Songs, limericks, haikus, OH MY! Oh boy, I really hate to end this thread! This has been more fun for me than I've had in a while here (excluding the stories for the other exchanges). Do we stretch it out or end it right here? I'm not sure if my side (from laughing) or cutterpup could possibly take any more of this. So then [drum roll], I most appreciatively tip my funny bone to cutterpup, to say that I feel that she really must have this plant. I too, recognize an obsession, and I must do all that I can to enable it! So thank you cutterpup, and thank you all, I laughed so hard all day (and it's still going if you go back to the thread on the main discussion page). =:0 Carolyn

Snow pea- Interesting that your ODBRS has a scent. Mine does not. I think I'm glad about it too :-) What does it smell like? I am looking at the zones while I am re-reading this post. The bulk of the posters, Lellie and Nancy excluded are in Northern zones (5-7). Got me to thinking. My ODBRS skipped a bloom cycle this summer. It had gorgeous "meaty" growth, big chunky roots. It was outdoors. It will not bloom now, even though it has very appropriate conditions. I have been wondering why I am battling to bloom oncids this year. They will get to the point of swollen bud and stall. "Ortho-stinchum" has been the exception. I would have though it to be the more difficult, being species. Why? Alvin your posts have been superb; not only on this thread but all of them. Thank you. Your posts on this thread confirmed the "why" for me. All of you in the upper zones really sorted it out for me. I put my orchids out this summer. I'd like to clarify that I have a massive amount of air/wind outside, living in the Windy City. I grow on a 2nd floor roof. It is often 7ºF cooler than street level. "Real Feel" is probably cooler with the wind. I visited z-6 recently. I saw orchids. I could see that 1 zone can make a difference. That may be why I can put mine in full sun. May, June and most of July were cool here. Oncids did fine at that time. ODBRS, Twinkle, SB, Ortho started to react/stall during late July and August when it got warmer. It was harder to tell with the Bivens. They had to be shaded or brought in. The rest, if they weren't burning, they were left in place. Twinkle was not in stellar shape, root-wise when I purchased it. My focus was to let Twinkle grow. It did. But the Spring spikes did not pop. I called OHG and they said "Keep it cool". It will bloom near the holidays. Premature spikes. That info came too late. Next year that will be taken into account. Premature and latent are signals that something is wrong with the past/present culture. I probably grew Twinkle a little too warm last winter. Ortho should have gone inside in late July when it heated up. I opted to heavily shade ortho outside. It was in spike. It is blooming. It didn't hold it's buds. I think that made the difference. It finally cooled off enough for me to want to bring some in Sept/Oct. Unfortunately, the fall weather turned into summer. Inside temps started to really climb. I didn't move them back out. The sun was gone by then. It was a choice of light vs temps. I chose light. Never a bad choice. However, that small action of shading ortho or leaving some out when it cooled may have made the difference. I shaded a few when the weather was warm, mainly hybrids that had "O", BLLRA's too at Arthur's warning. They are in spike. We shall see how much of a battle it will be to "pop" the buds. Orchids do have a cyclical"window". The critical time in this scenario is before spikes are produced and when they become visible on forward. I believe that is why the higher # zones can have Twinkle blooming during the summer, and Kevin. No accounting for his "Twink Magic" :-)) Seriously, he sits on the border of z-4 &5 and probably keeps his orchids cooler than I, during the winter/spring. If conditions are not met as specific times, they will not bloom, bloom poorly or as I am seeing, become a battle to "pop". They can't be subjected to wide temp swings that are not within their ability to cope. Putting them out actually becomes productive for growth but counter-productive for bloom. It does have an affect on their ability to bloom, even though they have been hybridized for some flexibility. As most of you know, light is no longer an issue for me indoors. Temperature has been my nemisis this year. Small nuances such as shading at certain times in the cycle or bringing them in, may be the key. At this point, I may or may not have success in getting Twinkle to pop the blooms. I went off the "cultural deep end". Even a week of inappropriate temps may affect a plant. I may suffer the consequences as a result and watch Twinkle abort his spikes. He has aborted the 2 that were produced in spring. Time will tell for the rest. There is no compensation/manipulation possible to sort it out. Tight culture and time will straighten it out. I also see the plant is not finished growing and producing spikes. That additionally indicates to me that temps were not correct for a time. The plants is packed with buds. But the yield may ultimately not be that great due to my cultural failure early in the year. This winter, they will be grown cooler. Next summer, they will go out early and come in when the weather gets beyond their cultural limits. We'll see if it makes a difference. I may not like the way this growup of ioncids smell, but what a valuable lessin! Clara

The polls all said that the Libs and the Cons were running neck and neck ... ... but Wynne (and the Libs) won ... with a majority, at that. It's a rather slim one - five seats ... so, as the experts were opining last night (and this morning) a couple of deaths and a car accident or two could make a difference, causing a reversion to the minority that we've had for some time. This result leaves the New Democrats with less clout, as their votes aren't needed in order to pass legislation. She says that there is a great deal of work to be done ... and that the legislature is to be recalled July 2 to go to work. And she's going to re-introduce the budget that she planned last year, that the leader of the New Democratic Party refused to support, though many said that it had been crafted with a number of social programs to gain her support, but that leader refused, saying that the premier'd welched on promises too many times. Added to which ... our newly elected premier, who'd been chosen as leader when the former one resigned after the earlier election, so she'd not been elected as leader before, is gay. At a poll where I was clerk, only 127 of 575 registered voters cast a ballot. I say that those who choose to not vote should be required to spend three to six months in a regime run by an autocrat, where, if they ever had a democratic system, it has faded to a dull memory. Also, it seems to me that people who choose to not vote are more or less spitting on the graves of the thousands of young men and women who were killed in World War II substantially to preserve freedom and democratic principles which we enjoy and on the persons of the ones who came home broken. ole joyful

Thanks for all the nice comments! I've grown these little "onions" for a couple of years now but this is the first time it has bloomed. Unfortunately there was no fragrance and the bloom only lasted a couple of days.But I still enjoy the look of the soft frilly vines.