…it isn’t always easy with them. Especially if they have no manners…
Cute hm?
If you give them the slightest chance for mischief:
Aaalll miiiiiiiiine!!!
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Just have to add those pictures because of its unbeatable mood:
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Happy Advent-Sunday everbody.
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In the little greenhouse, the inhabitants are slowly getting used to normal conditions, LOL!! In spring they should return to their comrades, until then, they can enjoy the shelter of the greenhouse.
Little Nopsi is a really slow one, but at least it works thoroughly. The one remaining leaf displays an healthy amount of „tensions“- two months ago, it was dangling down limply.
And here is the reason why- after settling it into Sphagnum moss, it started some root-growing activity. And here are the results uncovered:
Hopefully this keeps on and maybe it will add a couple more of them…*g*
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Last night, I thought the budding dendrobium looked different. I took it out and yes, something is happening:
When I came home from work today, I was rewarded with a very pretty miniature blossom. Compared to what the plant produced before it fell ill, these may mislead to think that this is miniature variation.*g*
Sorry for the bad quality, but isn’t it awesome? -
Yay, finally it is time for seasonal decoration again- I always look forward the whole year to it…
My little round tree outdoors is this year bearing a chain of lights:
That is my Advent „wreath“ this year:
The wrapped box on the piccies above contained a gift that Mum gave me for today, the first Advent Sunday:
I love this star-shape, I know them as a big version- they look awesome if you have a true hallway in your house to hang them there. I never knew that they make them that tiny, too. ♥!Since I finially finished repainting the Ikea reindeer, I could just hang it into my orchid-window which is now seasonal, too. Once a darker picture to make the star more clearly visible:
And one where you can actually see something. *g*
A cute little tealight holder which I couldn’t resist recently:
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One of the prettiest poisonous plants that I know is the Snowrose / Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger). That it blooms when everythingelse seems dead and or resting, has ever fascinated me. After reading up on it, I saw that I have the means to keep one happy, so I can grace my window now with one, too. Outdoors, of course, where such plants belong. In spring, I will get it a nice large pot for it to permanently live in.
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…in the mini greenhouse:
or the quickly made up quarantine version:
(Those two have, just like the croton, a mild infestation with the „red spider“ – a phenomenon caused by low humidity levels often. So far no plant is suffering, so I do something about it to keep it thus. Raising the humidity for a few days like this is a start. And when I get my neem oil mixture, I will give them a treatment with that and those critters should be dead and gone.)The new Phal. Zoro Amato is playing space-alien, just look at what the spike does! LOL!!
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The blooming goes on:
But it threw the heart-leaf…am now wondering if those blossoms will be its last?This heart-leaf is just too adorable – without flash it looks even more red to the eye:
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…go you! I am gonna cheer you on every centimeter of your way!
Believe it or not, the plant has no leaves, but is bent on blooming… See all the shy little signs of life on this spider-mite-survivor.
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…the first flower of my Phalaenopsis bellina, that is. Now it turns a creamy yellow, so many awesome changes on just one flower. *is fascinated*
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The little white orchid has opened the first blossom!
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The first blossom of my white miniature orchid is about to open anytime soon, now, am so excited about it. The first blossoms that any plant has „made“ here, the others they already had when I bought them.
My spotted Phalaenopsis is slowly giving up the awesome blossoms now, but it also makes a new leaf, giving me a little scare at first, because I had expected something green, not dark-red. *g*
Nopsi and the rescue from the flowershop have been potted in Sphagnum moss now, in hopes to improve the growth of their roots. The little yellow one has already improved her floppy leaves in the night it stood in the moss now, that’s really cool!
I bought the moss at the zoo-shop, happy that I remembered that you can also use it for animals living in terrarium surroundings. Like that, I had not to mailorder it.And the most amazing thing- on Saturday I looked at my Dendrobium again, which I had half forgotten in its little indoor greenhouse. I was most amazed at what I saw, not only is it still stubbornly clinging to life- no it also attempts some little (malformed) flowerstalk! And down on those stems, the green spots are hopefully new roots showing. Apparently as long as the roots are halfway ok, an orchid will survive even worst case scenarios!
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I am finally moving my blogging to my own webhost’s server to be more indepent from those big companies that want all my data all the time. *g*
For the time being, I keep my model horses on blogspot and only run my more personal blog on my own.
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>Remember the picture of the new leaf growing from the heart? It just showed as a tiny triangle.
Now, one week later, it is already looking like a tiny, folded leaf. The root has also been growing and there is a second one on the opposite side of the stem poking out now, see:
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>Today was just the right weather to show off my awesome double flowers on the Phalaenopsis bellina:
Outdoors, all the plants prepare for winter, while indoors everybody gets busy growing.
