Go to sleep.

These look delicious. Looking at food at 1AM is ever a good idea.

Bulbs

I'm playing a game with myself, involving a list of common bulbed plants, their scientific name, and Google Images. So far I'm in the Bs. While I like them all fairly equally (and found out that the lilies I see so often are Alstroemeria), here's a few others I'm enjoying:

Babiana spp. (especially B. framesii)

Bessera spp.

Gladiolus spp. (of course :))

Eucomis! Really pretty, small clusters of flowers and all...

Not on the list per say, but Brodiaea californica is a nice native species.

Fun fact: the Canna plants you grow? Apparently the rhizome is rich in starch, and the seeds are a tortilla supplement.

Those silly irises you see planted in bunches in California area called Japanese/Butterfly irises.

Orchids for everyone!

Tonight I scored an Oncidium species from the raffle at the Malihini Orchid Society meeting. I seem to have already lost the tag in the span of 5 minutes, but I do believe it's an Onc. sphacelatum. Hopefully the tag turns up in the car. Or in my lap. That would be nice.

Anyway, the plant is HUGE. The pseudobulbs are oblong, about 4 inches high, and the leaves are blade-like, about a foot or more long. The inflorescences themselves (there are 2 of them) are branched and are sporting at least 50 blooms. The plant is tall, so tall in fact that it might have to live outside or on a plant stand on my floor, as it cannot live perched on a dresser like the other orchids.

Tonight's speaker was David Sorokowsky, speaking on the delightful little things that are Sarcochilus. Predominantly white, red, or white with red splotches, there are attempts to bring out browns, blues, and yellows. They're quite adorable! Sarcochilus species themselves are native to Australia and are cool/cold growing orchids, tolerating lows to 30F and wilting in anything above 80F. Hybrid vigor allows for a wider tolerance range, but I would still not want to chance these picky fellers in anywhere but San Francisco, or a heavily controlled greenhouse setting.

Watering

This will be the first summer my plants will experience with an educated me. I know that this is the growing season for all/most of my plants and have been heavily fertilizing them. I use a 20-10-20 orchid fertilizer, diluted from anywhere to 1/10th - 1/2 of the concentration (1 tablespoon/1 gallon) for daily use. I keep it in a spray bottle for easy surface/foliar application, and just spray until the top bark looks fairly damp. Since it is pretty hot, I do mist and water daily, as the bark medium does not hold as much water as sphagnum moss.

The way I water my plants doesn't require any soaking, as I've seen other people do. Not usually, at least. I just pour the water in, allow it to drain out, and hope the plant stays happy. It's not strictly scientific or even a good judge of wetness, nor an efficient method, but my babies are still alive...

Repotting

I have this nasty habit of death, destruction, and splitting of orchid rhizomes during the repot process. Part of me just thinks 'oh, whatever lives through this will live forever'. However, a larger plant is usually a healthier plant, and splitting should only be done to keep the plant in check. Today's endeavor was to repot 2 Cymbidiums that were overdue for a repotting, and thankfully I didn't maim (maybe a little, but don't tell anyone...) or split any of the backbulbs off. There were new leads growing from the old, established bulbs on both and hopefully in my packing of bark, they weren't harmed.

The Epidendrum I split didn't fare as kindly however. It looked something like the first picture before I came and hacked it up. In my infinite wisdom, I did not plan ahead for repotting more than the Cymbidiums, so I ran out of bark. Running out of time and rather annoyed with myself, I just decided to just throw most of the divisions I so gently created back into the same pot. Whoops. See the second picture and guess how many divisions are in each pot. Hint, each division was about 2 canes big. Le sigh.

And a happy pre-Fourth of July to you Americans, and a pleasant Damn Those Colonists To Hell to you Brits. :)

Santa Barbara Orchid Fair

http://orchidfair.com/

Tempted to go, but that's pretty damn far from home. :(