We have had a few things die lately or they were just sickly and we threw them away.
We got a big cattleya from the Orchid Society raffle that ended up flowering soon after we got it. The flower was red/maroon with a red lip. We didn't care for it. The flower also had some funny colorations on it that made us think it had virus. Once it was done flowering we threw it in the compost pile. The plant part looked reasonably healthy, so we felt bad pitching it, but a local expert said the virus will often first be noticeable in the flowers then spread to the leaves.
The Paphiopedilum bellatulum also died. I think we watered it too much because most of the roots were dead. We tried to put it in rehab but it just got worse and worse. We finally just threw it out. That was really sad because we had been so excited about this plant. We specifically searched for and bought it because we think they look so cool. When we told Paul we had killed it, he said they are one of the harder ones to grow. Maybe we will try again sometime... Maybe we will practice on some easier paphs first.
One of the bunch of Phals we had gotten from a garden center just kept looking really bad, and we learned that it probably had leaf mites. We weren't that attached to it, so we pitched it.
The Masdevallia veitchiana that Steven got me for my birthday died too. It seemed to be doing well until May. We put it briefly in the kitchen window, and I think we cooked it's poor roots because the kitchen gets a lot of sun, and it was getting warmer and we didn't realize. The leaves got all these sunken brown spots on them and were falling off one by one. We tried to rehab it with no success. It finally totally kicked it over the summer. I think it was just too hot for it with us. I really like masdevallia's because they are so lovely, but I don't know if they are the right plants for us :(
We nearly killed our Encyclia tampensis AGAIN. But I think we have put it in rehab in time. The roots were rotting- so I guess we were not letting it dry out enough. They are twig epiphytes in the wild so they dry quickly- however they also have a lot of humidity and dew fall during the dry season. We un-potted it and let it sit bare root for a couple weeks until it started to make new roots. We mounted it this time since we can't seem to stop over watering it. We will mist it every day or every other day and see how it does. So far the little baby roots are still there. I am feeling optimistic about it. It is so interesting how much things change seasonally. In the early summer we were watering it more frequently and it seemed to respond well to that, and it flowered nicely. I guess we didn't cut down on water properly- or got too over-excited with the watering as it came into the end of the summer, because that's when it started to look a little sad.
A couple of things were in bud but didn't end up flowering
Phragmipedium bessae hybrid had buds, but we repotted it because it was stressed from being too hot. So the buds ended up rotting. That was sad, but I don't feel so bad, because I am reasonably confident we can make it happen again.
Steve Stevenson had a bud too, but it rotted from getting water in it at the greenhouse a couple weeks ago. That is more upsetting because we have never seen it before. According to google images it isn't going to look like a favorite, so this way it will get to live with us for a while longer. We are trying to make a philosophy of giving away things we don't really like. However, those are also the things that we made flower!! Tricky trade-off.
No comments:
Post a Comment