New habitats!

Well, I'm out of the Davis area, back to the South Bay Area. It's definitely a lot cooler in my house here than up there. I wonder how my orchids will fare. They're currently in a few different rooms that my parents stuck them in, but I'll be moving them shortly.

I also found some half dead bamboo shoots growing in a mucky glass vase with marbles and stones in it. I cleaned it up by getting rid of a lot of the algal growth and mineral residue, and stuck the roots back in. The shoots look pretty dried out, so I'm wondering if a slit into the bottom will allow more water in? Or maybe I can instigate more root growth with some of the rooting hormone I have.

And I'll be posting pictures of my poor babies soon, the move from point A to point B has been tiresome and horrific.

Orchid killer.

I've been highly suspicious of my Phal's soft, wilting leaves for a little while now, but only today did I pull it up and look at the roots. They're pretty shriveled and dead, so I guess that's another phal I've killed by repotting. Now I'm sure it's the repotting, because the plant was thriving and healthy when I bought it. I seem to have issues with repotting in general, but I can't stand to keep them in the moss...Oh the conundrum.

I drenched it in a bit of water, but as I'm moving out shortly, I don't want to do anything too cumbersome; I suppose my baby can wait a little longer. I did cut off an isolated root surrounded by death, and put that in a clear plastic bag with some water. Maybe that will force growth and photosynthesis.

In other news, I have another paph from my roommate! It's not a NoID, but I can't fully read the tag, as it's been worn. My parents are not pleased that they will have to help me transport them.

A blog? Really?

I've been very much against blogs, but I think the road to killing my NoID (no identification, aka no parental history) orchid collections deserves some cataloging. Afterall, if it's on the Internet, it will exist in some form forever, right?

I currently have 9 orchids, 8 of which are NoIDs. They're all an assorted mix of genera, so that will make the experience of keeping them alive even more...interesting. A couple of them I bought without any tags whatsoever, and I've tentatively identified their genera, but I'm afraid I'm not good enough to conclusively figure some of them out (I'm looking at you miltonia and miltoniopsis).

The plants were bought from assorted locations, but I have the sinking suspicion that most of them originate from the same breeder/nursery. The largest mass production orchid nursery in California that I've seen is either Matsui Nursery, Inc. or Rocket Farms. I've seen orchids tagged with one or the other at varying stores (Safeway, Costco, Trader Joe's, etc.), with a few being tagged from somewhere called 'Salinas Orchids', whose defunct Geocities website reeks of a 90's company acquired by another larger company, with the tags retained over time. Nevertheless, they're good at positively identifying the genus of the plant, serving their bare minimum purpose.

So the goal? To keep them alive for at least a year, and to instigate new growth. The ultimate goal would be to propagate some of the newer growth into its own pot, and to force/coax new flower spikes in a year or so.

But I have the tendency to overwater and baby these suckers (but hey, it's summer, and they need more water right...?), so we'll see.

I think the only solution is to buy so many, that I have no time to water them. Neglect is wonderful for these things.