| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Oct | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
Pages
Categories
Blogroll
What’s blooming now?
Well, I didn’t get to enjoy my orchids much of this summer. I was out of state on a project for 12 weeks so my sister got to baby-sit my orchids. So far, three cattleyas have bloomed and almost all of my Neofinetias. I also found that while the majority of the Neo are white, I do have one green. :) And most are fragrant! There are a few more orchids in bud right now and I’m hoping they’ll make it to bloom.
Pics that my sister took, to be loaded when I find them.
My collection has grown; I got most of the Neofinetias this year. On the other hand, some of my cymbidiums are dead. It’s either from no water/too much sun or they were virused. I’ll probably be posting the full list later this month.
Plant-wise, my plumeria bloomed; and the jasmine of course. The peony didn’t and I think the root may be dead as well; I have the herbaceous type and unfortunately, they’ve been dying one by one. A co-worker mentioned we probably should have dug them up and put them somewhere cool and dry for the winter. The sundew also bloomed; that was a pretty long stalk of flower, twice.
The end in site?
Yes, I mean site… although sight should be the actual word. :p
House-hunting has been interesting because if there’s anything in common with what I’ve seen, all the homes had been “in the family” since it was built and is finally being sold. What does this mean? It means that most everything needs updating, esp. the kitchen, bathroom and electrical. It seems the easiest thing to do is to paint and maybe re-do the floors. I’ve seen some gems, but I haven’t come up with “a ha!” reaction, that the house is so mine.
At least, I hadn’t.
I added townhouses, more out of curiosity, and came across a possible gem. There are ‘green’ homes being built in the city next to where I work; commute is within 30 minutes, even by not going on the freeway. My agent is now checking on the new community and if everything checks out, I get my pick of the units. It’s so brand new that it’s still the Grand Opening.
Spring is almost here
Just a quick post. I’m still around. At work, I’m currently on a year long project (converting our Hawaii employees onto the HRIS system) and yes, it does/will include travel. On the personal side, I’m house hunting! It’s fun! More later.
Orchid Collection - Update
As of 08/19/2007:
Ascda. John DeBiase ‘Angela’ (AM/AOS)
Ascda. Muang Thong x V. Pimchai Beauty
B. nodosa x C. loddigesii ‘Herbrita’
Blc. Dora Louise Capen Lea
Blc. Lawless Zauberflote ‘Rainbow’
Blc. Panda Spark
Blc. Taiwan Queen King’s Monkey
Bc. Hawaiian Passion
Bc. Maikai ‘Mayumi HCC/AOS
Bc. Morning Glory
Bc. Roman Holiday `Sun-Son’ (C. Chocolate Drop x Brassavola nodosa)
Cattleya or Lc.
Cattleya or Lc. (possibly Lc. Mem. Robert Strait ‘Blues’ or cross)
Coelogyne lawreceana
Ctna. ‘Why Not’
Cym. Baltic Christmas
Cym. Cherry Blossom ‘Profusion’
Cym. dayanum
Cym. Devon Ranee ‘SanBar Black Cherry’
Cym. hybrid (red)
Cym. Maui Mist “Waterfield’s Snow Cap” (HCC/AOS)
Cym. Mighty Mouse ‘Minnie’ x Lamplighter ‘Aladdin’
Cym. Minneken ‘Pink Peal’
Cym. ‘Miss Muffet’
Cym. Nicole’s Valentine ‘Modoc’
Cym. Peace Fire
Cym. Sarah ‘Pearl Falls’
Cym. Showgirl ‘Malibu’ HCC/AOS SM/CSA
Cym. Sleeping Dawn ‘OG x Walter’
Cym. Starbright ‘Sirius’ (AM/AOS)
Cym. Swan Lake ‘Pirouette’
Cym. Sweatheart ‘Elegance’
Cym. Tislonkobb (?) ‘Peaches’ (Pearly Queen x Balkis)
Cym. Wiganianum (eburneum X tracyanum)
Den. Moniliforme (Cho sei ran) Kin ryu
Den. Kanjana
Den. kingianum (3)
Den. kingianum (4 keiki)
Diaca. Chantilly Lace ‘Hildos’
Dtps. Mount Lip x Phal. Sogo Tris
