Orchid Sunday

[Dollythehun]

Do you really want to hear this story????

[jkofferdahl]

Of course we do, Carol!

[estación seca]

I was just reminiscing about Laurel & Hardy.

[Dollythehun]

I am a lot older than you and I barely remember them.

[jkofferdahl]

4.9.17: Hi all, and Happy Orchid Sunday! I missed last week. I had to work and was, frankly, in a foul mood. It often amazes me to observe the level of utter stupidity on display in a public library. It wasn't a great day. I'm back at work again today, and while I'm tired (I had to stay up until almost 1:00am to watch boxing) I'm at least in a much better mood!

After a kind of nasty week, the fine Spring weather seems to be back to Georgia. On both Monday and Wednesday we had severe storms with thunder loud enough to literally shake my house. Two of the dogs are frightened of storms so a good bit of my time was spent being a doggie security blanket. Between the rain and the I-85 overpass collapse the traffic in Atlanta has gone from absurd to impossible. Traffic in Atlanta was rated as the 8th worst in the WORLD before the I-85 collapse and I have to believe that, post-collapse, it is now THE worst in the world.

Baseball season began this week. I've never been a huge baseball fan and certainly haven't been a fan of the Atlanta Braves. This year, however, I've been forced to further deepen and develop a true, seething, boiling, deep-hearted hatred for them. The Braves decided to build a new stadium, and located it essentially in my back yard. There is no way for me to get to and from work without either going directly past the new stadium or 15 miles out of my way to avoid it. This has added close to 30 minutes to my commute. Each way. With the construction came HUGE trucks, too heavy for the local streets, and so the local roads are crumbling from the stress. This causes local road crews to shut down lanes for repairs. This backs traffic up even more than just the construction flow. Meanwhile, the Braves insist that it is the local County's responsibility to worry about the roads (as well as several other issues they originally agreed to handle). So now Smyrna, GA, has a shiny new baseball stadium with nothing but pothole-covered roads leading to it. Oh, and they kind of also forgot that when people go to ball games they tend to drive there. This means they need a place to park their cars. I'll tell you now, if you're coming to Atlanta (OK, really Smyrna) for a baseball game you might want to teleport in because it'll be a lot simpler than looking for a parking space near the Park. I HATE THE ATLANTA BRAVES AND HOPE THEY GO BOTH WINLESS AND SCORELESS ALL SEASON.

(In other sports news, my beloved University of North Carolina Tarheels are the National Champions of college basketball, a position which they deserve, earned, and belong in. If college basketball matters to you then you know that the Tarheels deserve to win EVERY year.)

Orchids, of course, are making me far happier this week. I had one disappointment, however. I have a hybrid of Phal. amboinensis and P. cornu-cervi which finally bloomed this week. The flower was amazing! Naturally, before I could take a picture the flower was gnawed upon by a mouse. I think that all of the mice of the world should be moved to the new Atlanta Braves stadium! Mice and the Braves deserve one another! My Phal chibae finally started blooming this week, and I've got to say that the flowers are delightful. My whole miniatures area is doing well. Three of my four Zygostates alleniana mountings have bloomed, and the fourth plant is about to. And my larger, more mature Phal. parishii has opened its first bloom; with a total of four spikes this plant should put on a nice show.

My orchids both start my day and also end my work day. Each morning I begin the day by watering. Most of this involves the mounted plants, of course, which are often watered two or three times a day. Each evening I again water the mounts following work. This creates bookend times with the plants where I can inspect, watch, observe, and plan. This morning I noticed little buggish creatures in my mini area and so will dust the area tonight with DE. But the point is, the morning and evening routines allow me to slow down, relax, and momentarily forget about the rest of the world. This is, to me, what orchids are for.

To all, a Happy Orchid Sunday and a great week!

[bil]

I spent a couple of hours wiring up a control box for the RO system.

All the damn thing is is two sockets on a plank, a switch box between and a plug to the mains.

Ever hear of the 50% rule? Basically that's when at every turn, if the choice is 50:50 you will get it wrong every time.

I was using scavenged materials from an old project, so I fixed the first socket, only to find I had chosen the wrong one. Strip it down and begin again. Repeat every time there was a 50:50 choice.
Finally, got it up and connected.
Switched it on and nothing happened.
Strip all the tops off everything and gingerly investigate with a neon screwdriver.
Realise that as the plugs here don't have live/phase and neutral terminals, it's another 50:50 choice.
Rewire plug the other way round.
Still no action, but the phase is now at least right. The wiring is so simple that there just isn't anything wrong. Finally, I wonder why there are three terminals on the switch (all unmarked) two large obvious ones, and one small secret looking one in the middle.
Try connecting phase to that, and finally the system comes good.

Spend time looking at the orchids while my blood pressure flutters down to something approaching normal.

[Leafmite]

I was looking at my Dracula/Masdevallia tank yesterday and discovered that my Dracula papilossa has sent up a spike and bud! The Masdevallia amplexa, a serial bloomer, is busy making the next batch of buds and both Draculas and the two Masdevallias are getting all kinds of new growth. The Bulbo tank doesn't have any noticeable spiking action or buds but everything there is sending out new growth, too. Then, to make everything better, I discovered that the fun, candy fragrance that I kept smelling was my new Dendrobium Haleahi Blush 'Lake View' that I ordered off of Amazon. Since most of the Phal-type Dendrobiums are not fragrant and this one wasn't advertised to be, I never dreamed that it would be. I kept looking for something else that was in bloom....

It all sort of makes up for the other orchids who have suffered terribly from the pill-bug infestation (rootless orchids are not happy orchids). The pill bugs are gone but the damage was done. Stupid things! To think that, before this autumn, I actually thought they were harmless and cute!

Non-orchid news...I have a pretty decent breva crop on my mini-Fiscus carica 'Petite Negra' fig trees. This past winter has proven that this variety does just fine under lights. They went dormant briefly and then leafed out and began to pop figs. The fig tree that overwintered in the garage is just beginning to began to get leaf buds.

The regular outdoor fruit trees are probably not going to produce fruit due to yet another crazy winter. No apple blossoms and the other fruit was probably lost in the last two days when we had snow and cold temperatures. We have decided to hire someone to come this fall or next spring and cut down all the fruit trees. It just isn't worth all the effort to maintain those fruit trees if we are never going to get fruit on them. So, we will be left with grapes, berries, figs other indoor fruits and nuts.

[Dollythehun]

"I discovered that the fun, candy fragrance that I kept smelling was my new Dendrobium Haleahi Blush 'Lake View' that I ordered off of Amazon. Since most of the Phal-type Dendrobiums are not fragrant and this one wasn't advertised to be, I never dreamed that it would be. I kept looking for something else that was in bloom...."
Mine doesn't smell at all. 🤔

[Leafmite]

That is why I was quite amazed. It was your post that led me to put this one on my wish list and you had not mentioned it being fragrant! I kept looking at my better scented Bulbos and wondering where the blooms were!
However, this might be a rare event. My old Phal-type Dendrobium that I had for many, many years was rarely fragrant but most of the time bloomed with no fragrance at all. These are clones so it is highly unlikely that one is fragrant and the other is not. Sigh.

[Dollythehun]

Leafmite, it is a beautiful plant. You're going to love it anyway!

---------- Post added at 04:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:14 PM ----------

Well, we both have been sick this week. I have coughed so much my ribs hurt. Hopefully we are on the uptick.
Like Salixx, I made a good haul this week: three plants from H&R and four from Lowe's. There's a couple I have never even heard of. Lots of new buds and roots and a few spikes, so that part of me is happy.