Orchids for Christmas

The weather has turned cold outside, so we're staying indoors with the orchids. I took a chilly trip by small plane to the northern village of Southend this past week. It was -42 degrees C there and the heaters in the plane were not working on the trip there or back! The brand new Sorel boots didn't even keep my feet warm. Next time, the outfit will see the addition of snowpants and three pairs of wool socks. My head was toasty, however. I've found that multiple hats/hoods over the ipod earbuds enhance the audio quality in a loud plane, resulting in a less-than-attractive appearance. But who cares? This is the north, where high fashion means having a fancy snowmobiling suit.

A yellow phalaenopsis has been blooming for a couple months now:

It has a second spike coming up at the left, so we'll have flowers for several more months.

Dendrobium nobile "Angel Smile" is blooming again, with its lilac-scented white blooms lightly edged in pink.

I have many of these orchids to give away, as this plant often produces little plant-lets along its stems and I pot most of them up to grow into bigger plants. Does anyone want to trade?

How many of you are giving live plants/bulbs for Christmas? I love the idea of giving amaryllis or other bulbs for forcing in the winter. Even if the person is a non-gardener, the colors will be appreciated. Also, there is no clutter left over because when they are done flowering, you can just toss it in the compost. I've decided against giving narcissus though, since I think they stink. My alternative favourite: food gifts.

Back with my Indoor Garden

I have neglected to post for a while now, which was duly noted by some readers! The outdoor world is cold and snowy, so what is a gardener to do other than travel to some warmer and milder location? Yes, I abandoned my northern garden to go browsing though Vancouver's lush green gardens at the end of October.
Fushia in bloom at the Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver:

It was like reliving September in my garden. The mums looked marvelous, the Japanese maples wore crimson leaves, and the only thing coming from the sky was occasional rain.
Quarry garden at the Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver:

Bonsai trees at the Buddhist temple in Richmond, BC.

On a very exciting note, I picked up two new orchids. Both are tropical ladyslippers and fairly hard to find: Paphiopedilum bellatulum and Paph. charlesworthii. I was excited to get these labeled species orchids from a kind lady selling them at Vancouver's Granville Island Public Market. If you ever visit Vancouver, you must spend at least half a day at Granville Island (hardly an island, but definitely a shopping/arts/crafts/food paradise). As it turns out, this lady travels to the Saskatoon garden show each spring and sells bare root orchids at a booth. I think I bought one of her orchids in Saskatoon two years ago! It's definitely a small world. Unfortunately, the spotted orchid's leaves show some damage now, likely from cold sometime on the last day of travel. Hopefully it survives.

My basement orchid collection contains this nice group of Dendrobium nobile "Angel Smile". They keep multiplying like the stray dogs on our street and I hope some caring, plant-friendly folks will volunteer to take some off my hands.

We visited the two grizzly bears kept in a natural habitat near the top of Grouse Mountain. They were oblivious to the onlookers. One was busy digging a cave while the other looked on with seeming amusement.

Purple Carrots and a White Orchid

I picked the first of my purple carrots, which added some sweet carrot flavor to my lunchtime salad. I admit to child-like interests in my vegetable garden, selecting novelty vegetables and drooling over Lee Valley's "veggie-forms" that can make your squash and cucumbers grow into ugly-old-man faces. Next year we'll have some purple tomatoes and the spiky Romanesco broccoli just because I want to see what they look and taste like! So far, the diaper-wearing junior gardener has approved my my interesting veggies.

This poor white Phalaenopsis orchid is blooming despite being repotted while in bud, which is an orchid sin I have committed on more than one occasion. Also, some brushes with careless humans (mostly myself) have knocked off a few buds, to complement the shriveled one on the end of the spike (which is probably from the trauma of repotting). It HAD to be repotted though, since the former pot was too small and falling apart. Would you believe there is yet another phalaenopsis in the basement with a new spike of buds? Unbelievable! I love these plants.

