Pictures of my winter bloomers
I always find it a little unfortunate when my orchids decide to bloom in the winter, and yet it's moments like these when I just love my plants so much. It's like they sacrifice themselves by dying just a little bit to produce some blooms, so they can say: "look at me! I'm still alive! I'm still worth keeping!" Here they are in terrible conditions, cold, dry or too wet, low sunlight...I feel like the most terrible person! I actually had a dream last night where my orchids were having a competition amongst themselves, and the winner would get to go on a luxury spa at the greenhouses...and who could blame them? That is why I adore these little troopers, throwing out blooms even though I'm sure it hurts them to do so. Hang on kids - once I graduate from poor student to middle class worker, I'll build you all a nice nice orchid room.
A ludisia discolor spike. Funny - my grandpa thinks the spike looks better before blooming than after blooming.
The same ludisia now flowering. Behind it you can see a disagreeable sharry baby which has been sitting there doing nothing for a year now - not a single new growth, nothing. I thought these were EASY??
A noid white mini phal which I love because it always puts up double spikes laden with flowers.
A noid white dend which I thought was dead but then randomly decided to put out a spike. I actually bought this along with a purple dend as rescues from home depot. They were in the same pot and done blooming, so I repotted at home and found two seperate plants. I assumed this one would be purple too but I was pleasantly surprised.
A noid catt which I picked up at a florist that is closing down due to the invasion of some huge condo. I think it looks sweet :)
LC. Jungle Elf x Enc cordigera. Got this in bud from Clouds orchids...it's the second blooming in my house, the first spiking/blooming in my care. There was only one flower and I feel like it was some sort of 'save me and I promise more flowers' cry.
Dend. 'Kouchi's Pride" also from clouds. It sat in my house doing nothing for a year (no new growths nothing) and then it suddenly put out a spike. There was some sort of infestation though, so all the buds blasted except one. Again, it's an SOS plea..I just know it.
Laelia rubescens. I love this orchid - compact, tall thin spikes and pretty flowers. Again, some weird infestation lead to only one bloom surviving. It's the first time it's bloomed properly (I bought it in bud but the flowers were all deformed the first time).
Cymbidium swan lake or something like that. These are the hopefully spikes that have been growing like mad since I moved it indoors to more intermediate temperatures (outside is around 1-2 degrees C...indoors is more like 7-10 at night). Fingers crossed these won't blast!
And that's all! As you can see from the profusion of single blooms I have, something is seriously wrong with my culture...but nothing can be done! Mom just won't have compact fluorescents in the dining room...I live on campus so I only make it back home once a week to check up on things. The alternative is to grow them all in my dorm where there is even LESS light. At least at home I have a south facing window! *sigh*...I'm looking forward to my own apartment, where I can live with my plants in peace.
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