Pollenatrix

The unusual challenges of a botanical garden in India

The Daily Star ("Journalism without Fear or Favour"): "The centre of the problem is an under-construction 12-storey building overlooking the garden. 'Labourers of construction site often throw liquid rice-starch smack on top of the conservatory house which houses exotic orchids and indoor plants,' Hossain said. "

Lost in the suburbs

On the weekend my 1000w bulb went out, leaving my grow room in the dark, and I spent a fairly miserable rainy afternoon on Sunday trying to track down a new one. When I first set out, I was confident that it would be just a quick trip out to the hydroponics store at Applewood Plaza off Dixie Road, and when I got there I was dismayed to find that they had changed their hours and were no longer open on Sundays. I drove around a bit, and finally found a phone booth at a nearby gas station. I stepped out into the pouring rain and into the booth, only to find myself ankle deep in water. Grimacing at the cold water soaking my through my socks, I quickly looked up "hydroponics" in the yellow pages, and picked up the phone to make a call. No place to put in a quarter. I could hardly believe it, a phone booth that didn't take money! It accepted phone cards and credit cards, but no coins. Frustrated, I tore the page out of the phone book, and ran back to my car in shoes that were now squishing water. The next hour and a half was spent driving around Mississauga, cursing bad roads and depressing suburbs, frustrated that every hydroponics store I stopped at was closed on Sundays. Most of them were tucked away in seedy industrial buildings with taped up windows, and looked disreputable. What's with Mississauga and Sunday shopping? Am I to believe that every hydroponic marijuana grower is in church? By 3:30PM I was extremely grumpy. I stopped at a grocery store to find a REAL phone booth. I struck out on my first call -- Happy Girl Hydroponics in Kensington Market did not have the bulb I needed in stock. Pretty much fed up by now, I called 411 for the number of a store in Toronto that I recalled seeing during an internet search - my last try before giving up, and going home. Bingo! Bustan on Harbord Street, right beside Wonderworks and the Toronto Women's Bookstore - just east of Spadina - had it in stock, and they were open until 5PM. I jumped in my car and drove all the way back to Toronto, braving bad visibility, slippery highways and kamikaze truck drivers, to land safely in front of their store. I was well taken care of at the end of my miserable journey. I left there with the proper HID metal halide bulb, and a few other things as well, including a really neat 65watt full spectrum compact fluorescent bulb that fits into regular light fixtures. It works beautifully to light up the dark side of my grow room, so there's no need to buy an expensive light mover now. I also left there with a ph pen and a hard-to-find bottle of Superthrive. The owners, Nurit & Harley, spent a lot of time with me explaining the different products, and when I described the semi-hydro method of growing orchids, they promised to look into perhaps stocking up on Prime Agra, which I have had no luck finding in Canada so far.  I finally got home at around 5:30, soaking wet but finally content. After an afternoon fruitlessly scouring the suburbs, my quest ended, close to home after all. Yes, there are good reasons to live right smack in the middle of a big city, and this is one of them. :-)

Relatively quiet week

I finally got my car back from the garage after that deer ran into my car. Luckily there was no mechanical damage, but the body work was $500 (on a car that's probably only worth $1000). C'est la vie, but not the end of unfortunate encounters. Earlier this week, Mousepad the cat was jumped by the miserable cat creature that lives downstairs. The following morning he was a pathetic thing, dragging his hind leg around and mewling. I was a bit alarmed that he couldn't put any weight on his paw, so off to the vet. Fortunately, he was sent right home ($100) later with a shot of antibiotics and some pills I'm supposed to force down his throat every morning. He's much better now, and much more willing to be petted since I found (and pulled) a large claw out of the back of his head.

I gave away a bunch of houseplants last night, to make rooom for more orchids in my light stand. The trichopilia suavis 'Doris' I bought at the big sale is struggling a bit, trying to adjust to its new environment. It was inexpensive because it was stressed to begin with, but I sent a couple of pictures to John just to make sure I wasn't killing it. Here's what he told me: "Don't worry about your plant.  All is well and doing fine.  That last remaining green leaf and the new growth coming up from it should not have any problems...  Everybody likes to, but don't let yourself be tempted to dig around the new growth to see if there are any new roots.  They will be there and you will certainly at least, bruise them.  That plant cannot take any more setbacks.  Just be patient and let it do its' thing and recover in peace. " In the grow room, the spikes on the cattleya portia are starting to break out of their sheaths, and I expect I'll have blooms next week. The stanhopea looks like it has similar plans. I'll post pictures when it happens.

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Blooming at my house today...

This is a Phrag. Sedenii 'Blush', otherwise known as a Phragmipedium. I bought this one in bloom from John Marcotte, it has a second spike that is about to bust out another set of flowers any day now. Phrags are my favourite orchids -- I love the slipper lip on the blooms, and they seem to grow well for me. They need lots and lots of water, so they don't have any objections to my heavy-handed watering ways. I like a flower that likes me back.

This is Mtdm. Bartley Schwarz 'Highland' AM/AOS. "Mtdm." stands for Miltonidium, which is a Miltonia crossed with an Oncidium. I guess if you don't know what a Miltonia or an Oncidium look like, that's not much help. But, it's a pretty flower, there are several on the spike, and they're a deep burgundy red with a creamy white lip. I can take full credit for this one, it's the first time it has bloomed for me.

