My windowsill gardens - Page 6 - Orchid Board

gardengirl13 · #51 03-04-2014, 12:50 PM

Thanks guys!!

The two in the bottom few photos are scented. The blushy one didn't smell when I bought it, then last year it bloomed and smelled! Excellent! It's weaker again this year, but when I open the curtains in the am it's stronger so it must be more of a morning fragrance. But this year that spotted one smells too! When I got it it didn't smell at all, now it's got a lovely floral scent! Another great surprise!

I do have the bathroom window to use and the second bedroom window to use, both face west like the kitchen, which will be shaded once the leaves are out on the trees. But I worry they'll get more neglected as it's farther from where I water. And I don't go into those rooms as much. Well the bathroom I do, but it has a shutter on the lower part of the window, Anything behind it will get forgotten. I don't want to open it due to privacy. When the leaves are out there might be more privacy, but then come fall they'll be hidden, so I'd rather not fill that space to lose it again. But the other bedroom might be ok. I had all the higher light chids there after moving in and it's where the all died. Not sure if it was the move or the lack of that nice south light. But I guess I could try it again with a lower light chid that doesn't mind it being bright and sunny in the afternoon. (right now the sun hits the window at about 1:30. But there are some shrubs outside that will block the sun once there are leaves. I could put up a sheer on the inside right on the glass, That will help with privacy in the fall/winter too.

Maybe one of the stick on thingys you put on glass. Are those ok for plants?

LovePhals · #52 04-04-2014, 10:03 PM

I would try a lower light orchid in that room and just put up the sheer or blinds so you can adjust them based on the color of the leaves from the light so you control how much sun they get. I am sorry you lost your higher light plants, but it seems like bright light until 130 should be enough for higher light plants. My vandal is blooming in double spike in an east window and my flat leaf vanda is almost burning and I have had to cut back the light. They get sun until about the same time and it is plenty. Maybe it was another factor?

mimigirl · #53 04-22-2014, 02:12 PM

I was wondering if some of mine need to go outside. I live in new orleans and the summers are dreadful. But you have reassured me that windowsill is fine, since mine are in a south window also. Some bloom, some dont. Also glad you mentioned the pots with the holes. I was wondering if ok for all orchids or just some.

gardengirl13 · #54 04-22-2014, 02:37 PM

I'm thinking it was the move that got them. But the few higher light orchids left aren't flowering and should be right now. They're in the kitchen window with a sheer and I see shadow when the sun is on them, but it's not hot, so I assume they're fine. They both have new leaf and root growth. We'll see, maybe they're just sulking right now.

I went to the NYBG orchid show again this year, a present from my husband! Not as fun as last year, but still a good time! An employee asked me how I liked it and I told her and she said a bunch of people have said the same thing as me. I'm still working on editing the photos! My health hasn't been great the last few weeks, so it's been hard getting to editing them. But I'll post a link to my photo page when I finally get them up. But I bought two home with me! I finally got the iwana apple blossom!! I've wanted one for a long time now and finally got it! There were about 6 of them on a table and I called my husband over to show him the smell and as I was grabbing the plant this older lady came running over and tried to grab it before I could!!!! I couldn't believe it!? She was standing right near two others just like it!! Oh well. My husband liked the smell so he approved! ha ha! The other he picked out, it's another intergeneric very nice looking. Too bad it's a NoID, but it's still healthy and nice looking. It had two spikes, one with half blooms half buds, they opened within the next few days of being home. Then a week or so later the other spike all opened. It's putting on quite the show! Again once I edit all the photos I'll post them here.

