Green bin'd

Things went from looking real bad to worse for the cattleya and now it's official: the cattleya has fallen (both figuratively and literally into the green bin).

I'm sad I wasn't able to save it, but at least I tried. Better luck next time!

Orchids on the brain

I love orchids and I have two orchid plants. One is a phalaenopsis (of the "Just Add Ice" variety - more on that later) and the other is a cattleya. Sadly both were in really rough shape a few months ago so I took it upon myself to try to revive them. Here are the updates:

Phalaenopsis:
We got the phal last November when little K was born. When we first got it, I watered it by putting in 3 ice cubes weekly as per the instructions it came with but then things went downhill from there. First the blooms fell off and the spike dried up (this is normal, you just cut the spike), but then the leaves started getting wrinkly and the plant started looking really pathetic. Not wanting to give up that easily, I started researching orchid care online and realized that the "Just Add Ice" company is delusional - three ice cubes a week is not sufficient for any type of orchid. Case in point, here is how you are supposed to water them:

1/ Fill your pot with water. All the way to the brim.
2/ Soak the bark/medium for a few minutes (optional).
3/ Drain the pot of the water.

Three ice cubes?! Ha.

Anyway, the phal is actually doing pretty good now that I am watering it properly. So far there are two new leaves and new roots popping out everywhere. No shoots yet (so no bloom, boo), but I'm hopeful they will come because things are looking promising. Yes!

Cattelya:
This plant was an offshoot of my late mother-in-laws plant so I really wanted to be able to save it. It sat in our house for about a year and a half with sparse waterings here and there but somehow managed to survive, albeit barely.

Unfortunately I think the day I decided to revive it was the start of its demise. Fast forward to today and it's looking the worst it's ever looked: there are no new roots, no new leaves, and definitely no new shoots. In fact, this plant basically has no roots at all because they have all rotted. As for the leaves, it used to sport two long green ones, but they have since been cut off because they slowly shrivelled up while turning light green, then yellow, then brown.

There was a section of new green roots about a month ago, but I wasn't able to re-pot it quickly enough (kept forgetting to pick up a pot from my father-in-law's house) and now all those green roots are now dead because the plant kept bouncing here there and everywhere in the bigger pot whenever I watered it. All that's left is one TINY little green leaf (which has no roots attached to it anymore so I think it's only a matter of time before that dies off) and a mostly brown stump. I'm still hopeful and trying to water it to give it one last go but it's looking bad, guys. Real bad.

f o u r

Has it really been four years since we said, "I do?"

I guess time flies when you're with the right person.

Happy anniversary, J. :)