Orchid and Baobab Update

Here's an unknown type of Dendrobium (?spathulatum), in full bloom with 4 spikes. This is the most flowers it's ever had. This is the biggest orchid I grow and it needs to be repotted after these blooms are done.

Here's a picture of my little 4 year-old baobab bonsai, which just starting growing leaves again this past month. It's very happy in its hot and sunny windowsill after spending the winter dormant period in the basement. After this picture, I pruned all the growing stems back to only one leaf node, to promote further branching. I'll take another picture when it starts looking bushy.

For updates on the baobab, see July 9/09.

Buying Orchids When You Live in the Sticks

Besides the outdoor garden, I like to keep a variety of houseplants. Presently, more than half of these are orchids. Contrary to popular opinion, orchids are not hard to keep. However, buying a variety of orchids is hard to do when the nearest center with an orchid club and decent nurseries is a 4 and 1/2 hour drive away.

A Phalaenopsis getting ready to bloom again. I just propped up this flower spike with a bamboo stick, though I really wish I had more stylish supports for my orchids.

Thus, here are your options in rural Canada:

• Drive far, far away to a real nursery that sells a variety of orchids, which are actually labelled with their proper names. Carefully transport them along with your bulk food and toilet paper purchases back to your house, preferably not in the back of your pickup truck.
  
• Buy at the nearest Wal*mart or grocery store, where you may find a small but nice Phalaenopsis (and nothing else). In case you need orchid potting medium, Wal*mart now sells that too, which saves me another 2 hour drive.
  
• Buy orchids on eBay and have them shipped to your rural post office. This is my chosen method and seems to be inexpensive too! I buy only from Canadian sellers, to save the hassles of phytosanitary certificates and delays due to inspections at the border.

Dendrobium nobile "Angel Smile" in foreground:

I suppose this is free advertising, though I don't even know these people, but I just bought a really nice Dendrobium pattaya from eBay seller "Macrovulgaris in the Greenhouse", who is in Surrey, BC. It came in great condition and is definitely flowering-size, as it has some stubs of old flower stems on the tops of its canes. I've bought a few other orchids on ebay and have generally been happy, though NEVER try to buy one in winter time. I had some orchids come looking like wilted yellow compost matter, after some glitch resulting in a November arrival.

These orchids are getting natural light, while the immature and small non-flowering plants stay under lights in the basement:

Just remember not to buy solely based on the allure of attractive flowers. Read up on orchids and find out their light, humidity, and temperature requirements. I can really only grow orchids indoors, so I only grow ones that do well in indoor environmental conditions. The common moth orchid, Phalaenopsis, is probably ubiquitous in stores because it does well in ordinary house conditions. Otherwise, I have Paphiopedlium "Magic McNavy", and several types of Dendrobiums.

Phalaenopsis, name unknown:

I've never had a Phalaenopsis that didn't rebloom, though one took 2 years to do so. If you are patient and give the orchid good conditions, it will reward you with several months of blooms. I have one that has been blooming continuously since last November! I anticipate more blooms into August.

Wild Orchids and Friends

The wild lady slipper orchids (Cypripedium acaule) are blooming right now. If you live in town, get out in the boreal forest and take a look!

The "Blue Diamond" Double Late Tulips have gotten more beautiful with age. I guess they only start to look good once they fully open.

Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) is now blooming in its shady bed:

A visit to BB's garden resulted in these pretty pictures of plants I don't have but would like, such as this Gentiana acaulis:

Happily, a seedling from this Aquilegia glandulosa got in my car and came home with me!

Dodacatheon pulchellum is also in bloom in my friend's garden. All the plants in her yard are not coddled or protected from winter in any way, so this plant must be quite hardy.

"Tres Chic" Lily flowered tulips, BB's favourite large-flowered tulip type.

A beautiful Lewisia cotyledon at BB's yard. Oh so beautiful and mouthwatering!

Kona got a great walk yesterday. Sniffing the grass, marking the grass, and generally running amok brought tongue-dangling joy to the big girl! Poor girl couldn't catch a muskrat if dinner depended on it though...