The apple blossom had one flower and two buds. As the one died the other was opening and now two are opened. Wow they smell from across the room! I LOVE it! Do they typically only have about 3 buds/blooms? As it gets bigger will it send up more spikes?

mimigirl · #55 05-15-2014, 08:33 PM

Well my choices for window space are a south window that gets some sun late morning til early afternoon. I figure if a catt, encyc, paph,& phag bloom there then it should be enough light for the rest. My oncid. is there and two others ,that i cant identify, and do nothing. My other window choice is a west window which gets sun afternoon but i could adjust light with my shutters. Should i move the oncid and the two odd fellas to the west window? There is a show here in 2 weeks and hope to get identification on my two odd guys and purchase several others. Thanks for any ideas!

kdennis14 · #56 06-19-2014, 06:07 PM

WOW, your Orchids are so beautiful. I love how you have them staged. Absolutely beautiful.
Kdennis

gardengirl13 · #57 11-24-2014, 01:15 PM

OK we went to get a pot and potting soil for the bright pink amaryllis I got with the hopes of planting them around christmas for valentines blooming. Well, they think differently and in a dark cold closet they're already about 6" high. Oh well, I'm assuming we'll get blooms around jan, so it'll look pretty then! All the others are either in bloom, or getting the start of growth, so we'll have blooms thanksgiving through mid-jan! The paperwhites are doing well too. I hate them. I love daffodils, but I hate hate hate the smell! My husband says he doesn't smell it much unless he's close so he loves them. I can smell them from across the room!! they're cute, but yuck! ha ha ha!!

So since April I picked up a NoID from the store, impulse buy, it was calling to me! Then today I got a Potinara Memoria Shirley Moore 'Newberry' which called to my husband!! Wow, he's even getting into this now! I was looking through for an orchid for my mom for christmas, she's been watching mine for the past few years and wanted to try one. She's claiming it's got another spike on it, so maybe she's doing well?! She brought it down at the end of the summer and I showed her how to transplant and how I water and gave her some ferts. and seaweed emulsion. I think a second one and she'll be hooked and want more!

One thing I wanted the WORST way. Man I wanted one SO bad!!! My local place I shop had Vandas!! They have never had them before!! Good thing they we're $100!! or I would have bought one. They were all in bud and bloom and looked so so pretty!!!! Man, I still want to go back and get one!! But with the dry heat in winter I'd have to mist the poor thing 4 times a day!! It just wouldn't be fair to have it in the house. The Catt will be problem enough. I did order 4 LED lights from Ray and have two over a fish tank with a few carnivorous plants, and Ray if you see this they LOVE that light!! It is in a west window so the light is keeping them in good light all day, not just in the pm on sunny days. But ALL of them have new growth! I'm trying to figure out how to light the kitchen window for the higher light guys there. None care Catt higher light, but the couple that I can't get to bloom could probably use it. I like the idea of just using the screw in LED lights, I just need a fixture that will work.

BUT the Mtdm. Rosy Sunset is in bud!!! For the first time since I got it!! I did get new mix from repotme and their fert. So maybe that helped?! But I can't wait, by christmas it'll smell wonderful! Of course when I got it it had 2-3 spikes, one broken off, part of another broken, and right now there is only one spike. I'm not sure why, should there be more?

Also the darn psychopsis won't spike for me! I did repot him this spring summer into a better mix, so maybe he's throwing a fit? But he does have new root growth and now a nice new leaf. He is in the second bedroom window next to the carnivorous fish tank, close enough to get some side light from the LEDs. I was hoping that might be enough. We'll see???

The cochleata is still in bloom, she kind of threw a fit too this summer/fall and stopped blooming. She held on to 1 bloom and didn't put out any other buds for a few weeks, but now has another. It did send out 11 flowers though, same as last year I think. But, she is also in sheath!! And another set of leaves looks like it might sheath in the next few months!! So I might have gotten her to full year blooming!

The one phal is on it's third spike since spring! I'm not sure what she's doing, but she's held on to these flowers, with I think 2-4 more buds yet, since maybe august! I have two others in bloom, and I think 6 in spike and three not in spike. The weird white/purple one hasn't bloomed this year for me. I'm wondering if it's going to stop flowering for me. It's getting really tall.

