My Orchid Garden

I think I can, I think I can…

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I came home from my nerd vacation yesterday afternoon fully expecting to find that The Orchid That Won’t Die had finally given up the ghost. Before I left for San Diego, its big leaf had started to shrivel a bit and curl up around the edges, so I assumed it was truly on its way out. As soon as I got home from the airport, I entered my orchid room and saw that the leaf had shriveled further and started turning yellow:

The orchid that won't die
Yellowing leaf…not a good sign

Then I took a closer look and realized that the orchid is GROWING A NEW LEAF!!

Orchid's new leaf!
New leaf growing! Amazing!!

Not only is it amazing that the orchid is growing a new leaf, I think there may be a new root starting to swell from the root base — you can see a small green pimply-looking thing in this photo:

new orchid root?
Could it possibly be a new root??

If this orchid is actually recovering I might have to declare myself the Orchid Rescue Master. I just can’t believe that this plant has started to sprout a new leaf when it doesn’t even have any roots to soak up nutrients! Unreal. Orchids are just chock full of surprises!

My Orchid Garden

Lots of New Orchid Growth!

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I was checking out my orchids this morning and I discovered that my Iwanagara Appleblossom is already starting to put out two new roots, which is super exciting because the plant was left with only three decent roots after I cut away the bad ones. Knowing the state of the orchid’s roots, I was a little unsure whether I’d be able to nurse it to health, but things are already starting to look up:

New roots on Iwanagara Appleblossom
New roots on my Iwanagara Appleblossom

As I mentioned yesterday, there is a whole lot of new growth going on with my orchids, and I’m so thrilled that, of course, I have to share some pics here! Click on each photo to see a larger version.

Tolumnia root growth
Lots of new root action on my Tolumnia
New shoot on Dendrobium Eama Queen
New shoot on my Dendrobium Eama Queen
New shoot & roots on NOID Dendrobium
New shoot & lots of roots on my NOID Dendrobium
New stalk growing on a NOID lady slipper
New stalk growing on a NOID lady slipper
New leaf on lady slipper orchid
New leaf on my lady slipper “Wizard of Oz” seedling
New leaf on blooming Phal
New leaf on my blooming NOID phal

Great things are happening! It makes me so happy!

My Orchid Garden

My Newest Addition: Mini Phal

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My very thoughtful boyfriend stays on the lookout for orchids for me when he shops at places like Home Depot. Yesterday he was at the HD in Manhattan and picked up a really cute unidentified mini Phal with magenta-spotted yellow blooms (thanks, honey!):

NOID Mini Phal

This orchid is so adorable and cheerful, it makes me smile!

Close-up of mini phal blooms

One of the reasons my boyfriend chose this particular orchid was that he noticed a side spike growing from the main flower spike. Bonus! I may get some additional blooms from this plant soon-ish because of the side spike:

Side spike on an orchid
Side spike

So this plant brings my total orchid collection to 21. Well, more like 20.5, because The Orchid That Won’t Die is sorta half of an orchid at this point (BTW, it’s still hanging in there…amazing).

I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend!

My Orchid Garden

I Haz an Orchid Bloom!

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I woke up this morning to this lovely sight:

Beautiful orchid bloom

There’s more where that came from…it’s gonna be so spectacular!

Orchid buds

I must say, this orchid is one of my favorites (out of the ones that I own, I mean). I bought it at the Union Square Greenmarket almost a year ago and it was in bloom when I brought it home. So I’ve successfully gotten this one to rebloom—on a brand new spike and all. Victory!

Also I want to show you a photo of the new leaf that’s growing on one of my not-so-happy orchids—one that I mentioned yesterday:

I think this one’s status as “not-so-happy” can now be upgraded to “recovering.”

Hooo boy, are my orchid leaves dusty! I’m going to give them all a good wipedown with a damp paper towel today.

Happy Thursday!

My Orchid Garden

My Orchid Rescue Update

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A month and a half ago, I blogged about a couple of my Phalaenopsis orchids that were in sad shape. I write today with both good news and bad news. Let’s start with the bad news first: one of these two orchids now appears to be on its way out.  :/

Dying Phalaenopsis orchid
Not much life left in this one

When that leaf on the right started going yellow, I still had hope for this orchid. But when the leaf on the left started turning too, my hope started to fade. I think I will take it out of the potting mix and see if there’s anything left that can be salvaged but I’m wondering if there’s just too much rot under there. 🙁

And now for the good news: the other sad Phal (the one on the left on the photo, in the green bowl) seems to be making a comeback! Last time I wrote, there was just the teeniest root nubbin starting to poke out of the base of the plant. Since then, that root has grown and another two have started to come in. Even better, which I just noticed a moment ago, the plant is beginning to grow a new leaf out of the top of the crown—a definite sign that it’s recovering after all!

A second piece of good news is that my biggest Phal is about to bloom! There are eight buds so far and one of them is just beginning to open up today. I’m super excited about this one – its blooms are GORGEOUS. You better believe I’ll post photos when its blooms open up!!

UPDATE: OK, so I just realized that the dying orchid is a Doritaenopsis, not a Phalaenopsis like I originally thought. The tag says “Dtps. Sogo Kitty” and for some reason this whole time I just ignored those four letters “Dtps” because it looked like a Phal. Doritaenopsis is a hybrid of Phalaenopsis and Doritis, but they need basically the same conditions as Phals. I just removed the dead leaf and some more rotted roots, and repotted the plant with a mixture of sphagnum moss and bark, hoping the mixture will help it get more air circulation and will rot less. We shall see…

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