Orchid Sunday

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It's dark and overcast now but not cold, 57 F / 14C. We have a chance of rain today through tomorrow. I don't usually water when it's cloudy and cool, so I'll do some cleaning up in the grow area.

Tomorrow is a holiday in the US. An orchid package was shipped to me Monday January 9. It was supposedly loaded onto the US Post Office truck Thursday the 12th for delivery that day, but it didn't arrive. The post office says they don't know where it is.

I ordered a birthday orchid package for a friend in Alabama, also shipped Monday January 9. The FedEx Web site shows it was loaded it onto the truck for delivery Friday January 13. It didn't arrive before the close of business. It will also sit until Tuesday.

[jkofferdahl]

The USPS drives me nuts. Several years ago I odered some plants and the shipper transposed numbers on my Zip Code. Though the address itself was correct, the USPS exploded because of the numbers, and lost track of the package for about a month. I expected decimated plants when the package finally arrived, but fortunately the plants were all Psychopsis, which are VERY tough.

[rbarata]

Here the weather has been the typical for this season: clear skies, lots of sun, cold and frost. The max temp today was 58 F (14 ºC) and min last night around 30 F (-1 ºC).
The polar cold wave that is affecting the rest of the EU will reach our country, although not in its full strength: forecasts of 48~53 F max (aprox 9~12 ºC) and 28 F min (-3~-2 ºC).

That's good for my Cymbs, maybe too good.

My phals this year are giving me a lot of spikes. Let's see if it translates to a lot of flowers. One of my noids has 3 old spikes, each one is growing at leat 3 other spikes plus this years' new one.
My buds of my Den nobile are almost opening, as well as one of my cymbs.
Haven't done much today, watered two phals and nothing more orchid related (except posting here).

[jkofferdahl]

1.22.17: What a great Orchid Sunday! Marty is back and upgrades and repairs are afoot! It's going to be tough to top that!

Here in Georgia it's been a gloomy day weather-wise. Perhaps we've hit 60, but the clouds have been thick enough that it's been dark all day. Earlier this morning severe thunderstorms caused some horrible problems in the southern part of Georgia and they've now begun here. Rain is pouring off my roof and over the gutters in sheets while my back yard is now a shallow pond. The dogs have all decided to tighten their legs and stay indoors for now.

Meanwhile and also in Atlanta, the local Falcons have taken a 24 to nothing lead over the Green Bay Packers. In a way this is a tough game for me. I was raised on football, and Green Bay has always been a team I like. However, I LIVE just outside of Atlanta where the excitement for our local team is huge. I'd prefer the Packers to make a game of it, though. The evening game is a lot simpler for me - Tom Brady is a whiny little bitch and I'd like to see he and his team broken, humiliated, abased, and shattered. (It's now 31-0, with Green Bay threatening.)

I posted a couple of threads about some excitement I'm having with spotted-leaved Phals. I have four schilleriana and two stuartiana plants, each of which is about half the size of a mature schilleriana I also have. When I posted yesterday all of the schillerianas had flowers (few each, but when babies bloom you take what they give) while just one of the stuartianas did, but as of today that second stuartiana had opened three blooms and has a second spike in bud. My yellow Phals hybrids - I absolutely love yellow Phals - are also blooming wildly. Peter Lin seemingly identified a NoID I have as Fuller's Sunset, and just after he did my known, identified Fuller's Sunset also opened, and they are identical. Even the two plants look alike. They sit beside my Phal Little Emperor which has close to 20 blooms open, thus making a delightful little show together at the end of their light table.

Some friends here have teased me, saying that I'm stuck in a Phal Rut. While I personally can't comprehend how having mostly Phals constitutes a "rut", it did get me to thinking. I keep a spreadsheet of my orchids, and just over 70 of my 92 plants are Phals; if you include Sederia and Paraphalaenopsis it's 76 of 92 plants. I've decided to veer off a bit, then, and am planning to build a new light table which will be dedicated to miniature orchids. I'll move my mini Phals there, but there are numerous genera I'm interested in exploring! I have a few Amesiella, Gastrochiluses, Zygostates, Haraella, etc., which seem to get along like family beside my mini Phals and I'd like to expand my collection of these fascinating little beauties!

I hope that everyone - even those in Green Bay and Boston, have a wonderful Orchid Sunday!

[Leafmite]

I just added a few Bulbophyllum and a Dracula to the collection, thanks to Andy's Orchids having a bare root sale just when I was thinking of setting up a ten gallon tank for orchids. From Logees 20% off sale, I ordered two olive trees, another Allspice tree, a Neem tree, and a Cardomom plant. I gifted the last allspice tree and have been wanting another. It is truly amazing what plants can be acquired these days.

I hope you will be alright with the weather. We have been getting endless rain and have much warmer than usual temperatures (50's and 40's'F). I am happy that we are not having snow and ice.

[rbarata]

Here's my belate sunday description...I've been strugling with a tooth pain. It started to hurt on saturday and got worse on suday so my mood was not very good. It happens I need to extract my loyal tooth...until today it followed me everywhere without complaints.
Orchid related just watering some of my orchids. I have an excel table mentionng the last watering date for all my orchids and I have to analyze each one of them to see if they really need it. The wheater here has been cold and dry (comparing with autumn and spring), clear sky and lots of sun...typical weather for this season. The only anomaly were the lower temps during the week, reaching 23 F (-5 C) and some days with max bellow 50 F (10 C). Now these values are gone with max between 50-59 F (10-15 C) and lows around 30 F (0 C).
I really don't like this weather...to me winter is perfect with rain and covered sky and summers should be hot as an oven...this "in between", with sun and cold doesn't make me happier. So I spent most of my sunday at home, in the warm...just went out with my half for a coffee.

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Hope you're feeling better soon.

[Dollythehun]

Good drugs from a good dentist and you will be fine. If you come to the states, I can recommend a great one! Just funning you. Feel better soon! We would love to see the sun in any temperature.

[rbarata]

Thank you, my friends. Thank you!

[jkofferdahl]

1.29.17: A Happy Orchid Sunday to you all! Here in Georgia it's what we call "chilly" at 50 degrees, with a thick but rainless cloud cover. It seems quite gloomy.

Rbarata, I sure do hope that your tooth pain is better this week!

My plants have been pretty active this past week. Several Phals bloomed, including a beauty named Creme de Menthe. I decided this week to put together a new light area for growing minis. The T5 unit is here but I need to install it. By opening up this new area I can spread my other plants out a bit, which is going to help my seedlings, which seem to be getting quite crowded. For this area I ordered a couple Zygostates lunata from Louisiana Orchid Connection, who kindly added a bonus of a Zygostates alleniana. Consider this a shout out to John Nelson! All three plants are healthy, established plants, and the alleniana joins the three I already have; it's a plant that fascinates me! In fact, before I encountered alleniana I had no clue that miniature orchids existed. At some time in the early 1980s I visited Floradise Orchids, in Gordonsville, Va, and Steve introduced me to the plant, which I've grown ever since. I'll include my true mini-Phals in the new area, which will have about 20 plants to start.

The weekend between the NFL conference championships and the SuperBowl always throws me. I can't watch the absurdity called the Pro Bowl, where they don't play real football. After 4 months of following the Game each weekend, I have a lot more time. I may break down and do such things as house cleaning. Or, with any luck, there might be a good college basketball game....

I sincerely hope that everyone else is enjoying their orchids as much as I am today!