Devastation

[lienluu]

To say I am upset would be to put it mildly.... Last night was one of the coldest nights we've had all winter. Before going to bed I checked all the outlets to make sure things were "ok"....which I do everynight.

But somehow, during the middle of the night, the heater on my Cattleya/Laelia anceps house got unplugged and to make it worse, for some reason the back-up heater did not power up.

When I checked the greenhouse this morning the temperature was 26F and all the leaves were frozen solid. I am soo upset. Some of the anceps in there were worth thousands of dollars...as well as some of the cattleyas. I have been collecting these divisions for the past 10 years and all of a sudden overnight, they all froze.

I am HOPING that some of them will be able to recover...but it doesn't look good.

[sadie]

That is heartbreaking! I hope that some will be able to recover. Good luck--keep us posted.

[Todd_Boland]

Horrible news...almost sounds like sabotage..what were the chances that BOTH events would happen? Sometimes I'm glad I have only a small collection..I can't even imagine the pain you are going through.

[lienluu]

Horrible news...almost sounds like sabotage..what were the chances that BOTH events would happen? Sometimes I'm glad I have only a small collection..I can't even imagine the pain you are going through.

I'm just so annoyed.....

Some of those plants I have had for 10+ years and many of the anceps had hundreds of bulbs and had 30+ spikes all about to open!

[Ania]

Terrible loss...It would make me cry.

[Piper]

I'm so sorry, Lien! Orchid misfortune is difficult enough on a small scale. To lose so much, when you were being so careful is very difficult to handle.

Julie

[lienluu]

I just checked on the plants...it looks like most of the new growths and growths in spike are dead, but it looks hopeful that the mature old bulbs will be OK.

All the new growths are mushy already but the old bulbs are all still hard. I hope that is a sign that they will be OK....

I guess I should go out there and start working on removing all the dead bulbs so they don't start getting infected and rotting out the other bulbs... no motivation to do anything today though.

[Mehera]

What a terrible shock Lien. After seeing so many wonderful photos of your collection, we have an idea of the magnitude of this disaster. It's like a nightmare. I am so sorry this has happened. Please let us know as you find out the extent of the damage (when you can stand to get in there again).

[smartie2000]

Very unfortunate to loose valuable plants so quickly! I hope that the mature bulbs send out new growths soon.

[Molly Taco]

How awful for you Lien, I hope you will be able to salvage some of your beautiful plants.
Cin