Beallara Peggy Ruth Carpenter'Morning Joy' AM/AOS

[silken]

My Beallara Peggy Ruth Carpenter 'Morning Joy' is finally making a comeback after I nearly killed it a couple years ago. It is the first orchid I got back in 2007 when I started growing orchids. It bloomed several years for me and then it got root rot and nearly died. It only has 1 spike with 4 buds, 2 of which are further behind these first two. So hopefully it will become stronger and larger in the future. I'm just glad to see it blooming again!

I also found a way to have this type of orchid in the house to enjoy the blooms without my cat shredding the leaves. I rub a bit of olive oil on the leaf tips and then put a bit of cayenne powder on the oil. It doesn't seem to bother the plant and has worked now for about 4 orchids since I have been trying it. I wipe it off when the blooms are done and it goes back to the greenhouse.

[WhiteRabbit]

Beautiful blooms, and a great save! Good tip about the oil and pepper to deter the kitties, too!

[bellini girl]

Lovely, glad you were able to save it. Olive oil and pepper huh? and it's eco friendly to boot. Way to grow

[silken]

Thanks for looking White Rabbit and bellini girl! My cat is a holy terror so I am glad to have found anything that works! At first I was worried he would get some cayenne up his nose and have an allergic reaction or something but he was fine and I KNOW he would have checked it out!

[billc]

That's a real nice color.

Bill

[silken]

Thanks Bill. I got a new camera recently and I find the white balance is much more accurate than my old camera. This photo is pretty true to the real colour.

[Bud]

Lovely flower. I like the color and form....your story proves that a plant can recover if you put your mind to caring for it....