Friday, July 1, 2011

THEY AIN'T LIKE PLANTING TOMATOES

This past weekend I attended another UC Davis plant show. This one was on Orchids. I always wanted an Orchid plant, but they were in the past very expensive so I would just adore and admire them in the few stores that did sell them.

Wow, what a shock when the lady who was giving a class brought several kinds of them and did a transplant segment. They are a
really different type of plant. The specific types of them have their own growing requirements. Lighting, feeding, how to transplant, what to cut off on their roots and the stems and growth on them.

When the lady started cutting the roots before the transplant, she ignored the branches that the former blooms were on. I asked if you cut off the whole stem. She said no. On this species new growth may appear. But you'd never know that by the way this stem looked really horrible and I would have cut if off.

There was another species which has big bulgy stems that tapper off. This species grew with these bulges as new growth. When you transplant this plant, you place the plant in a certain position in the pot, noticing which way these big bulgy stems grow one after another so the next growth will have room to come up in the plant. Really different.

There were small plants that were so dainty. If I did purchase an Orchid plant, I would go for the smaller kind because then they wouldn't tip over so easily as the ones that grow really tall and the blooms grow to one side.

Everyone there, including the gay guys, really enjoyed this very, very informative class.

They're not like growing tomatoes or roses, but I guess that's what makes them so unique.

I just purchased those pretty little petite rose plants. I bought, a red, white, yellow and pink. They're all lined up on my patio and maybe in a few weeks I'll buy some larger pots and repot them so they'll get larger. Right now they're in a four inch pot which is wrapped in a complementary colored wrapping paper with a gold elasticized band around and paper to keep it up.

Maybe I'll take a photo of them for you all to see before they're replanted.

My tomato plant for some reason has gotten some kind of virus where the leaves are turning yellow with black spots. There seems to be more flowers growing though and I have about six new little tomatoes coming out. The Aphids got a hold of the plant, I showered them off twice, which took care of them, but shortly thereafter, the plant got ill. I've cut off the really bad looking leaves, but it does keep growing. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

1 comment:

Feathers said...

I was given an orchid11 years ago as a 'new baby' gift. It was beautiful while in bloom that one time. In 11 years I NEVER got it to bloom again but I couldn't manage to kill it either. I tried special post and root materials, and orchid fertilizer. Finally this year it died after I planted it in the snake cage so I dont have to feel guilty about getting rid of it. They are so difficult....