How to take care of Phalaneopsis orchids

Lots of times happens, that people tell me they don’t want to have a Phalaneopsis orchid, because they are afraid that their plants will die on them, becouse it’s to hard to take care of them, and they don’t know how to handle the plants and keep them alive.

Well if they are capable surviving me, they will survive you.

This post will be mostly about transplanting Phalaenopsis, but I’ll write about how to easily take care of them, so they will bring joy and happiness in your lives.

I’m a pretty lousy gardener, when it comes to houseplants. To start with, I’m all excited, and then I usualy forget about them. And so it was with my orchids. For now I only have Phalenopsises, nothing special, just some mixes from garden centers.

This week I transplanted them, and let me show you how It’s done:

Phalaenopsis orchids need to be transplanted in a bigger or in the same pot, when they grow over it. That means, as you can see on the picture, that the plant will grow multiple roots above the pot and soil, or yet better to say bark.

This is how it usualy looks like, when you put it out of the pot. You can clearly see where the old roots end and the new ones begin.

If you watter the Phalaenopsis to much, it could happen that the roots will get roten. Or, if you watter them to little, they will go and dry out. On this picture you can see some overwattered roots, which didn't have a lot of light.

Then you cut off all the bad and the old roots and the flower stems. Of course, you won't transplant a blooming orchid, because it will lose it’s flowers by the shock, which will be caused by the transplantation. But if it is urgent to transplant your orchid, just cut the flower stem off, even if it's in bloom. With that , the plant won't waste it’s energy on it's flowers, and will put everything into the root growth.

While you are handling the Phalenopsis orchid, it might happen that you will break some roots, while putting it in a pot, but don’t worry, if you break them like it shows on the picture, it will be ok - it will be healed and the root will grow further.

But be extra careful not to break the end of the root apex, because the root will stop growing. And when it’s colored light green, it means it grows.

Now you can plant them back in the pot. As I said earlier, you can put them in the same pot thay were in before, because you cut off the roots that are in no use, just be sure, that you clean up the pot first.
For poting you don’t need to buy expencive specialised orchid substrate. You can easily use pine bark, and if you are a lousy watering man, you can add some peet moss.  In my case, I used 10% of peet moss, 30% larger fraction of pine bark and 60% of small fraction of pine bark. These orchids are epifits, which means they grow on trees and don’t need soil to grow.

First you put some bark in the pot, and then put the orchid in. Face all the roots down, then add more bark. Meanwhile you will need to shake the pot and orchid a bit so that the bark comes between the roots. The best choice to use are the transparent pots, because the roots also make photosithesys. 

  
Sometimes it can happen, that an old plant will produce a new plant called Keiki. If they have enough roots, you can easily separate them, and plant them each in it’s own pot.

Then, when you are finished, just put them in the tub and shower them. That is one way to watter them. You just have to make sure, that the watter will strain out of the pot. Then watter them just once a week. You can shower them, or you soke the pots in the wather for 15 minutes and then put them out to strain the watter out of the pots, before you put them back on a window shelf. An even better thing to do is, that you watter them only when their roots are grayish green. If the roots are green it means that plant is wattered enough.
And it’s recommended to spray them with watter over their leaves every day.

The most common question I’m asked a lot of times is, why my orchid doesn't want to bloom, and just produces leaves. Well, all you have to do, is to put them in a colder room for a while. It will be enough if the temperature is lower for 5°C, but it shouldn’t go under the 16°C. It will bloom in no time.

O and of course, give them morning sun and some shade in hot summers. 

So, read you next time!

Uroš

Toads and spring flowers

I realy like toads. Of course, a lot of people think that this litle amphibian is full of warts, that it's hideous, and many things more… Well, I allways say - to those who think like that - : Have you ever taken a look at their eyes, and if you didn’t - you should, because you would see then that they have eyes in colors of noble metals like bronze, silver, and even gold. And to top all that, this is a realy garden friendly animal. It eats slugs, like the Spanis slug, which is a big problem in most of the gardens across the whole Europe.

So, this saturday I went to Češnjevek to the fishing ponds, because I heard that toads have started their mating season.

It was a sunny day and the common toad, also called European toad (Bufo bufo), is to be honest, very common in our country, so I knew I will find this sort there.

I saw a few pairs right away, while I was driving by the first pond. 

When I came there, I saw a few in the first pond next to driveway. It is one of the smallest ponds, so probably it’s the warmest one for now, because in all of the others I haven't found any toad activity yet. Well, their mating time has just begun, and I will go there next weekend again, to see if there are any more of them, and also to take some more of the close-up pictures, that I couldn't do then, because toads were still very cautious. At the peak of their mating seson, you can walk straight up to them and the males won't even care. 

The patterns of some of the males were like jaguars and some of the females were almous red. 

While I was walking round the pond, I was also stuned by the ‘’fields’’ of Spring Crocus (Cornus vernus).

Snow flakes are still in full bloom.

Wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa) flowers were gently smiling to the sun.

Sweet Violet (Viola odorata) was growing together with Common primrose (Primula vulgaris).