This little cutie isn't an orchid, it's an air plant of some kind. I think it's really a Tribble from an old Star Trek episode.

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A piccie of my grow room for posterity...

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Begone, miserable African Violets!

I'm finally fed up with the african violets -- after all this time, they still haven't shown any spark of recovery. The leaves were tiny and deformed with red streaks through them, the flowers (what few there were) super small and twisted, and there was just no sign of new growth anywhere, no matter what I did to coax and prod and plead. I think they have a virus. So, this morning I swept them all off the shelf and into the garbage, except for one that looks perfectly fine and is one tough customer. My light stand in the front hall is bare... and ready to be loaded up with orchids!

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Case study of orchid cases...

This caught my eye, because my "brother-in-common-law" is making me an orchid case. He normally builds fish-tanks and terrariums, and hasn't grown orchids, so I did my best and described to him what I thought the case would need. Now I can send him this article:  Mike Bechtold's "Magic Box" The writer refers to his case as a Grand Cayman Orchidarium. I understand this is a type of orchid (or "Wardian") case built by a company called Orchidarium Inc. in the United States. Yikes, at $1869 USD a shot (double that in Canadian dollars), maybe my bro ought to start up a new sideline!

I watered and fertilized my

I watered and fertilized my orchids last night with Dyna-Grow "ProteKt" and "Bloom", and I tossed a few crystals of epsom salts in the water as well. I write this for my own benefit because my record-keeping is at best, haphazard. Next time I get the urge to give them the epsom salt treatment, I can check the date on the blog to make sure it's been at least 4 months. Why epsom salts? Mostly because I read on a forum somewhere that the plants like it. I like epsom salts in my bath water too. Most of my orchids are in semi-hydro, though I've repotted all my phals in New Zealand sphagnum moss because none of them were happy. More than half the blame for that can be laid at the doorstep of that destructive racoon, who couldn't be convinced that those were roots, not fat grubs. Since the only healthy phal I own is in moss (and was kept indoors under lights all summer), I decided to see if changing the medium would give the poor beaten-up and broken things a boost. Don't get me wrong, semi-hydro works great for most of my orchids. The phrags and the zygos love it. It's just the phals that aren't thriving in it, for me at least. I've heard the same from a couple of other people. Speaking of raccons, Laird had a heart attack the morning of the day I arrived home. He walked into the kitchen and the dog food was knocked over, and what little was left was all over the kitchen floor. Once this evidence of a midnight racoon raid registered, he raced to the back porch to check my orchids. They were untouched. Obviously the F.B. (fat bastard) gorged himself to the point he couldn't be bothered with mere flowers. Laird's first act of the morning was mopping up the back stairs, as the wretched creature had left a trail of pee all the way down and out the door (the door he had pried open the night before).

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There's lotsa action in the

There's lotsa action in the grow room tonight. One of the four big buds on the Queen of the Night has bloomed -- sadly, the other three will bloom tomorrow night while I'm in Montreal, missing it. I made Laird promise that he'd invite his friends over tomorrow and stare at it and make all the impressed noises this occasion deserves. Plus, I bought a new orchid today, at a little flower shop in Bloor West Village. It's Blc. Alma Kee, a gorgeous yellow with a deep burgundy lip that is lined with gold. It's a real beauty.

 

Here's something else that's interesting. Remember I wrote a while ago that the Hibisicus Moscheutos blooms became white as the weather got colder outdoors? Well, I brought the giant plant indoors, and in the warmer conditions the blooms are dusted with deep pink. Odd. I've read that this plant is hardy to zone 5, which I find very hard to believe -- it looks so exotic. I'm afraid to leave the pot outdoors all winter and risk losing it.

To the right is a close-up of the Queen of the Night plant. The blooms open at night and are dead by morning. The scent is intoxicating -- a very heavy perfume. To the left is a close-up of the Hibiscus Moscheutos bloom.

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Picture time

Here's the mudroom, newly converted back to a grow room for the winter. I haven't finished bringing everything inside yet (eek!)

Five phrags, five tags, and I can't tell them apart. The racoon knocked my orchids over earlier in the summer, and I'll have to wait until they bloom to re-unite name to plant. I know the one on the front right is a Phrag Schroderae (pretty, huh?), because it's very slowwwww growing. I bought it in December 2002 as a new division and it has just recently put out a new growth. The phrag behind it has a spike, so one piece of the puzzle will be solved shortly. The four remaining are: Phrag. Eric Young, Phrag. Sedenii "blush", Phrag. Hanne Popow x Sedenni, and Phrag. sargentianum x (besseae x Grande). I still want a Don Wimber.

Here's a picture of my Queen of the Night (epiphyllum oxypetallum), with four big buds that are ready to pop any day now.

 

 

 

 

In the middle (above), the gorgeous Angel Wing Begonia that my friend Carole gave me this summer is doing extremely well. On the right (above), my Spider Plant just keeps on getting bigger and bigger. I pinched a plantlet from an office at Oshawa Centre while I was doing a project there, and THIS is the same plant, 8 years later.