First of all, thanks to everyone who weighed in on the rather strange situation I THOUGHT I was going to be facing. For those of you who suggested more shelving, please be advised that I actually have shelving and growlights for all that wall space - I just was in the process of moving stuff around, but not to worry.....
My predicament has been completely resolved; instead of having to set up criteria for which orchids to keep and which to donate, a closer examination of the condition of my plants when I got them back revealed that more than half of them were already rotting through, another 10 were infested with some kind of white fly insect, and the rest have a variety of different funguses that they may or may not survive. I've already tossed several of my beloved rescued catts, a number of oncids and brassias, and my AOS Miltassia is in critical condition. I've done a fair bit of ranting and raving about incompetence, negligence, disloyalty, etc since I started unpacking the plants and getting ready to put them back where they were late last night - but only to myself and Phillip.
Enough of the righteous indignation routine for me - it just makes me more upset. I'm working on acceptance and being open to finding out how this experience will further influence my orchid journey. One nice thing that has come out of it is that I SOSed a nursery owner I respect and admire about the Miltassia, and he has very freely and kindly agreed to take on the challenge of keeping it alive. I have faith that, if it's salvageable, he can and will do it - how fortunate I am to have come across just the right person at the exact right time! I'm shipping it to him express tomorrow, so he'll have it by Monday, and that gives me such a comforting sense of relief.
I suppose that, since everything happens for a reason, this too will lead to better things - have to win another AOS award, at the very least! I won't dwell on this tough situation, but I wanted to let everyone know where things stand right now - I'll be rebuilding instead of deconstructing. The destruction caused in 5 weeks is hard to believe, so I've included a picture of my Miltassia as it looked today. And then I have to move on, because this has upset me far more than I ever would have believed. I'll be looking for the lessons as I recover from the shock.... And knowing y'all are out there and probably understand how I feel makes all the difference in the world to me. Thanks for being a refuge from this particular storm -
Time to sleep now - tomorrow is a new day.
Maura
Today:
5 weeks ago: