Total Pageviews

Monday, 29 August 2011

Waiting for Fall

Well, just as I had feared, the July scorching temperatures were the demise for several of my more heat intolerant Pleurothallids.  I lost a couple Draculas, a Restrepia and a few of my little Lepanthes, including the norae pictured in an earlier post.  Damn!  The greenhouse is not yet complete and I have been forced to move my plants from where they were to the greenhouse.  I am not ready to handle the variation needed to grow all these plants properly - my contractor bailed on me after trying to stiff me for a bill twice the amount we had agreed to for the electrical work.  Now that he is gone, I have noticed a few things he either didn't do or failed to do properly.  This is a guy I have worked with for many years but now I realize that I may have been stiffed all along - it is amazing how little regard some people have for others and the relationships they form.  Oh well, he's gone and it is probably in my best interests (I know it is).

What does seem to thrive are the Cattleyas and Paphiopedilums.  I seem to have been acquiring a lot of these guys in the past months and now I have my hands full.  I bought a bunch of Cattleya divisions (bare root) and now I have a potting task ahead of me.  I also got about a dozen mini-catts from a guy in Hawaii - some are exceptional while others are give aways - but at $8 each, you can't beat it.

In July, our Orchid Society visited Crystal Star Orchids in the Toronto area and I picked up a hybrid compact Cattleya that originated from Sun Valley Orchids.  With the permission of the hybridized, Fred Clarke, I registered the cross as Rhyncattleanthe Memoria Elizabeth Cott - a tribute to a mother and friend who was always supportive.  She loved bright colours - her orange kitchen and fluorescent pink bedroom were testaments to that.  So this opalescent yellow Cattleya with the gold and fuchsia lip is a fitting reminder and tribute.