Happy Valentines, and Stay Warm!

It is February 14 and half my basement light garden is full with seedlings already. I am holding onto these Jiffy pellet trays for annuals I will start in a few months. Do you like the Jiffy pellet heart? Nice huh?

Osteospermum, strawberries, and impatiens:


We had heart-shaped buttermilk pancakes for breakfast. They were good for warming the heart, especially since it was -42 degrees Celsius outside! Honestly, that made me gasp this morning, since the Canadian Challenge dogsled race started yesterday in Prince Albert, a city south of us. The 8 and 12 dog teams are currently racing towards La Ronge. It is a 500+ km (320 mile) race and is a qualifier for the bigger races like the Yukon Quest and Iditarod.

I find dog sledding fascinating, and I also admire these people and their cold endurance. They have to sleep outside with their dogs during this race, for goodness sake! I read through the rules this morning and noticed that the mushers are NOT allowed to have radios, cell phones, satellite phones, or GPS. I think I heard that the Iditarod is allowing GPS this year, though. Oh yeah, and the dogs may have to submit for urine drug testing if performance-enhancing drugs are suspected. Hmmmm. I hope my dog doesn't get messed up in that steroid-abusing-dog crowd.

The yard at 10:30 this morning -- the sled teams will arrive not far from here.

While warm conditions (warmer than -10 C) are dangerous for racing dogs, the conditions were really cold 2 years ago and the mushers were putting little jackets on the dogs and underwear on the males, because their genitals were freezing. In fact, you couldn't find any underwear in town that weekend, because the stores were bought out.

My Paphiopedilum "Magic McNavy" orchid starting to bloom.

Keeping warm inside with the plants

We've braved a week of bone-breaking cold and the car only failed to start once! I left it unplugged for just 20 minutes at -34 Celsius and it punished me for being so cruel. The coldest it got (not factoring in the windchill) was -34 Celsius. That's enough to persuade me to buy some heavy boots at the local trading post this week. My toes will thank me.

Resident-lawnmower-man shovels snow off the decks:

You have to live somewhere cold to understand why the Cree name for January is "Moon of the Tree Exploding Month". I haven't seen the trees explode myself, but I wouldn't doubt it if someone told me they saw an exploding tree in this severe cold. My own descriptive name for this month might be "Moon of the nostrils freezing together".

Here is my phalenopsis Brother Mirage "Brother" orchid in (almost) full bloom:
Seedlings in humidity dome:

I have limited myself to a few perennials for now, including Euphorbia myrsinites, whose seed packet made it sound like only sorcerers and advanced horticulturalists could make this seed germinate. It sounded like a good challenge for January, when I am over-eager to plant things. Strangely, they germinated easily in warm conditions. I also am growing some Gentiana acaulis and Arabis blepharophylla Spring Charm.

Indoor Pepper

I grew my first sweet pepper from seed: indoors and under lights.  It wasn't the most successful project, because the plants got too tall and started to grow into the fluorescent lights.  Oh well. This tiny sweet red pepper tasted great, something like sweet green grapes.  The variety was "Top Girl".  I have no idea why I picked this pepper in particular.  If there were really short versions of pepper plants, I'd have chosen those.  

"Top Girl" sweet red pepper

Outside of the basement, the phalaenopsis orchid is re-blooming nicely.  There are many buds yet to open.  

I notice that my paphiopedilum is also going to bloom again.  My own blog reminds me of its last bloom in March, 2007.  Several types of orchids seem to prefer to bloom in winter.  Their blooms, and occasionally their scents, are a nice contrast to the cold white winter outside.  Mine grow just inside my living room window, with no special care other than the usual watering and occasional orchid fertilizer.  I take some care to prevent them getting direct sun and sunburns, though.    

Orchid and Paperwhite Blooms

The houseplants are putting on a show now and the Phalenopsis (orchid) should be in full bloom for Christmas. The orchid has taken two years to re-bloom. It has a main flower spike with two small spikes branching off the main one. All have several buds on them. I bought an support stake for the flower spike from Lee Valley tools. I hope it comes soon and works well for this plant.

