The Orchid Has Bloomed

We got an orchid plant from my brother and SIL as a housewarming gift when we moved to northern Virginia from Capitol Hill five years ago. The flowers lasted the usual life span. Bur ever since that first flowering, it never bloomed again - until Valentine’s Day. What I thought was just another root turned out to be a spike in October. We watched it mature from nothing to a large branch that eventually had five flowers. It’s amazing how long it took for the spike to grow - and then in such a short time, each bud opened just a couple of days apart. So I took photos of each of the five flowers  - comparing them to see if they were identical or a little different. They all look pretty much the same, but there are subtle changes in the design shapes on the petals. I hope the flowers last for a long time - and I am almost afraid to cut the spike again once they fall. Orchids are tricky to keep going. If nothing else we were fortunate to see another showcase. 

Valentine’s Day Orchid

My husband isn’t much in to traditional things - and since he isn’t I’m not either. I used to be. We tend to celebrate every day rather than go all out on designated holidays. Rather than buy flowers and cards, go out to dinner or whatever, we just acknowledge the day. But today was interesting in that our orchid - which hasn’t bloomed since we received it as a housewarming gift five years ago - bloomed today of all days! My brother and SIL gave the plant to us when we moved from Capitol Hill to northern Virginia and we have cared for it ever since - without a lot of luck. No matter what we did, nothing happened - until last October. What I thought was just another root turned out to be a stalk. And I have been watching it every day since then. Apparently the orchids do bloom in the winter and we were thrilled to watch its progress. The only thing that we did different was turn the pot the other way so the roots faced the window and the little bit of sun that was coming through the west side. So in honor of Valentine’s Day we are so happy to see that the orchid plant finally bloomed! What a great day for it to show itself! 

Plants, Flowers, Weeds and More Plants

When you spend most of the day indoors, the subject matter for a blog can be uninspiring. It takes a bit of creativity. I used to get a lot of ideas walking around Capitol Hill before we moved to northern Virginia last year. We don’t walk in the park here because people don’t wear face masks and they can’t be avoided on the narrow paths. So we stay in the neighborhood where it is easier to cross over when someone approaches. Why is it that the people wearing face masks (like us) have to accommodate the people who don’t? So, a lot of the blogs have been about plants, flowers and weeds - because I’ve been seeing a lot of plants, flowers and weeds. It includes things like tulips in the wall vase, weeds higher than my knee caps, the money tree that lost leaves, repotting our orchid, petunia stigmas, Growjoy plants from Indiana, balcony flowers, lucky bamboo, outdoor flowers, the bromeliad ... thank goodness we have our houseplants, wall vase, and balcony baskets. It gives us something to care about - and lately - something to write about. 

Repotting the Orchid Plant

We got an orchid plant as a housewarming gift last year from my brother and sister in law. It had two branches with flowers. The nice thing about orchids is that they last a long time, but I have only been lucky enough to have a plant re bloom one time. When we asked about care of the orchid at Ginkgo gardens, we got some orchid food and repotting mix, along with advice on watering and placement. I’ve been giving the plant five small ice cubes every week, and it has responded with a couple of new leaves. The last leaf started out with a small split down the middle, but has now grown to the same size as the others - but still no indication of a sprout. So I decided it was time to repot the plant. I dug out the mix, and removed the plant from the container. The root system looked really healthy. The stuck on old mix was pulled away from the roots as well as some of the packed dirt around the base. It was repacked with the new potting mix and sprinkled with a bit of food/water. I’m hoping I didn’t destroy it and would love to see some evidence of something - either way. Three ice cubes were added today to get it back on schedule. I suppose time will tell if I did the right thing. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. 

Jack’s Classic Orchid Plant food

When we moved to our new condo four months ago someone gave us a double stem orchid plant as a housewarming gift. It was placed on the console table in the dining room with all of our other houseplants. It was the only flowering plant among all the greens. It did really well until it inevitably started to lose the flowers. We’ve had orchids before and never had much luck with them. I think one time we actually had one come back to life. So we read all about the care of an orchid - again - and stopped at Ginkgo Gardens in Capitol Hill to get some orchid food and replanting soil. We needed advice on which food to get - keeping the plant healthy or boosting the blooms. We decided on keeping it healthy because there is a new leaf starting to grow, which gives us some hope. We were told to cut the spent stem all the way to the bottom, move the plant to another spot in the house and trick it into thinking it’s winter - water it less - and keep it there for three months. So today I cut down one of the stems and am waiting for the flowers to fall off on the other. Since we have been giving it five ice cubes every week we will need to cut back to twice a week, convert amount that to water and add the plant food. We still need to figure out the best time to replant it. Isuppose  you could say we are looking at this as an experiment and see if it comes back. All we can do is give it our best and hope it makes a difference.