And the Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) was allready there as well.

But the Dog’s tooth violet (Erythronium dens-canis ) will still need about a week to come out.

I realy love spring when everything awakens from 'the sleep'.

So, read you next time!

Uroš

Bamboo diary: Fargesia scabrida 'Asian Wonder'

I have a new bamboo. 

In the beginning of March, I went to an opening of a new 'home and garden' center, that was opened near my village, just to see if they have anything interesting there. Of course, I only checked out the garden part. The croud was enourmus. But I finally managed to come to the plants section, where I saw some bamboos. Of course I madly flew there.

They were all Fargesias, and at first I was a little disappointed, because I’m more of a runner lover. But I checked their labels anyway. There was a lot of plants in every size of Fargesia murileae ‘Super Jumbo’. This bamboo would be perfect for me, because it’s one of the hardiest Fargesia bamboos, but I wasn't realy excited about it (but my friends mom both this one the next day for screen, so in a two or three years, I’ll get this one two).

I was about to leave, when I luckily went a little further, to some shrubs, and there I saw four pieces of some more bamboo plants. I looked at their labels, and I was surprised. It was Fargesia scabrida ‘Asian Wonder’. Because I hadn't known this bamboo then, I had to take my phone and I went online to see if this plant is hardy enough for me, and how it looked like, because label was a little bit suspicious. The bamboo on the picture was just way too red.

When I checked out the general information, I decided to buy it. But then when I took a better look at it, I saw that it was wattered way too much, because the leaves allready had brown spots on them, and the top of the bamboos leaves were all rolled up. 

Leaves are in really bad shape.

Then I took the bamboo out of the pot, to see the roots and rizomes, which were in a really good shape. I thought for a bit, if I should buy it or not: Well the price was not too high, and the roots and risomes are good, and probably these bamboo plants were just in a greenhouse being spoiled, and were later on put out on cold without adjustments, so they got all the curly leaves and I could dry of the weather… What the heck, I’ll buy it! 

So, I brought it home, had it indoors for a while, to see if the leaves would go any better, but then all were curled up. 

After a few days, I noticed that some new branches were emerging from the nodes.

While this bamboo was waiting to be transplanted in a bigger pot and put outside, I had to do some more research about this bamboo online and with my books.

First, I learned that this bamboo is pretty rare. But my joy was too early. It’s pretty rare to get the division of an original plant. A lot of those on market are tissue cultivated. In my book 'Practical Bamboos of Paul Whittaker' I read that the author said that he saw a Farsegia scabrida cultivar ‘Asian Wonder’, and he assured that this cultivar was identical to the real spieces and that ‘Asian Wonder’ is just a trademark given by the producer. So, I’m asuming that this is highly posibily, and that the plants with this trade mark are the ones that are tissue cultivated. Still, I hope I’m wrong.

The second thing I like on this plant is the color of clums. But again, here comes a dillema. Some sources say that new clumes are purple-green color and dark orange sheaths, and at the end of vegetatinon clumes become green and sheaths strawis pale yellow. The other sources say that clumes get their colors at the end of vegetation, with sun exposure. I would probably go with the first option, according to my plant, which is completely green.

Anyway, yesterday I transplanted it in the big pot, so it can be satisfied for a few years. I used the Compo Sana soil for planting, because it’s one of the best soils on the market, at least in my opinion, and also I used Compo Sana fritilizer for ornamental grasses and bamboos (also tested).

First, I used small fraction sand for drinage.

Then the fritilizer, which I put in four layers. First layer was, when I put the plant in and then soil, again a layer of fritilizer, and soil, and again firtiliser. The last layer came on top, and was coved with a thin layer of soil again. Then, of course, I wattered it and put it next to my P. nigra, where it will have morning sun for about 5 or 6 hours or so, and a shade in the afternoon, wihch is supposed to be the best for this bamboo.

Now, I hope that it gets new leaves as soon as posible, and hopefully I’ll se some new shoots soon as well.

And here I give you a link to some other blog, where you can read the 5 reasons about why you should own this bamboo.

So, read you next time!

Uroš

Spring emerges for Agile frog

It finally came. The spring, that is. It’s getting warmer and warmer, so yesterday I decided to go for a walk through the forest to check out, if there are any frog activities yet (although, it is not warm enough yet) and if there are any of harbingers of spring.

So, this is what I found:

I went through a forest, which was very swampy, and I suspected that there should be some frog activity in a few weeks. So, I checked a few of the tiny forest steams, to find a place where they would naturally be to bread. It didn’t take long to fiund these two:

Male and female of  Agile frog (Rana dalmatina).

They were probably the first pair of Agile frog (Rana dalamatina) here, because in an hour of walk, after finding these two, I couldn't see any other frog anywhere else.

Then I climbed to the top of a hill, since I had to get to the second wally, and so I went through this beautiful Scotsh Pine (Pinus sylvestris) forest.

I finally came to the Spring Snowflake (Leucojum vernum). Everything around me was in the White.

Next weekend I’m going again!

So read you next time.

Uroš