Here is the first bud open on Phal. Brother Mirage "Brother". This is a non-fragrant type of orchid, but the pretty flowers are enough to bring it great admiration.


Here is my collection of houseplants, huddled together in front of my big livingroom window. The paperwhites are in bloom on the left and the orchid and African violet are blooming on the right. I have three other orchids on the same table (which are not blooming anytime soon). I have decided that the paperwhites STINK. Yes, they are advertised as fragrant, but it is not a fragrance which I have any appreciation for. Anybody else agree with me here?

Dendrobium in Bloom

As I write this, I can see and hear snowmobiles zipping past the house. The lake is frozen as far out as you can see, though I flew over it three days ago and saw the sunrise glowing through rising steam coming off the lake just north of town.

The air feels dry, bringing back winter's itchy skin. I have fired up the humidifier for our room, and its feels great. RLM may not be impressed to come home today to find condensation running down the windows. He may prefer dry, but I'd like to live the life of mould in a warm (not hot) and humid place. The and orchids and me, we'd do well together.

This particular orchid blooms about three times a year. I bought it as an unlabeled Dendrobium, but I've seen a similar one in orchid books called "Thongchai Gold". Maybe that is what this one is. It is very easy to grow. It had two small canes when I bought it and now it has nearly outgrown this pot. I'll have to go pot shopping soon. I have another orchid making a flower spike (a phaelenopsis) which should bloom by Christmas. That should be beautiful!

Orchids in Action

While my dendrobiums grow, bloom, and multiply faster than I can keep up with, I have waited patiently for my large phalaenopsis (moth orchid) to bloom. My largest one (Phal. Brother Mirage "Brother") has many aerial roots and lots of dark green healthy foliage. It sits inside a bright window with sheer curtains shielding it from direct sunlight.

This long-awaited flower spike is very exciting!

I'm not certain how to best treat this orchid now, but I'm following the tricks I learned from my Dendrobium nobile: give them little water and no fertilizer until the flower buds are definitely set, and then water and use a high phosphorus orchid fertilizer. The Dendrobium nobile would turn its little buds into new plants (keikis) instead of flowers if watered/fertilizer too soon.

A phalaenopsis reblooming from a spent spike: this one was purchased for us as a gift and we watched it bloom from May till late August. As recommended, I cut it off just above the uppermost green node (watch that you don't confuse the nodes for the marks left on the spike from where the dead flowers fell off -- you want to cut below these). You can see the beginnings of a new flower spike growing from this node.

Nut Point Wildflowers

We went for a hike on the trail in the Nut Point Provincial Park recently. In case you are not familiar with the area, it is described as boreal forest and includes rocky outcroppings interspersed with small lakes. Peaty bog areas are found in low-lying areas and there is evidence of felled and scorched trees from a fire several years ago. My special interest is stalking the wildflowers and capturing them with my camera (the best kind of hunting). I am not an expert flower photographer, sadly, but here are some of the flowers we found:

Trientalis borealis, growing on a rotten stump:

I don't know what this was and my close-up photos were not in focus. It reminds me of a Pulmonaria (lungwort) with its blue flowers. Like Pulmonaria, the unopened buds are pink.

The pink corydalis (Corydalis sempervirens), growing in the open on a rock face. Labrador tea shrubs (Ledum groenlandicum) carpet vast areas of the rocky terrain. This plant is one of the first to recolonize burned bog areas, which is consistent with its abundance here. Along with Labrador tea, there were thousands of blueberry, lingonberry (aka cranberry), bearberry, and bunchberry plants in bloom.

Of course, there were plenty of pink lady's slippers. These ones were at the trailhead, just outside the Nut Point Campground. These are almost always found in rocky areas, among moss and under dappled shade of spruce trees. Of course, never never dig these flowers up! They are rare and protected and besides, are in a provincial park!