New From Michigan
 

:waving Hi all new here from freeeeeeezing cold :icy northern Michigan.. Been a lurker for alittle while and finaly desided to pop in and intro myself. I dont have many orchids "YET" but would love to add to my ever growing orchid plant children, yes i consider them part of the family and there my kids.:mrgreen: I currently grow and raise cacti & succulents along with african violets and some fancy leaf begonias and use to raise and grow many carnivorous plants. We are working on opening our hobby greenhouse bizz come spring, since its way to cold and frozen to do any building/construction at this time. So for now all my plant kids are down in the grow room down stairs, i just recently got into orchids and find them not only beautiful but pretty easy to grow and i enjoy them very much. It all started Sept 10th when nasty wallyworld "Cough" Walmart had a bunch of Phals market down due to no flowers and they were about dead, i just couldnt help myself always feeling sorry for such poor plants that could have had a nice home with loving care, so i snatched up 3 noid Phals and boy were they ever in sad shape, rotted roots, sitting in nasty smelly black water in the bottom of there pots, wrinkled leafs, dead flower spikes, and few yellow leafs, so it was off to home to pamper the new kids. After a root trim, repotting in GOOD potting mix that i make up myself and also much love and care they have returned that love with several flower spikess and blooms, 2 of them so far, the 3rd is working on it.:biggrin:
I ended up with another Phal its
"Phal Haur Jin Song X Dou-dii Black Ball, doing great and waitting on flower spike.

I also got
Odontocidium "Wild Willie Wonka"

Then came along my 11 Phal baby hybrids,

L533 - P. Salu Spot X Salu Peoker X Taisuco Kaaladian

3246 - P. Diamond Beauty 'SL' x Taisuco Yukidian'V-3' (I got 2 of these)

3006 - P. Salu Spot X Salu Peoker X Stuartiana

1997 - P. Ho's Fantastic Mirage x {Dtps. Taisuco stripe x Taisuco gaster - equestris

3093 - P. Haur Jin Princess ‘2377’ x Art Kaala-Yukimai x Grace Palm ‘444’

3112 - P. Cygnus 'Regut' x Haur Jin Diamond 'SP'

3268 - P. Yellow Peoker- Ching Her Buddha '250' x P. Taisuco Yukidian 'V-3'

3095 - Dtps. Chain Xen Peral x P. Stuartiana

3023 - P. Haur Jin Princess '2376' x Stuartiana 'Yellow'

CH1983 - P. Brother Girl 'B' x Tien Nong Stripe '2393' x Dtps. Fantastic Idole-P. Hakalau Queen 'ST'

Then came along my 16 young seed cross Catt's
BLC. Oconee x BLC. Crispin Rosales and some others.

Then came along my first Catt flasks :biggrin:
which i have more than 80 babies (LOST COUNT as some of the tiny tiny ones are stuck together) of Blc Magic Meadow x Pot Burana Beauty

Gona be getting few more flasks soon. WOOT!!

My youngest daughter, well shes not young anymore now 22yrs old has a non curable brain tumor she has been battling for yrs now, she loves helping me work with the plants each day as i have sooooooooooooooooo many diffrent ones to take care of gives her something to do and she learns from it.

Heres just few pics of the orchid kids..
I guess i will have to load more to another reply as i couldnt get all the pics in and it says some are to big so i will have to resize them..

Ok gona load few more pics, new to this board and the way you attach pics here.:blushing: My goodness i had to resize my pics a giazillion times just to attach them..
The tiny babies in the round brownish pot were pin dots outa the flask and didnt think they would make it but they have and grown ALOT and the others in there comunity pots have really taken off since i deflasked. In the pics the babies are all 3 wks outa flask, now today they are 4wks out i havent taken pics today will have to do that tonight. The others are young Phal hybrids and then some more bloom pics same ones from above from the rescue adults that they have rewarded me with for giving them such a good loving home.

