Wantonmara, I know what you mean, . Lol.. It was like a FLASH when I first thought of it, " The price of enjoying life" But it's good! Right?! . Were all in a good Vice & were all doing good at this thing called "Garden Lovers" You know that would make a great Bumper sticker "GARDEN LOVER" :) Greg

It's true they do make excellent parents. Bird brains? Bah! Yes, human parents could learn a lot from the way these little ones protect their babies. A couple of years ago I rescued a little fledgling that was displaced from its nest. The Wildlife guy came out and said it would be good if the mother bird would take it back. I put it outside and kept a close watch on it. Sure enough, the mother bird came squawking up and once again took up her quest to guard and feed her little one. Seemed the baby had two moms. Since it was hopping a lot along the ground and only onto lower branches. I spent a good part of the day keeping an eye on it along with its mother. Did this for several days. As we were leaving for vacation shortly thereafter, I had to just leave the little guy up to God and its mother. I think it had started flying to somewhat higher branches by this time. When we returned from our trip a couple of weeks later, it was no where to be found. Hopefully, it was already strong enough to be mostly on its own. Who knows? Maybe the one that's attacking me is that little bird all grown up. lol I'd hope that he'd remember my concern for him and be a little kinder to me. :-) Of course, it may not be the one I rescued at all.

Thank you for the kind words Ladies … and I haven’t even posted the new ones from this year yet !!! Deb - I have in fact dived into the proverbial pond of seed growing. After the splash I made at the BADITC auction I had better, right ? But, I’m saving that unveiling for a separate post. Stay tuned. :) Dearest Mocc - Was it you who ended up with that variegated bletilla ??? I almost went for that last year, but held off since I wasn’t sure if I would have the space (which I didn’t). Also, bletilla do NOT overwinter in pots at all, or at least they didn’t for me. I had some of the standard striata in a pot from 2012 and this spring in 2013 I finally decided to dump it when there was no emergence by June. Sure enough the pseudobulbs had rotted to mush. I still have two patches in the back yard gardens that are faring so-so. I have plans to move them this spring to the amended front beds, currently they’re competing with some major maple roots. They haven’t bloomed in the last two years so I know I need to move them or they will eventually be strangled out ... and we can't have that, now can we ?!?! Bkay - I’m glad you enjoyed ! Always a pleasure to share. I'm surprised being in Texas you haven't tried some yourself .......... enable. :p Trudy - Indeed, I am definitely NOT looking forward to the culling, but it seems a necessary evil when growing seeds for streaked breeders. But, I finally got my login sorted out over on the HSG forums (thank you again Bob), so you shall see me posting over there soon with progress. And that leaves me with Miss Jo - Goodness Gurl, you type about as much as ‘Long-Winded Ludi’. I LOVE IT !!! What a wonderful story about your experience in Beamsville (listen to me, like I know where that is). I would love for my partner to build me a greenhouse, but he knows that would in essence be Pandora’s Box. For now, he’s content to leave me with my room in the attic. Honestly though, I don’t have enough time working a full time job to take care of what I have NOW, let alone taking on more. What did Ken say earlier this year … ah … hope springs eternal. :) You leave me with some opened ended questions, so I will take the easy one first. I counted pictures, and I believe #17 was this one: Its fancy name is psychopsis mendenhall and the common name is butterfly orchid. Although if you google ‘butterfly orchid’ you get all kinds of garbage, so google the latin name. :) Interesting that you would choose this one, as it is the only orchid of mine that is in bloom pretty much all year. It puts out a flower stalk way high above its leaves, and then will only form one bud at a time. Once that first bud opens and the flower eventually fades and falls off, it will then put a new bud out at the same meristem. It takes anywhere from 2-3 weeks for one bud to mature, but then the flower is open for about as long. So I am basically 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off with a flower. It is one of the best orchids I’ve ever grown. I confess I don’t keep mine watered as much as I should and my temps/humidity are all over the place. If I was more of a perfectionist I could probably get it to throw two of three more flower stalks. Then they would open at different intervals, subsequently allowing a flower to be viewed at all times. Usually at orchid shows they sell them with at least two or three flowers stalks. Mine presently has two, but the original has stopped blooming. Here is a picture I took today to illustrate this. You can obviously see the flower on the left :) and the multiple re-blooming that occurred on the older stalk to the right. I only had both of them open once, and then after that the first stalk stopped blooming. That was back sometime in June though. I can’t quite bring myself to cut it off … keep hoping it will maybe start blooming again … there is that spring of eternal hope again. :p Oh, also, to give you a time table, the original stalk kept re-blooming for almost two full years before the second stalk came up and ‘took over’. Sort of like a changing of the guard, now that I think about it. :) As for your second question - what would be a preferable orchid for you to try, given the limited environment you described ? That is a tough call, honestly, and I have given a lot of thought to it. I think the most ‘forgiving’ would be a phaleonopsis. However, I do not have any experience with growing orchids on windowsills and don’t know that I would if I had a south facing window after the success I’ve had growing under lights. But I understand that most people are far more practical than me, so I stand with my suggestion of phaleonopsis. :) Orchids need enough light both to sustain life and re-bloom. But light is only half the battle. To get a Phal to rebloom, you need to have a noticeable drop in temps from a consistent couple of months of warm summer weather. Ya know what ?!?!? I JUST wrote a four page breakdown for Steve to help him with his little Phal about a month ago (still waiting on those pictures Steve). Email me through the GardenWeb, include your return email in the body of the message, and I will be happy to send it to you. And to anyone else who may be interested. It is basically a four page primer from MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE … I break a lot of rules, so I have to make that disclaimer since any ‘real’ orchid enthusiast would run away screaming if they saw my setup and my methodologies. But hey, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I guess I have been doing something right these last 4 years. ::grins:: But seriously, shoot me an email and I will send you a copy of the word document. Orchids are not impossible, but they are fussy and highly specialized. But that does not mean you can’t have your own success. Take a dive, the water is fine. :) ::enablenablenablenable:: Ludi

Rant: Once the yuppies get ahold of an idea to sell for big bucks... once packaged, the grassroots are instantly fried when it comes to those who's lives could truly benefit from its concept--the poor. The assumption now rules of, "if someone can make money off implementing these ideas, so am I". Well, not everyone is out to become a wealthy organic permie farmer! Mollison and Holmgren brought the narrow growth of permaculture upon themselves from the get-go by continually being paid big bucks to hoick permaculture to the non-poor, (who, more often than not--and much to everyone's chagrin, have freebooted permaculture's basic ideals and actually make them work--without any "experts" fancy-schmancy financial input!) Permaculture founders could have burst on the scene for free for the greater good of all Mankind, like Alexander Graham Bell's (who's freely given inventions are still with us). But, nooooo..... There goes a profoundly worthwhile ideal before it ever got off the global ground and changed the world. Nowadays you cannot get within an official "permaculture course" outside of a few thousand bucks. Greed rules, even there. Nothing changed, Bill and Dave. Just the scenery inside your heads. And don't ever believe that they don't make money off permaculture. Their conference speaking fees rival former president Clinton's. But, thank God for the internet, where anyone can search out permaculture basics and take it from there, without expensive "permie teachers" droning on. IF they have access to a computer, that is. Few poor do.