Orchid day

Friday, 1st of October 2021

September has ended and my notifications are flooded with September reports, but I decided to leave mine's for another day and write about something else instead. Of course I already read and will read as many of yours as I can, because I really enjoy reading about how well people did. It is always very inspiring for me and just a reminder of how grateful I am for our two amazing sister sites.

Day started early for me

Today started very early for me - 7:30am. I usually roll out of bed or sofa around 10am, because I stay up very late at night. Today was different, because I was woken up by my painful belly. Instead of swallowing pills and going back to bed, I decided to start my day early.

It didn't look like it was going to be nice day at all. The sky was dark and gloomy and intermittent rain was disturbing my morning coffee routine. In between the rain, I picked up my secateurs and trimmed a few roses and other spent flowers in my garden then went inside to play Splinterlands.

While eating my lunch I realised that the weather changed completely. The clouds and gloominess were gone and the sun was shining right in my face, inviting me to come outside. I decided to take this invitation make use of a nice weather. After all we’re in October now, so I don’t expect many more shiny days like today.

Since I dived deeply into the online world, my orchid babies were badly neglected. It was about time that they get some proper feeding session. Sunny weather is best for fertilising orchids, as they’re able to better absorb all the nutrients.

Initially I was only planning to feed a few orchids from kitchen and dining room areas, but I still had plenty of already mixed fertiliser left afterwards, so the orchids from living room joined too. Soon I was not able to walk through my patio, as it was filled witch orchids.

I left them in fertilised water for a bit too long than I should, but I hope my babies will forgive me for that. Feeding time is a good time to inspect my collection. I found a few with some tiny bugs, a few others needed clean up and a few others didn’t do too well in their current spot, so I had to find them a new one.

Those that needed extra attention ended up in the kitchen sink, sprayed with home made pesticides and cleaned up. A few will stay in the kitchen for longer, because I need to keep them under observation. Their pseudo bulbs were shrivelled and they will need extra spraying in between watering. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and all the watering and spraying bottles are there too, so it is more likely that I will give them more attention if they’re here.

Some of my orchids grow crazy roots! Especially Cattleya type orchids, but not only. On the picture above you can see 2 of my Catleya’s. Their roots are very strong and attach themselves easily to any object. I accidentally broke a few of those beautiful roots while moving them out of pots after feeding. Hopefully it didn’t hurt them too badly.

Before all of my babies were back in their spots it was already dark outside. It took me probably good 3-4 hours to do it all and that’s not even my whole collection. This reminded me why I’ve been postponing these feeding sessions for so long… it takes ages to do!

Then I look at the pictures of my orchids in bloom and they remind me why I do it all - orchids are simply amazing and most of them reward me for the care I give them all year round with beautiful flowers once a year. Some flower for a few days, other for a few months, but I am happy that there is always something in bloom in my house all year round.

Thank you for reading guys. Hope your October started well and you all had a great and productive day. Check out the short post I posted earlier today for some goodies.

Until next time 💙