My Odontocidium "Wild Willie Wonka" has sent up a flower spike and i cant wait till it blooms..:banana:


Im sure i will enjoy it here, you all seem like really nice folks and from what i have read while lurking your all very helpfull..

Look forward to being apart of this fine comunity..:waving
By the way everyone normaly calls me CUDA, my name is Tracey..

Welcome to Orchid Board :welcome:

Some great looking phals there... and wow, all those seedlings. I've never dared try orchids so young (yet).

Welcome to the Orchid Board, Cuda glad you finally decided to join. Looks like you have a full time job there. I'm sure you'll have over 16,000 helpers. Keep up the good work! Let us know when you need us.

Welcome to the Orchid Board. It looks like you have a pretty good collection going there.

Thanks for such a warm welcome everyone.:waving

Heres a link to few pics of just some of the cacti & succulents i have theres alot more now than whats in the pics, i need to take update pics of the plant room as its getting pretty packed now all the racks are filled so hubby has to buld me another shelf under the one back wall rack. This is when we first started on the bigger grow room for winter. All the small tiny cacti on the left bottom rack are babies i raised from seed.

CactiGuide.com // View topic - Plant Room Winter Grow Racks 2.. UPDATED!!! 10/4/10

Thanks for letting me know about the orchid shows Paul ;) Do you know what time and day it is in GR? If i have the funds i will try and make it to that one if not maybe i can try and get to the one MSU's campus in Feb.. Any info on those would be greatly apreciated..

tucker85, my collection of Orchids is not all that much right now, they are addicting.. LOL!! But i do plan on getting many many more. :biggrin: I really enjoy and love the ones i have at the moment..

Cant wait till this winter is over, we have 2 greenhouses to build and alot of landscaping to do. One GH is gona be all cacti & succulents and the other is gona be for the tropical type plants, orchids, begonias, AV's and more..

And this is my first winter growing cacti outdoors under the ice and snow. Where i live our winters can be brutal. If they make it i will be doing more landscape with these cacti.

CactiGuide.com // View topic - Little Outdoor Grow Area Ready for winter!!

WOW! Those are a LOT of Catt seedlings. Michigan sounds like it would be warm compared to Saskatchewan. What kind of medium do you have your catt seedlings in? I have been thinking of either buying some catt seedlings, or pollinating one of mine and getting it flasked for me.

:hello :waving

glad you joined - looks like you are off to a great start!

Thanks Paul for the links,
Thanks for the welcome WhiteRabbit.


TheBlazingAugust,

the potting mix that i make and use is your basic orchid mix with bark, coal, pumice, some peat and other wood chunks i take and grind it up in a old blender i have so that everything is alittle finer and then i add small chunks fur bark, a cup of top soil and 2 cups perlite then moisten alittle and pop it in the nuke for 8 mins to kill all bugs bactieria and then let cool befour using, but i mix up alot at one time so that any extra i have i can zip lock baggie it up for future use, when im ready to use more i always renuke it. Ive gottin use to nuking any of my potting mixes for all the diffrent plants i have as a precaution against bugs bactieria and so forth, plus i bleach soak all pots, then rinse & dry. This mix when watering drains fast, retains the water just long enough for the roots to get there drink and dries very quickly to keep the roots air'd. Im using this mix for the flask babies but i also open there neo grow chamber 2 times a day to have good air flow plus i have air holes in the neo chamber, once a day i mist the potting mix, seems to be working good for them i have great root growth and the babies are growing fast, i did notice today i have alittle algea starting on the potting mix so the babies need more air flow now and will get moved to a more open grow tank. The potting mix i use for the larger orchids is the same as above but with larger chunks bark, coal, pumice and perlite with the top soil and peat.

These pics are from today the flask babies are now 4 wks outa flask and WOW have they grown, some pics are next to my hand for size reff.. I just got done misting them in the pics. The one single pot is those pin dot babies plucking right along and no longer tiny pin dots..:biggrin:

Welcome to OB!

Hi from the Gulf of Mexico

:waving Thanks for the warm welcome everyone i really enjoy it here..