Hi Linda, a better day for humans and orchids. Your orchid is an Oncidium Intergeneric made up of members of the Oncidiinae Subtribe. So the label should have Odontocidium Wildcat 'Something' written on it where the 'something' is Leopard or Bobcat or something else and instead of Odontocidium it may have Colmanara. Enough of that stuff its just that to get good advice, you need to give good information. "Filtered" water? This is not necessary, the water from the tap (here) is fine and in fact better in some respects because you do not have to worry about making sure that the complete fertilizer contains all the trace elements. One grower who grows these to perfection has them hanging in a shadehouse built on the sandstone walls of an old quarry. North east aspect, sunlight nearly all day through shade cloth with some protection from the hot sun in the late afternoon. Misting? better off doing that in the early morning to simulate dew. Bud died. They died on my plant too when i got the setting wrong on my glasshouse heater and the plant got too cold at night during the coldest August in some 60 years. Sorry, not much help, just pointers, but if you add some more info. about your growing conditions, i'm sure some of the regulars here will add to this.

It is definitely a Colmanara Wildcat. There is a lot of variation in spotting pattern so ignore that more or less when looking for a match and focus on the shape of the lip. It is NOT 'Ocelot', 'Leopard' or 'Bobcat'.

Bon, That little green and yellow gourd is not a C. moschata. It is a C. pepo. As you might recall, SVBs love C. pepo plants. The reason that C. moschata types of squash/pumpkins are seemingly immune to damage from the squash vine borer grubs is because their vines are fairly, though not necessarily totally, solid. Most other squash/pumpkin types have fairly hollow vines. I guess you could say C. moschata vines are more like a wood dowel or a stick and C. pepo, C. argyrosperma and C. maxima are more like soda straws. If you were an SVB, which one would you generally prefer to tunnel through? This leads us to Amy's problem with butternuts. While the SVBs prefer other types of squash, they sometimes do tunnel through the butternuts and other types of C. moschata. I haven't had it happen here, but know people who have had it happen to their plants. One year I had a huge butternut squash plant that had already produced ripe squash die back to the ground quite abruptly. I had no idea why and since it had not had any symptoms of disease, I assumed SVBs got it. A couple of months later, I noticed it had completely regrown from the roots. That sort of miracle resurrection does not often occur with any kind of squash though. Amy, Do we dare ask why you had hair conditioner in the garden???? Hairspray? This is all too funny. Apparently I need to carry a bucket of hair products out to the garden with me in case I see anything evil I need to spray. My pest of the day, y'all, is a bobcat. It is killing all the beautiful mourning doves that sit on the powerlines and fencelines and coo early in the morning, which is a sound that takes me right back to summertimes spent at my grandparents' place in the country where I always awakened to the sound of the doves' cooing. I've been finding bird feathers all over, especially near the wild sunflowers, and today I saw the little wildcat near my compost pile. Then I had a rat in the chicken coop and, later on, a snake on the porch steps. Sometimes I think I should just stay inside all summer long if I don't want to see what hungry animals are prowling around. After butting heads with a bobcat, rat and snake, I would be okay if the only thing I encounter outdoors tomorrow is a squash vine borer. Now that the bobcat it here, all the beautiful little cottontails I enjoy watching every day will begin to disappear one by one. One year I planted Butternut squash super early. It had to have been in 2012 when the last freeze was in early March. I was harvesting mature squash before we ever saw an SVB moth. That never has happened before or since, but I still get good harvests when I plant summer squash as early as I can. It is trickier with winter squash since they need warmer soil and warmer air temperatures and will just sit there and not grow if they are too cold. Summer squash is not quite a picky about soil and air temps as winter squash. Dawn

Well miss_sistersue....Duke is going to the Sweet 16... susanwv....I tried to yell hard for WV last night 'cause we are in the same conference. Jasdip...getting ready to watch UK so will keep an eye on Murray....wow, just saw that he is only a freshman!...we are talking "pro" material... Chisue....will be watching Hawaii play...hope you beat Maryland. My son and wife went to Maui in November to watch KU play in a tournament....and we won! Now, Brushworks...won't be cheering for UConn...'cause you are playing my Jayhawks!