The orchid diaries

The madness about orchids continues! Maybe it's because I keep acciddentally killing them, maybe it's because they are beautiful....whatever it is, I am currently mad about orchids!

My beautiful Phalaenopsis ^_^

I started off with one humble plant from Bunnings, and knowing nothing about how to grow it, proceeded to do the worse thing you can do to a Phalaenopsis orchid: I repotted it in a porcelain bowl with no drainage, and I watered it generously.


In about 1 week's time, the poor thing shrivelled and the leaves became mushy and at one touch of my hand, fell apart...


Refusing to give up, I bought another one, and two small mericlones. From Bunnings again (because it's cheap there!). I went away on a 4 week holiday and before I left, I was worried that my orchids will die from lack of water. So I put the orchids submerged in a bowl of water.


When I came back, the orchids looked alive and I thought that they made it. The 2 mericlones are a Cymbidium and a Cattleya, and they are doing well now. The Phalaenopsis however, died again. I still have this as a reminder:

My husband said that I need to stop buying orchids because they are expensive and I keep killing them. ^_^
Undeterred, I insisted on going to the House of Phalaenopsis ( a specialist orchid nursery in Lane Cove), and bought another Phalenopsis. The plant was so healthy, big white blooms with a purple lip.


This time, I googled videos on YouTube and a few sites about how to care for this challenging plant. I thought that I was careful about watering the plant and even used a kebab stick to test the soil.


However I started to notice slight shrivelling in an orchid leaf. Silly me thought that because the kebab stick was not really wet, the reason for the shrivelling was because it is not getting enough water. So I watered it thoroughly.


No improvement ensued and instead, the wrinking looks even worse. Finally, I was brave enough to lift the plant out to inspect the roots. To my horror, ALL the roots were brownish black and mushy, a sure sign of rot. After removing the rotting root material, I was left with only one tiny stump of a root not even one centimetre long.


Searching for rescue methods on the net, I was tempted to "sphag and bag", but was too lazy and not convinced. So I created a sort of orchid terrarium so that I can see what is happening and just sprayed the leaves with water everyday in the hope that it will survive.

 In the meantime, my friend who is also a newbie orchid collector bought 2 new orchid plants for my birthday. A phalaenopsis with blooms exactly like my dying phalaenopsis plant., and an Oncidium with dramatic looking dark wine brown flowers. My home was instantly brightened....I love how plants make a home feel......homier

The replacement Phalaenopsis from my friend - an exact replica of the dying one

The new Dendobrium! Hehe check out my lucky bamboo in the background

 Today, my husband kindly bought a Dendrobium orchid. It looks quite different from the phalaenopsis, but beautiful nonetheless. It's my first dendrobium and looks badly in need of a repotting, but I won't do it just yet.

Crossing my fingers that there will be no more dead orchids. These things apparently can last for hundreds of years.......please live my babies.........


Oncidium



Close up of the Oncidium blooms



Note the limp looking plant in a tall glass towards the back - hopefully it will survive