Epc. Siam Jade ‘AVO’ (AM/CST) (2)
Iwan. Appleblossom ‘Spring Time’
Isabelia pulchella (Neolauchea pulchella)
Masd. ‘Fancy Pants’
Masd. hybrid
Masd. pinocchio
Masd. Dean Haas (Copper Angel x Angel Glow)
Masd. Golden Sun (Canary x Angel Sang)
Max. tenuifolia
Milt. ‘Echo Bay Twilight Tears’
Milt. Augres ‘Trinity’
Mtdm. Pupukea Sunset ‘Palao Puff’
Neo. falcata
Neos. Lou Sneary ‘Lea’ (AM/AOS)
Onc hybrid (3)
Odo. hybrid (possibly Odo. Lavender Lace or cross)
Paph. charlesworthii
Paph. hybrid (possibly with Paph. niveum cross)
Paph. Magic Lantern
Paph. Maude Raven x Paph. Black Buddha
Paph. moquettianum
Paph pinocchio (moquettianum x primulinum)
Phal. hybrids (6)
Phal. hybrids (2 keiki)
Phal. Kuntrarti Rarashati ‘Joy’ (equestris x venosa)
Phal. pulcherrina
Pot. Ah Chung Yoyo ‘Little Gold Fish’
Slc. Hsin Buu Lady
Vanda (V. Charles Good Fellow x V. Tessellata)
Vanda (V. Sanderiana x V. Sanderiana tameblata)
V. Fuchs Golden Leopard ‘Lipstick’ x V. Wirat ‘Pink’
V. Udom Gold x Ascda. Suksamran Gold
Currently in bloom - Orchids
From left to right:
A pink mini Phalenopsis (Dtps. Mount Lip x Phal. Sogo Tris) and an ultra-minature (Phal. pulcherina) species.
Masdavallia pinocchio and another mini Phal (yellow, name unknown).
Garlic Festival
So… this weekend was Gilroy’s Garlic Festival. It doesn’t take too long to get there so I went with a neighbor. I have to say that I’m kind of disappointed. The food was okay and garlicky but for the area called Gourmet Alley, it’s just fair food, nothing impressive. I would have expected “Gourmet” to be really gourmet but *shrugs* whatever.
It also seemed that there were more food vendors than crafty stuff; yes the focus was garlic but you can only eat so much. At 95 degrees, you wouldn’t want to be without shade the entire visit so we skipped the cooking demo/competition since the bleachers was out under the sun. I think the trip would have been much better if it didn’t take an hour to get from the Gilroy exit to the parking lot. And the craft vendors? I actually see most of them around the local street fairs.
I would give this festival an average rating.
SB Weekend
I had a fun time in Santa Barbara last weekend. I went with a co-worker to the Orchid Fair and we also visited two orchid nurseries.
I got to her place Friday night and went to her orchid society meeting; it was fun watching the show and tell because everyone from beginner’s on up had a lovely flowering orchid they got to brag about. I think this is the first time I’ve seen a Laelia tenebrosa; it is very striking in that the petals are orange and the lip is purple (or magenta?). The flowers are huge, hand-size and bigger. The lecture that night was on Cymbidiums, which I enjoyed since I’ve been trying to learn more. It turns out that the guest speaker also organizes tours to China and Thailand, combining both regular tourist-y stuff and visits to orchid areas (and greenhouses?). That’ll be fun to follow up on one of these days; unfortunately, I would need to 20 days off… which I have in my bank… but I doubt my manager will let me off for that long. 
Once at Santa Barbara, we went to visit the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate (http://www.sborchid.com) and Cal-Orchids (http://www.calorchid.com) before hitting the fairgrounds for the Orchid Fair (http://www.orchidfair.com). I bought some of the miniature and ultra-miniature Cymbidiums I’ve been looking for as well as a Paph and Neofinetia. I usually am willing to try out new orchids as long as they’re temperature tolerant and doesn’t need any special care to keep them alive and are small or a miniature. (Blooming is usually another story for me… hehehe.)
