I had almost the exact same thing happen. I had a bird's nest fern for a long, long time. It was out-growing the pot, It did well in winters underneath the oak so I thought, "Why not just plant it under the oak?" I did so and mine started to follow the same path as some of those discussed above. After watching it get worse and worse, I finally lifted it and replanted it into a new, larger pot. Almost immediately it started to get better. So ever since, it lives in a glazed pot under the oak. It sure didn't like being in the ground - or at least, my ground. Carol in Jacksonville

We just had really high winds this past week in eastern Massachusetts (wires down, power out at an office where I was on Tuesday). I wondered whether our feeders might have come crashing down. As it turns out they were okay. We have two "bird feeding system" poles (kits about ($20-$30 each)screwed into the outside of our deck railing, with two screws holding each in place. The screws are placed so as to keep the poles very strongly attached to the deck wood. I'm wondering whether you could put in a landscape timber (4 x 4 x 10?) like you did the conduit, and attach one of these feeder pole systems at the height you want. The digging is a lot of work (!) but if you plant the timber deeply enough and fill in with the right materials around the base of the timber it should hold through about any winds. Then you just need to be sure your poles are anchored well on the timber, and your feeders are on securely. Good luck with this - sometimes it takes time to figure out what will work, and everyone's situation is different.

This morning the OK Mesonet said that the lowest millibar recorded in OK (not necessarily the lowest millibar with this huge storm, as that likely was in another state) with this storm was 977 at Kenton, and it is the lowest pressure ever recorded anywhere in OK. Of course, I think they've only been recording this data for the 25 years that the Mesonet has been in operation. Larry, You're welcome. I'm glad you find the info helpful. Amy, Well...who knew that wind like this would hit your windows at just the right angle to clear out the cobwebs? That is pretty cool! At least some good is coming from all this windy nonsense. The sun came out here and I got very excited. After all, my plants have been hardening off for at least a week under cloudy skies, and we all know that the cloudy skies haven't prepared them for sunny skies. Actually, I think they had sunshine on Day 1 and Day 2, but not since. So, for Day 7, they got almost 2 hours on the front porch in the sunshine, fairly well sheltered from the wind. I think the worst wind they were exposed to might have been gusts in the 20s. The wind gusts have been stronger this afternoon, but the plants were indoors by then. It seems like our wind is continuing to slowly strengthen here, basically from west to east, so we weren't having really strong wind earlier this afternoon (gusting only in low 30s) but in the last hour it has been gusting into the upper 40s at times. I'll be glad when it is done. I hope the rain is drying up some of the mud. Wind will continue overnight, but I think tomorrow it should be sunny and somewhat less windy. Now, for everyone who wants to know the Maximum Wind Gust recorded at the OK Mesonet station nearest them today, here's the Max Wind Gust Map. OK Mesonet Maximum Wind Gust Recorded Since Midnight I know it is March. March is windy. Got it. However....I'm completely over it! I'd just like to have a normal warm Spring day with moderate wind and no rain. Is that going to happen? Soon? I hope so. Dawn

I can't really see anything particularly wrong in those photos. Good drainage is important as these are epiphytes. Their roots grow along tree bark and through mosses. They don't normally touch any soil. The problem could be the soil is too heavy and the orchid bark isn't enough to offset it. Epiphytes don't usually like much fertiliser compared to ground plants. The mainly survive on rain water which normally only contains carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. The rest comes from decomposition of organic matter on the tree trunks. Normal fertilisers are a bit heavy for them and can burn the roots. Of course burned roots means no water getting to the plant. Having a couple of plants in one pot isn't unusual. If they're grown from spore they're germinated in masses of small plants. When they're separated out to replant in pots it's easy to overlook a couple of plants being together. In nature they also germinate in large masses but competition leaves very few survivors. I don't know (only guessing) but maybe one plant is stiffling the other. Out competing it as happens in nature. Separating them may be a solution.