This is the first orchid bloom of the bunch this year. It’s only the second week of January and the third week of Winter but already we’re getting just a hint of Spring. Oh and even better, I’m not driving to and from work in the dark anymore! In fact, excepting for those rainy overcast days, I have needed sunglasses during my commutes.

Just as Winter is getting to it’s darkest and coldest and unbearablest, these little buggers start popping up.

And as depressed as I’m feeling nowadays what with my thinning bank account and widening waistline, it’s nice to see some color. Pink especially!

It was 30some degrees this morning. All of our potted plants have come inside for the fall/winter – including the cymbidium. So the story about the cymbidium is that two winter’s ago, while my parents were out of town for a week or so, I left the heat off in the house.  The house reached about 40 degrees F. That year, the cymbidium bloomed for the first time since it was purchased. The plant needed to be chilled in order to induce blooms. Last year, we decided to leave the plant outside a little longer to get that needed chill so it’d flower again.
Result:

1. Plant frosted
2. Leaves browned
3. Fell out
4. Bald plant

Don’t worry, it survived.  This winter, I’m going to try to chill it to get it to flower again.  Brrr for me for a couple of weeks this coming winter.

It’s been a while since I’ve showed some flowers in bloom. I thought I’d done it enough, but I just can’t help taking the pictures (especially with the new camera), they’re so pretty. These orchids are lightly fragrant, particularly in the morning hours.

September 6, 2008 – The first bloom.

September 14, 2008 – The second one literally bloomed overnight.

September 15, 2008 – Here it is the next day.

September 22, 2008 – The third one emerged this past weekend.

This is a friend’s koi pond. There are about 30 koi in here.

He says when he moves he’s definitely taking the fish with him. “Once you have a pond, you can’t go back.” Guess he got bit by the aquarium bug. I can see why though. The fish with the flowing water makes the backyard very tranquil. He has his maintenance routine simplified so it isn’t a lot of work. There’s a uv filter that helps keep the water clean and the algae from overtaking the place. The little machine hanging above is an automatic feeder which is set to go off twice daily. Every so often he changes the water out completely by netting the fish and washing out the pond. The thing that amazes me the most is the koi hibernate in the winter so unless it freezes, they can be left in the pond year round.

So I had this blah job-application-inducing day at work, on a Friday no less. The crappiest part was not having time for lunch and I was hungry. So I decided to go to Trader Joes because that seems to make me feel better for some reason. And then it just hopped into my cart.

What are they feeding these orchids?? It followed me home.

It starts sometime in October. Their flower branches start off looking almost like roots.
October 21, 2007 – The stem bud is on the left.

February 25, 2008 – Growth seems so painstakingly slow. You can carefully adjust the flower stem while it’s malleable. However, it’s also very delicate and snaps easily.

You can see on the left is a casualty of over handling. Sorry plant! A new flower stem grew on the right to replace it.

March 4, 2008 – The rest of the time is just watching the buds get bigger and bigger.

April 6, 2008 – By April, they start blooming. They’ll continue to slowly open up all summer long. By the time some are still in their last stages of blooming, others will have started the process all over again.

Maybe I’ll do a year round 1 photo per month deal next time.

Since February, I’ve been sorting through my seed packets every weekend trying to decide what I want to grow this year. I’m planning sorrel, cilantro, basil, mint, and some flowers. Sorrel and mint will be easy because they’re perennials. Never eaten sorrel before, and have no clue how to prepare it. I thought it was some sort of lettuce when I bought the seed packet three years ago. Not even sure they’ll sprout at this point. Cilantro didn’t do so well last year. They went from sickly sparse leaves straight to flower. I think I have to use a different pot so the soil doesn’t get sick of cilantro.

Last year’s garden wasn’t very fruitful. I didn’t have the heart to uproot my strawberry weeds growing in all the pots even though they don’t bear fruit. This goes back about two or three years ago when I planted strawberries. They took so long to sprout that I planted more and more in practically every pot. Eventually they all sprouted. Then I learned that despite their delicate fruits, strawberry plants are hardy perennials. They remain green in snow and ice and since real estate in my pots and containers is limited, I’m going to toughen up and clean them out this year. I’ll keep one.

I want my portulaca’s to come back this year too. Last year, they got crowded out by the crabgrass. There was more crabgrass in the overhanging box than actual flowers! How on earth crabgrass seeds made it up so high, I have no idea. Crabgrass is so persistent, no matter how I plucked and weeded, they flourished! Plus, with crabgrass you have to pluck them early. If you let it grow even a bit larger than sproutling, trying to uproot the plant will take out a sizable clump of soil right with it.