One becomes Five

[DarkRubiTJ]

The saga continues.....

I took all the kids outside this morning for an Orthenex bath. After I sprayed everyone down, I decided that today was as good a time as any to repot the Den. What a surprise!!!

I got all my supplies together, and removed the Den. from it's old pot. It was rooted in tree fern under the moss, with another layer of moss under the tree fern. The plant had not seen any water in 8 days and still it was sopping wet. The poor thing was drowning. As I started to remove the old media, the plant broke apart into five seperate and distinct plants, with nothing connecting them other than a jumble of roots. Root rot was quite evident on all the plants. The two diseased canes were impossible to de-media, so into the trash they went. Of the other 4, three were viable and one is a maybe. I cut out as many of the rotted roots as I dared and potted them in a bark, peat moss, and perlite mixture. I splashed them with Orchid Plus just to hold everything together and now the waiting begins.

I got pictures, just don't have time to process them right now.

[LJA]

It's a shame about the roots, but that's fairly typical with stuff grown in sphagnum and not paid attention to. Maybe you got to it in time to rescue it. Be sure to withhold water / fertilizer for at least a week and a half to two weeks. Did the plant really break apart into five seperate canes? As a general rule, plants that get divided into less than 3 growths per division tend not to make it unless the roots are in *awesome* shape--if they do survive, it's usually at least a year if not more till they bloom again.

I agree with you completely about educating the public about growing and debunking some of the myths. That's basically the hardest battle we face here locally, as well. At all the talks I give, the questions from folks at the end are pretty much the same, and it always amazes me how widespread and pervasive the myths about orchids tend to be.

Looking forward to those pics......

[OrchidTraci]

<<agree with you completely about educating the public about growing and debunking some of the myths. That's basically the hardest battle we face here locally, as well. At all the talks I give, the questions from folks at the end are pretty much the same, and it always amazes me how widespread and pervasive the myths about orchids tend to be.>>

I'll stand 20 minutes talking to a stranger about what myths aren't true. I can't believe that people still think orchids are "so hard to grow" It isn't that they are *so* hard to grow, they are just VERY slow growers. I think that it is why I killed my first orchid. I had an outdoor garden for years, and I watered every day. I thought that when my orchid wasn't growing as fast as I thought they should be, I watered it to death. Now I know that more isn't better.

[LJA]

Woooo hoooo!

I seem to sense that a true Orchid Grower has taken shape in our midst!!!!!

Awesome, OT. (I need to find a smiley that does some kind of Happy Dance...) You're totally getting it....

[Brutal_Dreamer]

There are soooo many myths about orchids out there that really crack me up.

I was in a flower shop recently and was speaking with a person who thought that only cattleyas were orchids. I quickly put on my teacher hat and began telling her all about orchids. We actually sat down and went through some catalogues and I pointed out different types of orchids and gave a little information about their care and needs.

She was so grateful and amazed. When I told her that there were between 25,000 and 30,000 orchid species arranged into about 850 genera, she was shocked. In her world, the cattleya was the only orchid and it came in white, pink, purple, red, and orange. (All large.. )

Myths make orchids "special", but they also cause people to be scared to try growing them. I say cheers to everyone who helps educate folks about these wondrous plants!

Cheers!
Brutal_Dreamer

[OrchidTraci]

When did you discover orchids?

[DarkRubiTJ]

Not knowing if the question was directed at me, I'll answer.

I discovered orchids a very long time ago. My first or second job out of high school was delivering flowers for a large florest in Houston. To that point in time I had only seen orchids in the coursages that I had given my dates. I don't think kids do that anymore, showing my age I guess. When I saw my first orchid plant, it planted a well buried seed in my heart, that was re-ignited when I got transfered to the Garden dept of my boxstore. I'm what boxstore calls a "Power Equipiment Specalist" a lawnmower and weed whacker salesman. We stock our mowers and tractors directly accross from the orchids and that seed from long ago started to flame. I picked up Ortho's book on orchids, browsed it for a couple of days and then bought a Phal on March 11th and now I'm up to about 15 plants and totally hooked. My first orchid is still in bloom, and in my care it has gone from a four stalk plant that was dropping blooms on 3 of them to having well formed buds on all stalks and the blooms are getting ready to start popping open. It tells me that I can really take care of the plants, and if I can do it anyone can.


Bruce

[LJA]

DarkRubi, how's the dendrobium doing? Is it still hanging in there?