My First Orchid Plug

 

Back in September when we visited the Triangle Orchid Society's Orchid Show, I left with three new orchids to take home and grow and love.  Two of those orchids were from the Dendrobrium species.  

This little orchid came as a "plug," which was bare root wrapped in coconut husk.  I was interested in it because it was advertised as being fragrant and something I would like to test my skill in taking care of and seeing what all I could do with it.  When I purchased it, it had a couple of leaves off of the main stems, but it wasn't happy and those leaves had fallen off. 

Not the greatest photo, but you can see how small it was when I purchased it

I realized I needed to change something to make it happy again.  I took the husk off and away from the roots and tried putting it in orchid bark like a normal orchid.  It still wasn't happy.  It wasn't until after I purchased the two Jewel orchids, one of them coming home planted in moss and under a glass dome, did it give me an idea to create the perfect environment to get this little orchid happy again and growing.  To find something that would work as a glass dome and give it a similar environment as the one Jewel orchid I just got, I went off to Goodwill to the glassware section.  I found a few compatible things to use and once I got home I moved the other Jewel orchid into a dome enclosure and then the Dendrobrium pictured below.

Oncostele Catatante x Oncidium Barossa Delight

 Today's spotlight is focused on a beauty of an orchid, one that is currently in bloom:

Oncostele Catatante x Oncidium Barossa Delight

This orchid was purchased on September 14, 2024 from a vendor at the Triangle Orchid Show in Raleigh North Carolina.  When I purchased it, it was covered in buds, with blooming imminent.

The Why....

 So why am I here and why have I decided to blog about flowers?  That's a question that has a multi-faceted answer!

Ever since I was a child, I have been around some form of house plants.  Both of my parents had a lot of house plants while I was growing up.  I think my mom had way more than my dad though when I look back at the number of plants that they had over the years.  My dad loved ferns, he would buy hanging baskets every year and hang out on the porch.  He also had a knack for having massive Tradescantia zebrina plants (more commonly known as "inch plants"). 

Documenting my Orchid Journey

Greetings and well met!

If you've landed here to this piece of the web, then you are probably interested in learning about orchids or just want to see what's here.

I haven't written a blog in a very long time so I'll update this as I can with information about the orchids that I currently have or research that I've compiled together and have found useful in my search for knowledge.