My orchids have, sadly, been rather dormant ever since we moved into our current apartment at the end of last June. The “orchid room” window faces southwest rather than south like it did in our last apartment, so the light isn’t quite as bright here. There has been a fair amount of new leaf, root, and pseudobulb growth, but spikes are another story. So I was thrilled at the end of March to discover a spike on my NOID Oncidium that last bloomed for me two years ago! If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you might already be aware of this development.
The spike was hiding inside the folds between the leaves and the pseudobulb, and it was a little bent but still totally viable. It was about an inch and a half long by the time I found it.
Happy New Year, everyone! I have to say, I am so glad to see 2014 go. The second half of the year was not the best. Despite some really fun stuff (Comic-Con, our honeymoon), July through the end of the year also involved an inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis for me (fun times…but it’s ok—I’m actually doing well right now), family drama, and plenty of stress to go along with it. All of which also left me less than motivated to blog, so that’s partly why you’ve seen fewer posts from me. Needless to say, I was thrilled when the clock struck midnight on Wednesday because it signaled a fresh start.
On a lighter note, though there’s not a whole lot going on with my orchids at the moment, I do have one Phal that’s about to bloom (YAY!) and a second one whose spike is coming along nicely:
Just about a month ago, I posted about a couple of my Phals that were beginning to spike. Well, when I was watering my orchids this week I found THREE more Phals with spikes starting to poke out!
The first is a pretty creamy white-and-burgundy harlequin Phal, whose spike has that telltale mitten shape:
Ohhhh, I’ve been so terribly neglectful of you, my little orchid blog. Not only that, I’ve also been a bit neglectful of my actual orchids, which I feel even worse about. This summer and fall have been ridiculously busy, much more so than a typical few months for me. I had a period of time when I was only home on weekends a couple times within a couple months. For a homebody such as myself, that was pure insanity.
But I’ve finally been able to get some quality time at home and some quality time with my orchids. Now I’m excited to say that this weekend while watering I discovered not one, but TWO Phals with a spike! It’s definitely the right time of year for these to start appearing, with the cooler nighttime temperatures that we’ve been having in Brooklyn.
Spike # 1 is on my peloric Phal that I got at Home Depot several years ago. It spiked and bloomed a couple years in a row for me, but it didn’t bloom at all last year so I literally gasped with surprise when I spotted this burgeoning spike:
My mom’s beautiful, fragrant Brassavola nodosa in bloom over Thanksgiving
Exciting things are afoot here at Brooklyn Orchids. First and foremost, I’m happy to announce that I’ve finally switched over to my own my boyfriend’s website host, which will allow me a lot more flexibility in customizing my site. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, and with the help of my wonderful boyfriend (thankyouthankyouthankyou my dear!!), the time is now.
What does this mean for you as a reader? So far, not much, but you can expect to start seeing some changes here and there. I’m not very well versed in web tech stuff, so it’s going to take me awhile to figure how to do what I want to do around here. In the meantime, if you see anything weird going on with my blog, please don’t hesitate to comment and let me know!
The next announcement I have is that the Brooklyn Orchids 2013 Calendar is now available in my Zazzle store! The calendar is $23.00 and includes twelve months of my original orchid photography, mostly from my visit to the Orchid Show this past spring. It makes a great holiday gift for the orchid fiend in your life (and a great gift for yourself, of course!). I’ve also added a bunch of great new products to my store, including a variety of orchid iPhone cases, iPad cases, Kindle cases, and aluminum water bottles. I’m going to be adding even more products to the store soon. If you have any requests for a specific orchid photo of mine on a particular product, please let me know!
I have some new developments to write about since my last post about the nice surprise I woke up to almost a month ago. Since then, all of the buds on that Oncidium have opened up, and the plant has a lovely spray of lightly fragranced blooms:
