I'm a bad bad orchid mommy....

[camille1585]

I've been a very bad mommy to my orchids. I had some serious problems at the beginning of the month (debit card fraud that left me without a penny to my name), and was so distraugt that I completely forgot about my mounted orchids that I had put to soak. Normally they stay in their bucket only 15min or so, but this time they stayed there 5 DAYS.

A few days after I started seeing the side effects of their prolonged bath. Aerangis biloba abruptly shed all of its leaves, rotten at the base. Podangis dactyloceras lost 2 growths to rot, as well as all of it's roots. It's slowly dying now. Then last week Haraella odorata died. And tonight, my apparently healthy Aerangis rhodostica dropped all of its leaves, leaving a rotten stump. Of my 4 remaining mounts, 3 others look like they are on a similar path. Gastrochilus japonicus is nearly rootless and very dehydrated, Leptotes bicolor drops a leaf every few days, and Aerangis fastuosa is barely hanging on.... The only one that looks somewhat OK (though with some rotted roots) is my Howeara Lava Burst.

Now I have to begin the slow and expensive process of replacing them. Some of them I really really miss, like the Haraella and Podangis. And I'll be devastated if the Gastrochilus dies.

I can't wait for this month to finally be over, it's been hell, both at home and at work.