I need to go away more often
 

I am just back from a nearly 3-week holiday. I left my orchids in their "summer place" in the front conservatory in our house (same as a "sun room" in the US), although I was wary doing so because it is normally starting to get pretty grim weather wise in Scotland at this time of year. I had my father in law water just once a week just to keep things going, because I didn't want to risk rot if it was cold.

Turns out I should leave my plants alone more often. I cane home to a riot of roots and shoots. This is my little braggy piece so I can show off my "mad skills", which essentially consist of me leaving the country for two and a half weeks.

1. New dendrobium from Ikea. All flowers still intact 3 weeks later, and not dead. I'm calling this a victory.

2. baby dendrobium that I have been trying to get to take hold in SH for EVER. Grew 1 inch while I was away and has new leaves.

3. Ebay oncidium that I got in July, had weird black spot. Made a new pseudobulb and has a surprise flower spike, despite me only having moved it to SH (from bark) in July when I got it!

4. Tiny Twinkle made its second flower spike this summer while I was away

5. SHarry Baby - this is the only one that is sulking. I think it got too dry, so I switched it to one of Ray's pots that I got in the mail. (Thanks Ray)

6. Mini Phal from grocery store - moved to SH as an experiment...new leaf and root

7. Massive grocery store phal - two spikes I recently cut are reblooming, plus a THIRD spike formed while I was away. (I think there may also be a second branch on one of the spikes. Crazy.

8. Grocery store phal. Grew some new buds on its already-blooming spike, plus put out ANOTHER spike.

9. Rescue phal - spikes now have buds and look about to open. What colour will it be!? I think purple.

10. Harlequin Phal - putting out massive fat, juicy spike. Hope it will mean massive flowers....

11. Bottom row is the "in progress" section...all have new leaves and roots, including the black paph I just got off of Ebay.

My plants are trying to tell me something, and I think it is that they want me to leave them alone.

That is great, congrats! I would love to find a wood rack like yours to put my plants on... the search continues!

This one was actually pretty inexpensive...try amazon. I can't remember where this one came from, but it was about £19.

Congratulations! I have found that a lot of my orchids (and sometimes even my regular soil-houseplants) like it when I just leave them alone to "do their thing" haha. Maybe they are just shy! LOL

That's really good! Always nice to see new growth, especially after leaving them behind for awhile!

I also like the stand you have your orchids on. They look so nice on there.

Or...'chids may be saying, please don't go away. we'll be good...promise. See the lovely blooms , please don't leave :rofl:

Well, at least you have someone who can come in once a week to check on them.
I would be gone for months if I had that option! lol
I can only travel for upto 2 weeks, and that's pushing to the limits. all my houseplants other than orchids dried up dead when I returned from Hawaii after two weeks last fall. lol


I love the flowers on that dendrobium in the first picture!
IKEA that I visited here only had phals, both fake and real ones.

I think the orchids you have do not need bright sun much, so even when the weather gets rather gloomy, they should be fine.
If the window area gets cold, it's a good idea to move your beautiful dendrobium away away from the window.

Yeah, I'm actually surprised that we still have this room open, to be honest. It has been a mild fall here in the Highlands. I normally move most of my "chids to an upstairs growing area that has supplemental lighting that I use to extend the daylight a bit in the winter months. (It's like Alaska here...very far north and the sun doesn't rise until almost 10am in the dead of winter then sets at 3:30!). I am just glad I could squeak out a few more weeks of warm weather.

Wow~ That is really high up in the north then!
Great that you have a great space with extra lights for your plants, which I'm sure in turen lightenup your winter!