This flowerstalk in the making:
Does now look like this:
If this was a fairy-tale, one could probably pull one of the delicate layers very gently and hold an enchanted red robe in ones hands:
(Too much of „Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel“, I know…)This little orchid is in full growing-mode, it blooms:
The roots in the pot grow:
From the stem grows either a new root or maybe a new stalk:
Aaaand it makes a new leaf! ♥♥♥
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>My parcel with my plant supplies and my new orchid arrived yesterday and I picked it up this morning.
What do model horses and orchids have in common? They are fragile and travel awesomely wrapped, looking like a mummy. Just how awesomely, that I am going to show here.
There was the parcel, very exciting, the size can only mean that the plant is in bloom, whee:
Opening the lid revealed a nest of paper-cuts:
…then some strong packaging paper:
…and the next layer:
I see green! There really is a plant in there, yay:
Here you see how much care they took to protect the complete plant as well as possible:
Aaah, finally, there she is!
Her name is Phalaenopsis Elegant Debora and here are some nicer piccies of the orchid:
the green bits *g*
And the flowers without flash:
…and with flash:
And on the quarantine closet, LOL!!
The colour is really pretty, a deep, deep burgundy red that changes depending on the light.
I ordered this plant from Orchideen Zentrum Wichmann and am very happy about fast shipping, awesome wrapping and a strong and vital plant. -
>So nobody thinks I have just sick little plants here, today I show happy progress on three of my plants.
My Phalaenopsis bellina is is gracing me with two flowers in her first bloom apparently, because here I see a second bud growing, if I am not mistaken:
My miniature white Phalaenopsis hybrid that had bloomed from the heartleaf has now developed something from the spot where one of those little hoodlike leaves on the stem had been growing into something bigger:
Since none of my other plants who made branches from the main stalk have ever made a green leaf at the base of the new branch, I am secretly hoping this is a Keiki (offshoot) which plans to bloom first and get roots later.(This would not be uncommon behaviour)And the biggest cause for hope is here. Poor sick „Nopsi“, the large white Hybrid without roots (or almost) seems to want to make new ones, now!
See here:
And enlarged detail:
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>…have overrun my Dendrobium. *grouses* (Funny how one reads retrospectively that those are sensitive to this kind of problem, isn’t it?) Since it does get water every two weeks unlike the others, the big inspections were also further apart – which was apparently enough time for the little buggers.
What made me suspicous?
Some creepy-crawly activity on my miniature white Phalaenopsis a week ago (which was localised to one bud) which resulted in separation after killing the spot of problem by removing the part of the plant (stalk part) and using mild desinfectant on the other soft and new spots. (Brutal, I know, but this is a hybrid, so it will not die from such things. *g*)
After this, my attention was a bit more sharpened, but still my eyes were more on the Phals – until I ogled the plants one evening and wondered about silvery white „chalkspots“ on the Dendrobium, since I do not spray my plants. Examining under full light revealed that the silvery shading had spread far all over the plant. Short internet research confirmed my worries- spider mites, hooray.
I also read of someone doing successfully the kinda radical bath-method with their dendrobium – so I decided to try it, too, much better than waiting until I finally find a pesticide in the shops.
So unpotting followed and a showering with warm water to wash off any mobile visitors and then off into the bucket!
The greenery in there is the plant. The water has a generous addition of washing-up liquid and a small dose of Sterillium added. (The sterillium is a disinfectant based on alcohol- try first if your plants don’t react to that or it might kill them! For just drowning the mites, the washing up liquid is sufficient.)
At about twelve hours, I showered the plant again and set up new water-solution, this time only with washing-up liquid.Twentyfour hours later, the plant was rescued from the bucket and thoroughly showered, especially the roots. And then potted for the night.
Closer inspection in daylight did reveal massive damage on the undersides of the leaves:
And in some spots, the plant had not taken well to being wet for so long.Since it has many bulbs, I decided to risk a parting of the plant. The youngest offshots did look best for some reason, less damage to the leaves and lots of good roots, so they got settled into one quickly-made pot.
Only one of the big parts of the plant looked as if it might make it, but the roots are not so good on this part, so we well see. The prognosis for both pots is guarded, but I hope that at least one of them will make it.
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>On the way home from shopping after my seaside holiday, I ran past a starving miniature orchid- you guess it, I had to save it.
One flower-stalk was dying so I cut it off and I also removed a dying leaf, then put the whole plant into water for 2,5 hours.
As you can see, it began to recover pretty quickly, those leaves are no longer floppy:
It has very nice little flowers, looking a little like my other yellow mini, but not completely:
I then put both yellow mini orchids into one pot, now finally having the ideal relation between amount of roots and substrate. Since they also look pretty much alike from a afar, this is a good mix:
(New plant behind the other in the background)Today I found a bamboo basket that solved my „how to hang up the Phalaenopsis bellina“-problem. Originally meant to be a basket for a glass with a candle, I removed those, got strong yarn and made it a hanging flower pot instead. The airy construction makes it ideal for housing an orchid.
And this is what my updated orchid window now looks like:
