My windowsill gardens

[gardengirl13]

Well the store I went to has four locations locally. We drove down to another location that we haven't been to in about 15 years just to see how far it was from home in case we'd like to shop there more. The produce prices were the same, but some of the other prices were slightly higher, so we'll be sticking to the other location. But wow they expanded!! A LOT!! I went through the houseplant greenhouse to see there orchids and they have the typical stuff the other store has. I went to ask about getting a 6" hanging pot to up-pot my nep. and saw about 6 bruised and damaged orchids sitting there. I asked if they were on sale due to being half dead (She thought I meant the plants half dead, not the flowers and got upset that I thought they were dead! ha ha!) I said no since they're damaged and done flowering almost. She got mad that someone must have knocked them over and broke the stems on the poor things, she seemed to really feel badly about the plants "getting hurt" so I loved that she cared so much! She trimmed the broken stems off and said she'd sell them for 50% off! Excellent! So I got them for only $13 each! I'll take photos soon, but one is sadly a NoID, she couldn't find the tag, I'm hoping someone can maybe get close to the name in the ID forum for me once I shoot it. The other is a Mtdm. Rosy Sunset 'l not sure what that 'l is? I'll have to look it up and see if it's something or not? could be a 1, L or i? Or a misprint maybe? I'm calling her Sandy after my childhood dog as the tag says 11/6/07 on it, and her birthday was 11/6!

And the great thing is I had forgotten about the left over gift card money from the pots so I bought them with the pot money and will use the rest to buy more terracotta pots as the two I have left over are too large for these two, and some more plants. I was silly and got two tomato plants too even though it's super cold for this time of year! They're in the living room window waiting for spring to get here! Any day now right????!!!!!

[gardengirl13]

Well it's time for another update! All the new plants are happy in their terracotta pots. The older ones seem to be settling in nicely! I need to water more though. This spring has been super dry and in fact is drier right now then it was all winter! We put the humidifiers away since by mid-spring it's normally a good humidity in here. Well I'm now misting 1-2 times a day minimum!

Now on for the great news! My cochleata is in spike! yeah! and also my ency alata is as well! yeah times two! And Norman, my psychopsis has a new leaf! No spikes yet but leaf growth is making me very happy! Everyone else is getting more leaves or roots or both! The phals are all but one still in bloom! The schillerianna dried up so I sniped the spike and put her in a terracotta pot since she was in straight moss. Wow! I had to cut 1/2 her roots off due to rot and I was barely watering her! poor thing! She doesn't have many roots to begin with! But I'm hoping she'll perk up and grow grow grow! I want her to get huge!

The purple white orchid is still a mystery. The AOS never got back to me after the first few emails. i talked to a lay at a local garden shop I frequent, they don't do orchids, but she grows them herself. She thinks it's probably in it's lineage somewhere. She said she thinks a true white orchid is harder to find since so many are crossed then the white isn't dominate. Oh well, my husband loves the look of it. He's still so healthy and getting huge! It's my oldest orchid so he should be getting big now!

As for outside this is another story! ugh, this spring started off bad, cold nasty weather, no rain. Then it got real nice 75-80 every day without a cloud in the sky! Everything budded out. Still only maybe 1/2" of rain in the last 3-4 weeks! Everything is so dry! Last night got into the 30's and tonight may hit the high 20's! yikes! My poor hydrangeas and lilacs!!

[GardenTheater]

Great orchid windows. Great blooms. Great growing!

[gardengirl13]

Thanks!

I was just coming here for another update!

Norman the pyschopsis has yet another new leaf growing and what looks from what I can see decnt root growth!

The schill. has nice new leaf growth and root growth!

The cochleata has been blooming along wonderfully!

The encyclia alata has been in bloom for a bit and it smells wonderful!! The encyc prisma. has a new leaf! This one has been s-l-o-w to grow, it's driving me nuts when everyone else is doing so well!

All the phal aside from that one are still in bloom! I can't believe it, the odd white to purple one just threw out a spike and now has buds! Wow, this is a first for him too. Now don't think me insane! I KNOW 100% this is the same plant! Someone locally told me it could be part of the original clone/graft whatever. Who knows!? It's been a fun thing to watch though!

Now for my pots. The terracotta seems to be getting a white mold on the outside of them. I've been trying to keep the air moving but it's hard. I think I'll need to buy a couple small computer type fans to put around. I used hydrogen peroxide on the outside and it didn't help. It still seems better to me the the roots rotting from the glaze on a few of those pots. I don't want to use plastic as these are all out in the house and on sills (as this is the windowsill section- ha ha!) But I'm hoping more air movement will help. I could put the plastic in the terracotta, but it was still get damp and still produce some mold.

As for outside? Well this year has been interesting. Since posting I think it's been severely humid every day but maybe two! I had to throw out a roma plant due to what I think may be a blight due to this weather. The other plants look like they may get it, I hope not! I have a baby pumpkin, the watermelon and muskmelon are not doing too well though. The potatoes are great! The other tomatoes are ok, the cherokee purple has catfacing which stinks! most everything but the zucchini seem to be ok in this weather. I was hoping it'd get better, but this week we're due to be very high dew points and very high temps 94-100 all week! Ugh. I hate this summer! My health has been going down hill due to it! i can't get outside to walk, and my body hates humidity anyway so it hurts real bad all the time. But I know it'll end at some point. I just need to make it through!