And of course the darn schilleriana still will not spike for me!! What can I possibly be doing wrong?!?!?! She gave me lots of new roots, when I repotted her this summer she had tons, if you don't remember when I transplanted her after I got her she was rotten real bad, I had to cut almost all her roots off. She had a couple ok ones. She did give me another leaf this year. But only one. I thought they were supposed to be faster growers? I won't give up because I love her foliage!

Again, with the iwana apple blossom do you normally get more then one spike once they get going? I haven't gotten much growth in the last few months, nothing above the mix any way. I'm hoping once I figure out the lights then he'll get growing for me. Are they slow growers?

Then the last two, both from the NYBG orchid show, new growth on both, no spikes. Again I'm hoping the addition of the lights soon will help them.

LovePhals · #58 11-24-2014, 10:27 PM

Lets see some pics of the new ones and in spike! I would love to see your light set up. I added some lights to my bottom shelves of my rack and lower light orchids..
Did the Vanda's have tags? If you want one get it from an online seller during the warmer months and add a humidifier so you don't have to mist so much.

gardengirl13 · #59 11-25-2014, 10:06 AM

Right now the lights are not up for the orchids, I can't figure out how to do it so it looks ok and doesn't cost a ton of money. For the carnivorous plants I have those clamp style shop lights with the silver metal reflector taken off and just clamped them to the fish tank, then put in a little shelf to raise the plants up to the light.

The vandas might have had tags, they were hanging pretty high up so I couldn't get a good look. All I saw was the price tag of one. In my bedroom I do keep a humidifier going under the window sill all winter long. It keeps them about 30-60% depending on how cold it is out and how much the heat is on. But most days it averages around 45%. With the vandas I also don't really have the the light. I have no south windows and the west windows are basically all claimed right now. At some point if we can figure out space in this tiny house we may still bring in the rack from the old house and set it up for plants with longer lights. But I'm still thinking if we save for a while we can still make the bedroom window a bay window. That would allow me to add probably 5-10 new orchids there and I would see about doing a shelf above the sill too. With it being in the window more with the bay I won't have the issue of worrying about the heavy curtains we have in there so a shelf would work ok I think.

gardengirl13 · #60 01-05-2015, 03:10 PM

OK I finally got everything set-up and photos taken. These are unedited so not great looking, but you get the idea of what's going on!

Here is the kitchen window with the lights. I just got a fish tank incandescent light and screwed (very carefully as they didn't want to fit well) the LED bulbs in, these bulbs do get quite hot but it's not doing anything to the plastic so I could breathe a sigh of relief there.

Here is the bathroom. I took the shutters out and hung the sheer in this window for privacy and keep lower light plants in it since it's only slightly bright.

Here is the second bedroom with the carnivorous plants. The pitcher plant isn't too happy right now, the pitchers were bone dry when I bought it back in oct maybe, I filled them a bit with distilled water. It's got new leaf growth and a new baby pitcher, but I'm not sure they're supposed to do that this time of year. I hope it'll survive! The tropicals are doing quite well in their little fish tank. The flytrap is overwintering in an unheated closet. Not sure how cold it is in there, maybe 50's or so. I have him in a bed of gravel in a fish bowl, the bowl has water to keep him humid and I lightly water him once a month. He is getting slightly moldy so I might dose him with something to help that. But his leaves and stems are nice and brown and black with a few green left. So I think he's doing ok so far. I'll start getting a little more warmth and light at the end of next month. Then he'll be fully back out by the end of march. In our unheated shed we have 4 carnivorous plants, 2 are for this zone and would be fine just slightly protected, but 2 are for 2.5-3 zones warmer then here, so they're in a sunny window in the shed, but man it's going to be cold! I hope they survive. I bought them when we thought we'd be moving before christmas, but now who knows when that's going to happen. I was hoping for a basement or attached shed or garage in the new house. (long story- basically we are not village dwellers. We love this village and thought we could do it, but we miss our private outdoors. We really do a lot outside in the yard and in town it's just not private enough. The house was on the market for a few months this summer- then we thought we might give it another year or two, just to not freak people out and make them wonder why we're selling so soon after buying, but we just can't. Our happiness and living out in the country is more important so it's going back on the market right before or around spring. I'm still dreaming of my storeybook cottage in the woods! With my woodland gardens outside and a sunroom for my indoor plants and overwintering my outside tropicals. Someday it'll happen!!)

