Is it time to repot

[Teena]

I liberated these wee cattleyas at a big box store and they have been living outside on the deck all summer. Is it time to repot them?

[mmursuli]

I always repot immediately after buying any orchid. I like to know what's going on in there. My vote goes to repot.

[Cjcorner]

I'd repot as well.

[panam]

Goodness, you do have some lovely roots there! Hey look at those spikes, too! If you repot that one now, it might throw off the blooms.

[Teena]

Thanks, I guess I'll look around for some small pots to upgrade these guys to. The other photo is my engergizer bunny phal, still in the same pot I purchased it in. It seems to break all the phal rules, cut off the last flower spike in June, put it out on the deck for the summer, it sprouted a new leaf and then sent up these two flower spikes with branches. We've had some hot days and nights here, really dry for us, I've forgotten to fertilize my orchids all summer, yeah I know, bad orchid parent, what can I say but this is what I got all the same.

I'm not so sure about flowers this year, these guys are really small, pots are less than 2 inches. - martha

[panam]

Teena, there beside the cattleyas - what kind of seed is that? It looks sort of mapley (maplish?), but different.

[Teena]

Patty - maple seed pod, specifically Norway Maple, fresh caught off the tree, what we called "helicopters" as children. - martha

[panam]

Patty - maple seed pod, specifically Norway Maple, fresh caught off the tree, what we called "helicopters" as children. - martha

I thought so! We, of course have none here in the desert, but I remembered them from my younger years.

[Teena]

For all of you who are unfamiliar with this tree and it's seed pod and why we called them helicopters as children: they spin as they fall to the ground, like a helicopter blade. Then they had the added pleasure that you could split them and stick them on tip of your nose!

As an adult I'm out there in the Spring cursing them to the heavens and I harvest what I call the first crop, norway maple seedlings, everywhere! They are insidious, if you don't rip them out by the roots, every last one of them you have a forest of these trees that quickly edge out everything else. Norway Maples are not indigenous to the U.S. but another one of those introduced species that quickly grew out of control. Not as pretty as sugar maples, only turn yellow in the Fall and they are the last tree to lose their leaves so it's usually late November when I'm raking them up and it's COLD out!

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Yes, time to repot, Martha. Good luck to you!

cheers,
BD