§ February 5th, 2011 § Posted by YC in garden § No Comments
I suddenly got the itch to do some plant/garden-related stuffs, so this is just a note in the “lab book”, so to speak. In writing this, I realize I did “move” my gardening thoughts here from LJ. Need to find some prettier “stationery” to style the garden-related posts.
Orchid Patient 1. Some time ago, I bought a $10 phalaenopsis orchid from Fred Meyer. With 20/20 hindsight, I really should have taken a photo of the blooms, but who knew the plant would rot that fast?! They were a pale cream, with pink to dark red streaks in the center, with a touch of yellow and green. Quite pretty. Anyway, I was about to throw it out after it’d clearly suffered from root-rot, but when I was pulling the rotten roots off (baggy sheathes around hard stringy cores), I realised it still had some good aerial roots and the stem of the last remaining leaf was still firm. Maybe it was salvageable after all? So I let the potting medium dry out completely (but threw out the stuff that had mold and white flies on it), wrapped a wet paper towel around the base of the orchid, and plopped it back on to the pot it’d come in. Every once in awhile, when I remembered, I’d water the paper towel and spritz the aerial roots. Somehow, with that kind of sporadic care, it managed to hold steady with one, wilty floppy leaf, and a few good looking roots. I found a post on the internet tonight about soaking plants in sugar water overnight to rehydrate the floppy leaves. I figure I have nothing to lose by trying… so I snipped off all the rotten roots that were still attached by the wiry cores, cut the dessicated bloom stalk and soaked it in ~2.5cu of water with 2 tsp of sugar. We’ll see how it looks tomorrow morning. I may have to go out and get some sphaghnum moss – ie, the spag and bag method. 
Orchid “Patient” 2. This was more of a salvage than a save. Right before the winter holidays, I found a really large orchid thrown into the women’s restroom trash bin at work. It was in perfect shape (fat, firm roots and glossy leaves) except that the 2.5 ft tall bloom stalk was done flowering. Even the previous potting medium was still molded around the roots. (I wasn’t going to go dig in the trash for the pot, as I had pulled it out by the stalk.) Free orchid, right? Anyway, I took it home (whereupon FH promptly crushed one of the leaves in the car with his work satchel) and plopped it into a pot that held another orchid (that I didn’t get around to reviving), which fit perfectly. I’ve been watering it sporadically, and it’s a pretty happy plant right now. I have hopes that it will spike in the next year and tell me what sort of blooms it makes.
Of course, I still have one of the two orchids we bought at the Flower and Garden show three or four years ago. It is on its third reflowering season (there’s only a two month window to repot between the last bloom dropping off, and a new spike budding, whine whine whine). Last year there were two spikes, but only one this year. Must remember to water it more. Kinda lapsed while growing a new human last year 
Ah, and patients 3 and 4. The idiot amaryllis that we had years ago (puts up pathetic flower spike, flowers, then puts out leaves) finally bit the dust three years ago, and I kind of missed having a blooming bulb indoors. Fred Meyer had their amaryllis kits for $3.50 ea (half price!), but of course, the bulbs had already sprouted, were quickly dessicated, etc etc. Didn’t stop me from taking two home anyway. Tonight, I just expanded the coco peat they came with and sat them root side down on top. Tomorrow I’ll plant them in properly and maybe use the excess coco for reviving the orchid in a bag.
My crocuses are up!! (Big surprise. )
And the witch hazel was blooming last week. I should start taking and posting pictures with my new macro lens.
