehun]

You all may remember the commercial for a sleep meds with the cats and dogs and the tag line "sleep is illusive?" I should have starred in that. So, my beloved Nathan and I were snuggled on the sectional when I finally fell asleep. I was awakened by the pantry door opening and empty cat food containers being dragged about. Who knew he could open that door?! I can't count the times I have yelled at the Chief to close that door only to find out it wasn't him. However, when I went out to the sunroom to check the orchids, I found my thriving, amazing Rchy. Bangkok Sunset looked like it had been pinked with shears! Was it my beloved Nathan or naughty Jack? Did I leave Jack out for an hour when got home last night? We feed them, groom them, clean their boxes (and neuter them) and this is how we are repaid! I, Yi, Yi.

So, next week the nights are predicted to be in the low 40s. Everything has to come in...to where? I'm posting a cartoon about our weather. Please, no crazy cat lady comments (you know who you are).🤕

[estación seca]

Some of us can't move all our plants inside in just one afternoon when weather threatens. It's good to learn which ones are most tender, so we can focus on those, leaving the hardier ones for later.

Most Cattleya hybrids easily tolerate a night or two in the low 40s F / 4-6C if dry at the time, and it's warmer the next day. Some species Cattleya and related genera tolerate light freezes if dry.

running "Cats" cold

Cold? Something to think about.

Can orchids get too cold?

Do "CATS' go dormant?

What survived the cold?

Cattleya night time temps in California?

But not all.
Cattleya lueddemanniana temperatures?

[Subrosa]

Hot pepper spray.

[Dollythehun]

Originally Posted by Subrosa

Hot pepper spray.

Sprinkled it on but do you have a recipe? Or should I buy it? Also sprayed Listerine on them.

[jkofferdahl]

Forget the hot pepper spray, use Mace. Use tear gas. Use a large, hungry, angry dog. Take your home back from all of those evil and crazed felines!!! I just can't imagine anyone tolerating a CAT around orchids! Or, frankly, tolerating cats. Period!

(Oops, you told me not to comment.)

[Leafmite]

Originally Posted by jkofferdahl

Forget the hot pepper spray, use Mace. Use tear gas. Use a large, hungry, angry dog. Take your home back from all of those evil and crazed felines!!! I just can't imagine anyone tolerating a CAT around orchids! Or, frankly, tolerating cats. Period!

(Oops, you told me not to comment.)

So, does this mean that my Maltese-Poodle mix believes that she is a cat? She is amazing at shredding favorite orchids, just utterly amazing. No one could ever do it better! She leaves nothing at all salvageable when she goes after one (or a few). She skips a few months, maybe a year, then there are incidents every few weeks until she takes a break.

The American Eskimo, now almost fourteen, has a thing for Hawaiian Ti plants. As a young dog, she would actually jump to pull them down when I hung them high up. She knew how to open cage doors. No Ti plant was safe! I haven't had them in years for this reason. This past summer though, she has decided to go after other plants. Good thing I do not grow any houseplants that are poisonous. Silly dog.

Pretty much the only way to protect plants from determined pets is either having a designated plant room or putting the plants all on shelves and then covering the shelves with plastic drop cloth or some other barrier.

---------- Post added at 03:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:01 PM ----------

Originally Posted by estación seca

Some of us can't move all our plants inside in just one afternoon when weather threatens. It's good to learn which ones are most tender, so we can focus on those, leaving the hardier ones for later.

With the number of plants that I have, I have already begun bringing them inside. Some will remain outside until the first frost is predicted (olives, large pom tree) but the rest are slowly making their way inside. I have been washing each one down, spraying each with neem oil and checking the pots for toads (and now tree frogs after one appeared in our home). I start early because our forecast can change quickly and I really hate needing to bring everything inside in a hurry because the forecast suddenly is predicting frost.
The problem with this warmer than usual weather and having many of the plants indoors is that with all the fluorescent lamps on, the plant room is pretty toasty (outdoor temperatures are 88'F). :|

[jkofferdahl]

Dogs are just sweet and loving animals behaving as animals do. Cats intentionally destroy orchids because they know it upsets us. That's an important difference!

[Leafmite]

Originally Posted by jkofferdahl

Dogs are just sweet and loving animals behaving as animals do. Cats intentionally destroy orchids because they know it upsets us. That's an important difference!

Love is blind, isn't it?

[katrina]

The only way to stop it is to not allow a plant eater access to the plants. I'm not sure how you have your orchids set up but if on shelves...you can use Tulle to keep the kitty out. Our one and only cat that liked to munch on anything green was Cosmo and I rigged the shelves w/a Tulle covering. I zip tied it on the sides and anywhere he could access and then had sheets of it over the fronts of the shelves that could be removed (by human hands only!) which gave me access to the plants but he wasn't able to get to them. I used black Tulle...the shelves are black...and it was almost invisible to the eye. I used the really fine meshed Tulle. Cheap and easy to attach to shelves and worked like a charm.

It even worked to keep out our Newfie who had a penchant for eating orchids once in awhile. He could've punched through it if he had wanted to but just having it there was deterrent enough to keep him out. Huey was also the one who would make a mess of the potting mix in our regular houseplants. We had to put lava rock or stones over all our large tropical or he'd try to dig in the pots and eat roots. Goofy Newfie!

None of my other cats have ever bothered the orchids...thankfully. Since Cosmo passed...no more Tulle and they have full access to any and all plants and the most they ever do is rub against a leaf or sniff the flowers. Marley likes to lay on the one shelf of orchids that is near a window...she sits in among the orchids in order to look out the window. The visual is a Torti-girl laying between pots and I can move the pots and she'll still figure out a way to tuck herself in between them somehow...w/out ever knocking one over. Toby likes to lick the leaves of one of our large houseplants but he never chews or takes a nibble.

Jeff - have you ever had a cat? I find it funny how so many of the people who say they hate cats...have never even had one. They aren't for everyone but if you've never had one...you might be surprised to discover that you actually do like them. My husband's boss was a self-proclaimed cat-hater (he'd only ever had dogs...never a cat...and swore he hated cats so he never wanted one) until his fiance brought one home and told him he had to deal with it. That cat is now his favorite...even over the 2 dogs. He LOVES that cat!

[No-Pro-mwa]

Originally Posted by jkofferdahl

Dogs are just sweet and loving animals behaving as animals do. Cats intentionally destroy orchids because they know it upsets us. That's an important difference!

Sorry, but, NO, NO, and No, this is just not true. The Turtle, my basset is an evil dog. She will shred things and did one time pull the new just unboxed orchids off the table. When we leave her home she punishes us. It is sometimes amazing how she can get things off the table. She also likes to go walk about, which lead the sheriff to the door this summer. The neighbors wife said she threatened her oh sorry I don't like to say my dogs would never do that but, I would have to see that one to believe it. The Turtle is afraid of strangers so all she would have had to do was tell her to go home and she would have run off.

She's very sneaky That's the Turtle.