Aphids and scales
I suppose I’m lucky that with balcony gardening, I get a limited amount of pests. Still, aphids on roses and scales on orchids are disgusting.
Apparently, one of my Vandas was already infected at the time of purchase and after a couple of weeks, the eggs hatched. Yuck. It was already too late to save it because by the time I noticed it the infestation and found out it was scales, the orchid died pretty fast. At least it wasn’t brushing up against any other orchid so the others seem fine. I hadn’t cleaned and repotted the Vandas because the bark mix looked okay; when the bark mix looks fairly new, I’ll leave it alone. Maybe it’s time to change that practice. A co-worker gave me some Ultrafine for the scales which apparently is a tough bugger to kill; I think it’s the hard scales (brown) that’s difficult to kill, the soft scales (white) seem to die when I first used gardening bug spray.
Unlike the scales, I’m not quite sure where the aphids came from. I have a second floor apartment and the balcony is separated by walls from my neighbor. I suppose the bugs can always be blown by the wind. I bought two roses this year (Intrigue and Strike It Rich) and it bloomed nicely. At least, the roses were doing fine until I went away for vacation… and two weeks later, the leaves were shriveling a bit and the aphids were all over. Eewww. The only lucky thing is that the aphids are only on the roses and my jasmine, peonies and lemon seedlings look clean.
My sister found a website on a home-remedy; she found this recipe when she found aphids on her tea (tree) roses. It’s a garlic soap mix: soak a couple of cloves of garlic in a few tablespoons of vegetable oil, soak overnight and then strain the oil into 2 liters of water (I use a 42 oz spray bottle) with about a teaspoon of liquid soap (regular not concentrate). This has worked pretty well with the roses in controlling aphids although it smells like garlic for a bit. I also had some organic rose (with neem oil) spray that also is good. Interestingly enough, the rose spray also lists scale as something it would control/kill.
My Orchid Collection
Current orchid collection includes:
Bc. Maikai Mayumi
Bc. Morning Glory
Bc. Roman Holiday ‘Sun-Son’ (C. Chocolate Drop x Brassavola nodosa)
Blc. Dora Louise Capen Lea
Blc. Lawless Zauberflote ‘Rainbow’
Blc. Taiwan Queen King’s Monkey
Cattleya or Lc. (name unknown, pale yellow w/purple lip, fragrant)
Cattleya or Lc. (name unknown, white w/pink lip)
Coelogyne lawrenceana
Ctna. Why Not (Broughtonia sanguinea and Cattleya aurantiaca)
Cymbidium dayanum
Cymbidium Maui Mist “Waterfield’s Snow Cap” (HCC/AOS)
Cymbidium Minneken ‘Pink Pearl’
Cymbidium Miss Muffet
Cymbidium Peace Fire
Cymbidium Sweatheart ‘Elegance’
Cymbidium Tistronkobo(?) ‘Peaches’ (Pearly Queen x Balkis)
Cymbidium hybrid (pink, mini)
Den. Moniliforme (Cho sei ran) Kin ryu
Dendrobium Kanjana
Dendrobium kingianum (3) (hybrids, name unknown, pink)
Diaca. Chantilly Lace ‘Hildos’
Dtps. Mount Lip x Phal. Sogo Tris
Epc. Siam Jade ‘AVO’ (AM/CST)
Iwan. Appleblossom ‘Spring Time’
Masdavalia (name unknown)
Masdavalia Dean Haas (Copper Angel x Angel Glow)
Masdavalia Golden Sun (Canary x Angel Sang)
Masdavallia Fancy Pants
Masdavallia pinocchio
Maxillaria tenuifolia
Miltoniopsis Augres ‘Trinity’
Miltoniopsis Echo Bay ‘Midnight Tears’
Neolauchea pulchella
Oncidium (3) (names unknown)
Paph. Pinocchio
Phalaenopsis (name unknown)
Pot. Ah Chung Yoyo ‘Little Gold Fish’
Slc. Hsin Buu Lady
Vanda hybrid