I hit the free orchid jackpot!

[natasha]

good deal! being nice to strangers does sometimes give handsome reward. keep up the good work huh

[Keltera]

Lucky duck! Haha now i want more orchids!

[quietmorning]

How lucky is THAT, Greenbean??!! That's great!! Send a little bit of luck my way, will ya?!

[SP2340]

Awesome, congrats!!!

[greenbean]

I have been extremely fortunate. This makes up for the job helping someone in their private orchid greenhouse that I missed out on. Well, that's another story, but to sum it up, that lady was just too flaky. It wasn't worth the run around she was giving me.

But now I have plenty of my own orchids to care for! Thanks for all the responses. Dave, thanks for the advice on shipping. I've never had anything like this happen to me before and I was at a loss as to what to do!

I'll try to get pictures up this week, since I'm going on a trip next week. Be warned, my internet connection is so slow that it may be a struggle for me to post the pictures. And I'll get an ad up in the classifieds. I'm so excited! My first ad on OB!

In the meantime, here's the names of the 4 that had tags, so you can search them and see the flowers. That's what I did as soon as I got home with them.

Brassia Eternal Wind 'Hawaii' -couldn't find an actual picture of this one, but I did find Eternal Wind 'Summer Dream'. It's going to be hard to give this one up, but it's so big that I don't think I will have room for it, especially with more orchids on the way.

Dendrobium Klassic Red

Dendrobium Tropic House

Degarmoara Flying High 'Stars N Bars' -I'm keeping this one and repotted it today. What a mass of roots! The lady who gave me these was told not to take them out of the lava rock they were growing in, so she hasn't repotted some of them in 5 years (she kept them that long, but didn't know enough about their care to rebloom them, thus the free giveaway. Hopefully I'll have better luck ) Anyways, I wasn't quite sure how to go about repotting something like this and didn't exactly have lava rock, so I clipped off a few brown roots that I saw on the outside, stuck it in a pot one size up, and filled in with pumice and some red rock that is porous, just not as much as lava rock. I'll see how that works out, I suppose. If I run into trouble I know I've got lots of people to ask here!

Meanwhile my parents are exasperated with me and are probably trying to figure out how to exorcise the orchid bug that has possessed their son and is slowly taking over their house!!

[quietmorning]

Originally Posted by greenbean

Meanwhile my parents are exasperated with me and are probably trying to figure out how to exorcise the orchid bug that has possessed their son and is slowly taking over their house!!

My husband is getting a little exasperated with my orchid 'plans' . . . I told him I 'could' collect CATS. . .or lots and lots of dogs!! Heh. . .he hasn't mentioned his 'take over' fears since.

I'm about to start volunteering to help a woman who owns her own orchid business, her husband recently died, and she's all alone trying to manage herself. Hopefully she won't be flaky - we have a lot in common so far, and I think she could really use the help. **crosses fingers**

[greenbean]

HAH! That's too funny, Beth! My mom was just saying to me the other day, "Now son, if you worked at a pet store and you brought home a new pet everyday like you bring home plants, what would this place look like?"

Of course plants are much more well-behaved than pets (usually) and MOST of them smell a lot better and don't leave as much of a mess as pets. It was pretty easy to undermine her analogy and take the blustering wind out of her sails.

That's unfortunate about her husband, but a lucky opportunity for you. Since she has an actual business, not just a hobby greenhouse, she probably won't be so flaky about any help that's offered. Good luck and keep us posted. I'll be interested to hear about your experiences!

[camille1585]

If I had been you, I also would have kept the Degarmoara, it's a great looking orchid! I also like the Den Tropic House, the colors are nice. And the Brassia. Heck, i would keep em all!

My mom feels the same way about me bringing home orchids and plants all the time from the various garden centers and nuseries were I've worked. She complains that the apartment looks like a jungle, and that I have too many orchids! (too many, is that possible? I only have 48!)

[greenbean]

You can never have too many orchids!

I'm not really into the big dendrobiums, so they aren't hard to give up, but that Brassia is calling out to me: "Save me, Evan, save me!"

I think I may be too weak! I'm going to keep the Brassia, at least until something better comes along and I have to make room! It really is a monster. It's going to be tough making room for it. But I'll find a way!

Anyways, here's pictures of the orchids that I've received so far. They're all potted in lava rock. I haven't unpotted the dendros, but they look like they have good roots. The Brassia, not so much. Hopefully they load properly.

First is the NOID Dendro.
027.JPG

Here's Den. Klassic Red
028.JPG

Den. Tropic House
029.JPG

Brassia Eternal Wind 'Hawaii', and a view of just how bad the roots are, but as you can see there are new roots showing, and there are more from the other new growths around the plant:

030.JPG
031.JPG

And finally, Degarmoara Flying High 'Stars N Bars'
034.JPG

Crossing my fingers hoping that these show up! Please let me know if they don't load properly.

[natasha]

maybe you can keep them first, coax them to health then sell or trade it if you don't have anymore space for it...