Phalaenopsis orchid

 

 

Until last july I never thought that I would make a post about an orchid, I didn't like them at all, sorry
to say so. The only thing I liked about orchids were the leaves on some of them.
When I grew up in the 60's orchids were very rare to get, and when they were for sale it was only 1 flower that you could buy, in a little jar. As a child I thought the flower was fascinating, but when I
grew older I saw an orchid only as a flower that sick people got once a year from the Salvation Army.
And than, the last years, almost no-one grow plants indoors, but yes, most people DO have orchids.
I don't know how it is in other country's but here in Holland orchids, and than in particular phalaenopsis are a big, big hype.
About hypes I am a bad consumer, I don't care about them at all, and that's a good thing, otherwise
we had an empty white interior by now, with 2 phalaenopsis in the front window:-)

So, I never spend a dime on an orchid, & hated the look of tables full with them in the shops.
Until last juli!
I got a phalaenopsis from my dear parents, and no, it wasn't love on first sight, how could it be,
after all those years that I wouldn't look at an orchid, but I found a place for it in the window sill,
and the next day, with a lot of sun, the flowers looked so cheerful that it softened my heart:-)
Here it is just after I got it,

 
After a couple of weeks I really loved the little epiphyte, and found myself looking for info on google and orchid forums ( and discovered that there ARE more interesting orchids, LOL).
It grows really well, got a new stem in the mean time, at first I thought it was a new plant but it
turned out to be a new flowering stem;

But last weekend I discovered this new growth on the backside of the plant, and I think that this
could be a new plant, time will tell;

And this is the whole plant, also a picture from last weekend,

So, Mom and Dad, thanks again for broadening my green horizon!!
Dikke kussen! Ingrid XXXXXXXX

Hoya macgillivrayi - update

 

The Hoya macgillivrayi that I bought as compagny for the mac I already had, didn't look good
after a couple of weeks, it got black spots on two leaves and also looked dehydrated, so I was worried
that the roots were bad or some kind of nasty fungus found it's way into the plant.
I know that Hoya's can have all kind of spots on their leaves, but this spots looked wrong to me.
I made a picture but I am not sure if the spots are very visible, the dehydration is.
The one on the right is the mac that I already had.

I didn't hesitate for long,  took the  new mac out of the pot, repotted the old one in a smaller pot- so
he was on his own again- removed the sick looking leaves on the new one and made a cutting.
I put it in sphagnum,  in a separate little glass pot and when I looked at the roots on what was left of the mac, I thought that they looked a bit suspicious, but I liked to give it a try and put that also in a closed glass pot.
I left them there for weeks, and finally the cutting was rooted so I could remove most of the spagnum and put it in bark, and the other half, that was already rooted, looked also healthy.

This is the lower half of the mac,

and this is the now rooted cutting. I leave it in his little glass pot for another while, he likes his womb
a lot:-)

So my first plan- to give the old mac a bit of compagny- had failed.
But that little pigheaded old mac, that hadn't had a single grow since it came here, was soooo
very relieved that he was on his own again, that he started to grow!

You almost need a magnifier to see it, but there is a tiny little green spot in the middle of the pic,
next picture is a little later;

The next picture I took yesterday, he is still going!

Coleus or Painted Nettle

The Latin name is Solenostemon scutellarioides.
A perennial plant, kept as a houseplant and in gardens, but it is not frost tolerant.
I got cuttings  a few years ago from my dear friend, it is very easy to root - I always root them
in water and when they are rooted I put them in soil.
Coleus likes a lot of light for the colorful foliage- I've read that they most of all like partial shade,
but here they also get a bunch of direct sunlight.
I have to check the soil a couple of times a week, but when it is really hot I have to check dayly if they have enough to drink, but once the temperature is going down, you have to be careful not to overwater.
In the beginning I kept the coleus in the livingroom during wintertime, but the last year I kept it in
the closed veranda at the back of the house, it has a big single glass window at the top, and with a
little heater it is just not freezing there.
My coleus did really very well, but I was so stupid to let it hang under the big glass window during
the frost we had in january:-(
I could save 5 very tiny cuttings and rooted them, and now the nettle is bigger than ever before.
I keep it indoors, because it is so large.

Here it is in the closed veranda- during the summer the doors are open.

Because it's difficult to see how big it is on a picture, I asked Mart to hold it...

I have to mention that Mart is 1.90 mtr tall :-)


The last picture are the two nettles that I keep outside - I don't know for how much longer,
depends on the night temperatures, but here, close at sea, it takes longer for the nights to get
cold.

Some people only like the folliage and remove the flowers, but I like the blue flowers also ( and with
me a lot of insects!).