Here is the bedroom window. This was taken a while ago so it's not real up to date, but it's close enough! Then there are the closeups of everyone.

Sadly I've been having some issues. I'm not sure what's going on. But I'm getting bud blast for the first time ever. Sure I've had it bringing new babies home from a humid greenhouse, but I've never had it happen to plants I've had for a few years!??!? It was quite dry for about 2 weeks right before the holidays, so I'm thinking it could stem from that. Also my wonderful rosy sunset only had 5 flowers on that little spike!! I'm so upset! It did smell and was blooming for christmas which was very nice, but it didn't bloom for very long. Maybe 3 weeks. I'm not sure how long they bloom so maybe it is a shorter one, I'm so used to phals. it seemed too quick! I'm hoping with the addition on the light it'll bloom better for me next winter! I'm not giving up on this little guy!! He wasn't overly happy in his new mix, but he's getting used to it I think. If not this spring I might mix in a bit more spag. and we'll see from there.

Not sure the photo limit, so I'm going to post the others in another post.

---------- Post added at 01:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:57 PM ----------

Ok here are some more photos.

Here is the NoID who is on his third blooming this past year!! He opened his first flower I think in August. I was scared to let the spike go since it's his third, I'm worried it's going to stress the plant out too much. I'm not sure. But he held on to 11-12 flowers for 4 months!! He then last week branched for the first time since I bought him, and added a few more buds!!!??? He dropped three flowers in doing so. I hope this isn't some last hurrah before dying!

Here is the cochleata with a new sheath and a possible second new sheath. He just dropped his last flower on the old spike 2 weeks ago.

And other flowers and spikes and buds!

Here is the rosy sunset spike and blooms.

ETA: ok the forum is letting these two photo posts post together, so I'm going to test this and see if I can just add to this post with more photos.

I love catts, but can't grow them in this house. they just die, no matter how much I love them!! But my husband found this guy and wanted me to try again. Well he bloomed wonderfully for a whole 5 days, then dropped the flowers. Not happy! I'm trying to keep him going and see if I can get him happy and blooming again. Not sure how these guys bloom, once a year? Twice? how long the blooms last etc... So we'll see. But I really really want him to do well since he's so cute!!

more buds and blooms

this guy my husband bought for me for our anniversary two years ago. He was picking up dinner in the store and found him. He wouldn't bloom for me at all last year. This year he's happy again and sent up a spike! yeah!!

And now for the non-orchids!

Look how freakin' tall this amaryllis got!!!!!!!!

and closeups of the huge one!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this flower!!

Again these images aren't edited so the colors might be slightly off. At some point I'll edit them and post them in my pbase indoor gallery in my signature.

---------- Post added at 02:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:35 PM ----------

Ok so in looking back the NoID on his third spike had a spike in bud by the end of dec 2013 and by the beginning of jan 2014 he was in bloom and threw up another spike that same time. By feb his second spike was in bloom. If memory serves he was in bloom through May possibly into June. Then I cut the spikes and he threw up the third in July and bloomed in August and is still in bloom on this spike today. As I said he dropped two or three blooms while he branched this spike right before the flowers and added maybe 5+ new buds to the end!! Is this healthy?????

Let's see if I can embed from pbase, I forgot to add that I bought this cutie back in July!! Again he didn't like the transition to the house and bloomed only for a week if that. But he has sent up about 5 new leaves since then so I hope he's adjusting!! I put him in my phal mix to keep him slightly more moist over what he was in due to being in a house not a greenhouse.

nope sorry I guess just follow this link then.
masdevallia claude (oscitans 'often' x veitchiana 'betty' am-aos)