[gardengirl13]

Everyone is doing well. The phals are all just happily sitting on their window, the others are doing well too. The cochleata bloomed constantly for months, now is just sitting there with one bud that hasn't opened yet. Norman is getting huge fast which makes me very happy! I can't wait for him to shoot out a spike and flower! The catts are still growing like made but no spikes? I've had them almost a year and they're fairly good sized so I'm not sure. Maybe on the side of the window they're in it's still not bright enough? the ency still has no spike either, but has new leaf growth and tons of root growth.

But now the bad news. We may be moving. Not sure if everyone saw my other thread or not, but it'll be a downsize. With no good windows for orchids. The only really good windows are facing north and the street, which coming from the country with no really visible neighbors to living in a village, is going to be tough I think. The bedroom window has ok light, but with the bigger plants they won't be able to be in that window. I think even the smaller phals may have trouble. I don't really want to grow under lights, so I think I may have to sell off most of my collection. If I had the money I'd do it under lights, but right now I can't for see being able to do that. Any ideas on how to sell them locally? I'm not sure about shipping them. I'm thinking criagslist or local pick up on ebay.

Any local people on here interested just pm me.

---------- Post added at 08:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:38 AM ----------

The better news is the house is kind of shady, so I can keep up the shade gardens, if this happens soon so I can dig everything up in time. I plan on putting them all together tightly for the winter and mulch the heck out them and hope for the best. I wish this was happening in better weather! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Tim P.]

you have a very diverse and beautiful collection!

[The Orchid Boy]

Look into under lights set up. For me it is fun and easy- and absolutely necessary since I live on the north side of a basement. I have 70 some orchids in 12 square feet of space, 39 are seedlings though. The lights cost about $140 for one 4 foot 4 tube T5 & two 4 foot 2 tube T8s that I use together on the same shelf. The shelves cost $50-$75. If you want more info on growing under lights pm me. I've also had a little experience shipping orchids.

[gardengirl13]

Oh it's been so long since I've done an update!!!!

Well the move went very well. Sadly I did lose a lot of orchids. None of the catts or ency made it. I have a cutting of one catt I'm trying to get to get big, but it hasn't done anything since I got him. A little root growth but that's it.

But the ones who pulled through are super happy right now!! I have three phals in bloom, 1 in spike/bud. The white/purple one isn't doing anything right now, but he did bloom this fall which was odd for him. And the schilleriana isn't happy but isn't dying. With the transplant and having to cut off a lot of roots, she seems very sad. No new leaf growth at all. Roots are doing ok from what I can see though.

Norman the psychopsis has yet another new leaf coming and his roots are excellent, but again still not a single spike?! Anyone know what to do with him? He gets morning sun in an eastern window. He's growing just as well as he was in the southern window in the other house. They say to give him more light if you get good leaf growth but no spike. But I'm not sure about that since having him on the edge of a southern window didn't help. Would a western window be better? Problem is as soon as the leaves come on the trees I think all our western windows will be shaded, where the eastern one might not be.

The cochleata might be in sheath again too! He went from 3 pbulbs to 5 since he bloomed last year. So he loves that east window too!

Mtdm. Rosy Sunset and beallara marfitch "howards dream" and the pap laser are still doing nothing. The phap hasn't bloomed since I got him. No new growth or anything. It's one who if he doesn't do well soon will be on the yard sale table. I hate dong that but with the lack of space here I just can't keep him. The mtdm I'm not sure about. I'll have to look it up again. I assume he'd be in spike since he was in full bloom when I got him last april. We'll see I guess. And Howard, well even if he doesn't bloom he was an anniversary present so he'll just be a green house plant. I hope he blooms for me again though!! I hear they will bloom in spring and fall. Again he was bought last march/april in bloom. So to not see a spike right now is making me a bit sad.

Problems with this house: well this is more this winter due to the extreme cold, the humidity has been horrible!!!! I have our humidifier right below the bedroom window which is where the orchids are. But they still dry out SSOOOO fast. The three on the west kitchen window have a humidifier too, but it's farther away. But they also have the humidity from the kitchen, other plants and the small fish tank we have nearby. Second is space. Now if I didn't already have stuff in the second bedroom I'd put in lights and use that room for orchids. But that will never happen! So it's windows for now. My husband said at one point we can maybe change out the two larger windows into bay or box windows and have more space on them to put more orchids. Not sure when we'll ever be able to afford that, but it's still in the back of my head. One is facing north, so we'd have to see if that would be ok for some lower light phals etc... Or we could maybe add a light there too. We'll see.

But here are some recent photos of the chids in the new house!

[LovePhals]

I was waiting for you to post another update and wondering about the new house. Your chids look happy. Give them time on the spikes, since they just went through a big environment change it may set them back a bloom cycle. I think Onc's are pretty easy to bloom so I am sure your Beallara will bloom soon, those are really pretty ones. Your phals all look really good. I do hope you can find more room and spots to put the orchids! I have done the same recently, get rid of the ones that are not a favorite to make room for those that are.

[RosieC]

Looking so good!