Orchids: Our December Holiday Blooms, 0 by hawkarica

hawkarica wrote:
I've been busy for a couple of days and I'll try to catch up.

Peg, building your own baskets is fine if you have the time. I have been able to find those Lincoln Log type baskets made out of both wood and a plastic material that doesn't rot. The construction is the same so you can use the same pattern for either. If you can find the plastic it would be better.

Elaine, my Grammatophylum scriptum blooms in June and lasts into July. As for your big Epi, I think it is getting most of its neutrients through the aerial roots and doesn't give a hoot about that orchid bark you are worrying about. Just give it some support and watch it grow. Be sure to mist it often with a weak fertilizer solution. My big Epi is about 10 feet long and it hasn't seen a piece of bark in years. See pic.

Scott, thanks. I know of several folks that have collections that are double or triple mine. What limits me (and Laurel as well) is interest in other plants. Laurel is primarily a veggie gardener and I am into palms, cycads, rare fruit, dasylirions, agaves and whatever other weird plant I can get my hands on. It broke my heart when I lost my screw pine to a freeze a couple of years ago. So orchids are are a passion but must share time with all of the other stuff.

Jim