"self pollinate"? The flowers just fold up after a day or so and are useless for display. In my conditions the sheath on Cattleya aurantiaca will go brown and looks dried up. This happens on some of the other spring flowering Cattleyas. Sometimes having a peek will result in damage to forming buds.

Seasons? Well, they SAY we have 4 seasons here. Personally, I've only ever experienced 9 months of winter, then it turns hot & humid for a little while. But seriously... My MIL is in Gilford, and we have relatives in Wolfeboro, so we are around the southern area of the lakes region quite often. Not sure how long you've been here, but you might be interested in our Fall Swap, which should be close to being posted soon. We do that in Goffstown, usually in September. Some seasonal notes: "March Winds" is a good phrase. "April Showers" is a good phrase. "May Flowers" is another good one. They are very typical of how things go around here. Snow. Lots of snow. Some years more than others, but count on it. First hard frost that will kill things like coleus comes Mid-October. Last frost is hard to judge, but typically "they" say ~Memorial Day is safe to start planting. The big "however" on that one is if you winter sow (see that forum here). We break all the planting rules, starting things outdoors in December. In May, I notice that the first blooms out are purples & yellows: Lilacs, Forsythia, Lunaria, Lupine, Daffodils, Siberian Iris, and Dwarf Bearded Iris, followed shortly by early whites and reds such as shasta daisy, Valerian, and Maltese Cross. Late May also finds my "Golden Rose of China" shrubs in bloom. By June, the 'rest' of things are coming into bloom- "early" Daylilies, Lilacs are finishing up, Weigela Bush is in bloom, Spirea is in bloom. Shoot, can't remember if the Bleeding Heart is May or June... Zone 5 is a 'questionable' zone for Butterfly Bushes, and they are LATE in showing signs of life. I mulch them with whatever I can find in the fall- leaves or that fluffy hay-like stuff that Bluestone sent in their box one year. Snow insulates them, too, so I might even shovel extra over it so it doesn't melt away during the January thaw. I cut them back to about 6-8" in late April, and they'll start showing signs of life about the time you think they're not going to make it. I'm thinking this year it was after Memorial Day. Speaking of January thaw...we'll usually get both a January thaw (you'll need a T-shirt for this), and an ice storm. The ice came early this year in December, and put power out for weeks in some areas. The really bad power outages weren't typical, but the ice-storm is. February is usually pretty brutal with "raw" cold for several weeks at a time, usually. It'll start to break about the time you flip the March calendar. If you like Poppies, the first week in March is perfect for sprinkling those seeds. Careful that they don't blow away in the wind. I try to get mine out (sprinkled over the snow) by the first weekend in March, followed soon by the Peas in the garden by March 17th. If you winter-sow, April 1 is a good date to start tender annuals and get them outside. I've been pushing that envelope slightly, and have started them as early as the 3rd week in March. Your nasturtiums that were beautiful in the early summer will likely melt by late July/early August in the heat. Generally speaking (not counting the lovely weather we had last week), there's no such thing as "Dry Heat" around here. "Oppressive" is more like it. Humidity is icky. It's not uncommon to be just standing not moving and sweating. Find out where your local Ice Cream stand is. (Have you ventured to Rochester on the Milton town line yet? Lone Oak is THE best place to get ice cream. They serve no less than a pint of ice-cream on their small & kiddie sized cones- all home-made ice cream.) Gilford Old Home Day is coming up the end of August, and is a nice day-trip if you're into Community Parades, and the whole music/vendors/food scene. It's a nice little event. When you flip the September calender, the weather tends to also 'flip.' It'll still be warm during the day, but there's a "chill" and the air is just 'different.' We've had so much rain this year that the foliage is going to be FABULOUS. Don't miss it! We'll usually get an Indian Summer spell sometime in September with temps back up in the 80s. The Hopkinton Fair is Labor-Day weekend, and September is also our Fall Swap in Goffstown, so you might want to watch for Annie's post here. Deerfield Fair is the end of September, and is another nice fair. Skip the Rochester Fair ;) I've heard Fryeburg Fair in Maine is a nice fair, too, but have never been. By the time October rolls around, we've all hunkered down for the winter, and are gearing up for the holiday season, the kids are back at school, the leaves have been raked up and thrown in the compost pile, or backpack-blown into the neighbor's yard, and whatever fall cleanup garden chores you do are probably nearly done. Oh, watch for fall bulb clearances- I have seen them go as low as 90% off at Agway. That was two years ago when we didn't get winter until December, so I planted bulbs on December 1st. That's not typical, but it worked, and the bulb deals were great! I don't mind 'taking a chance' on clearance bulbs when the bulbs are still firm, the ground isn't frozen yet, and they are cheap-cheap-cheap! Ok, did I cover most of it? Hope you found some of it useful!

I appreciate all your feedback. I'd like to thank the GW Orchid forum gurus since some of the culture practices I'm doing are from their inputs --- mainly H on light quality :) CJM, please check your e-mail when you get the chance. Jan, I did it with a poor man's setup: an entry-level DSLR (RebelXT), a photo editing software and light coming from my grow area. Here are the details: I set up the catts on my coffee table near my grow area to take advantage of the light being emitted and I set up a black background (would you believe I use an old black robe). Being self-taught on using a DSLR, I try several times by trial-and-error to find the right camera settings (speed, aperture, etc.) with the objective to get optimum quality pictures. I usually set the focus somewhere at the middle of the plants to get an even capture of the entire frame. From the batch of pictures I take, I pick the best one and load it in a photo editor. Having sparse knowledge to use the software, I only do what I consider a minor lighting correction (gamma/levels/saturation and such)and then I do a little sharpening afterwards(careful not to overdo it because the picture quality will drop due to pixelation). The point is never to stray from altering the actual coloration of the blooms since all photos I take serves as a reference to the individual flowers of my catts. In short, get the best picture possible in order for the photo editor to be effective (in my case)... If you're interested, here's some of my early work that allowed me to understand my camera further --- pictures I took during meetings/shows that are posted at the website I maintain for my local OS . -Harvey

Even though December is statistically the coldest month ever-blooming roses are often still out at Christmas here, with January being about the only time of the year when roses don't seem to be doing anything - I've had problems with rooting rose cuttings in the ground and then never getting them transplanted because they were in leaf most of the time. Spring for roses here is Feb. In fact a local weather professor says spring in general for us is Feb-Jul, with the annual summer warming and drying not fully overcoming the lingering winter wetness until Jul.