Massive orchid freebie score!

[greengarden]

I came home today with my car literally stuffed to capacity with plants, a large proportion of them orchids. When I say stuffed I don't just mean in a single layer, I mean full to the roof(in the back of an outlander), front seat loaded and back footwells full! Someone just out of the blue offered me to take as many as I wanted of the pot plant collection in the yard as the house is sold and they don't want the pot plants! None had tags, some I know to at least genus, a few to species and others will probably always be noIDs. Most were is poor condition but not too far gone to save.

Believe it or not ALL of these plants were in my car for the trip home!


There are:

20 Cymbidiums
1 large Dendrobium speciosum
2 Stanhopeas
1 Brassia (?)
2 Paphiopedalums (maybe insigne but will have to wait for flowers)
3 Thunia marshalliana(one of these is enormous, seen at the back about half way)
Spathoglottis
Maxillaria
a mini epidendrum
2 miltonia about to flower
4 Aussie kingianum type dendrobium hybrids
1 dendrbium species(not sure which one but it is on the original mount with a national parks collection tag attached still)

Plus lots of

Begonias
Ferns
Hoyas
Zygo cactus
Epiphyllum cactus
Succulents
etc


It gets better still, the house has to be empty by the end of the week and whatever a neighbour doesn't want is coming to me, which is still more orchids!

[RosieC]

Wow!

[greengarden]

The real fun comes tomorrow when I start repotting them all out of their neglect, into fresh mix to start improving their quality of life

[silken]

Wow! Sounds like loads of fun inspecting all your new acquisitions! Maybe you should buy the house too so you have a place to put them all

Congrats on the great haul. I'm sure the plants will thank you!

[WhiteRabbit]

Wow! Nice score!

[bellini girl]

Congrats. I love a success story. Have fun sorting everything out. I frequently have dreams of finding unwanted orchids dumped on the roadside because the owner did not know what to do with the plants after they have flowered. Alas my dreams remain unfullfilled. Maybe I should move to Oz

[greengarden]

Actually I pick them up that way quite often! I have a stash of cymbidium backbulbs all sprouting new growths which have been picked up on two separate occasions dumped in the edge of the bush where I walk my dog!

There is a lot of council owned land here that is behind the houses and lots of people throw unwanted plants over the back fence. I have picked up orchids, cordylines, ferns, agapanthus, bulbs and cliveas in my travels plus there are spots where the epidendrums have turned to weeds and formed massive clumps up to 6 or 7 metres across and you just go and pull some out or take some keikis!

[Ferns Daddy]

Very nice score

[greengarden]

Repotted some today. 2 good size Paphs (maybe insigne) and a single growth of a mystery paph. Also put a piece of the insigne(?) on a nice mount to see how it goes. Cleaned, split and repotted some D. kingianum hybrids, cleaned and split both Stanhopea(took a 20 litre tub full of dead roots and rotted bulbs off them), a Brassia, a Ceologyne ovalis and a mystery cattleya.