Sogo Yukidian

I forgot the date when I bought this orchid at the garden store. One thing I remember, it had beautiful large white flowers on display. I was so enticed to have the plant but it was so expensive that I didnt buy it.

Everyday I went  to the store just to visit the plant and marvel at the beauty of its flowers.  It was a dream to have it. 

Two months on display, I waited patiently for the blooms to fall off because I am waiting for it to be on sale. 

True enough, two months after I first saw it, it was finally  on sale for $9.00.   It was a better deal than $24.99. I took it from the shelf of the store and went to the counter. Paid for it and took it home.

Well, several months after, a secondary spike showed and another several months after when the buds started to show. The wait was long when the first bud opened...luckily, now there is just one more bud left to open.

It was a happy moment to see its beauty once again. 

Enjoy the pictures.

my white phal with multiple spikes

What a long wait for all the buds to open....

Well as of today, not all the buds are open yet. Still counting but sad to say I lost several buds from bud blast. Hopefully, not going to lose another bud.

Enjoy the picture guys. Thanks for visiting.

Update on my phal in glass vase.

I am happy to see the buds growing bigger and bigger everyday. Can't wait to see how the blooms will look like.

I bought this orchid on sale and  it has no flowers when I bought it. Since it has no flowers at that time, I decided to play an experiment with it.  So the plant ended in a glass vase.

Well, it was a success. The plant thrives and now it is ready to open its first bloom for me.

My window sill gardens

I have three window sill gardens in my apartment. One in my living room, one in my bedroom, and one in my indoor garden room.

The one by the living room, most of the orchids have spikes getting ready to bloom.

By the bedroom, are my mini phals and two vandas. By the other room are other phals and vandas.  

Enjoy the pictures.

Ice this morning.

Warning was given yesterday that our place might experience snow.

I brought in all my pots of cattleyas except some pots of cymbidiums and two pots of oncidiums.

I woke up at 7 am today and when I checked my plants outside my apartment, I panicked. The plants by the patio had ice on their leaves.

I hurriedly put them in my room and remove the ice on their leaves.

Hopefully, they were not harmed.

Phalaenopsis with multiple flower spikes.

I bought th is phal from walmart December 2012. The white flowers lasted about a month. After the blooms were gone, I took it outside and left it there.

During the time it was outside my apartment, it gave me no signs of growth. But among the phals I purchased that time, it was only the orchid that did not shed off it leaves. The original flower stems stayed good but no signs of keiki or secondary spike.

A year after,  I noticed a little bump, a sign of flower spike. Cold weather prompted me to take the plant back inside the apartment. Few days after that, the original flower stems grew secondary spikes.

I am excited to see my orchids to open its blooms. They are coming soon.

Dendrobium anosmum

I am originally from the Philippines, where orchid plants grow easy.

I grew up and saw the ease of growing dendrobium anusmom. Actually, I ignored these plants because probably they were very common in the place and they looked ordinary to me at that time.

What I like about these plants when I was in the Philippines were their flowers. They were fragrant and very attractive when in bloom. They have that sweet scent that captivated  me. And if one was lucky, one cane can  have lots of blooms. I used to envy my neighbors when their plants had so many blooms. Their flowers also reminded me of graduations in April. They were made into corsages.

I remembered about them when I started growing phalaenopsis. I checked online where I can find and buy them here in the United States. The memories of my childhood came back. These are the only orchids we had because my family cant afford to buy the other kinds. Immediately, after few searches in the internet, I found a seller online. I ordered two pots. They were so tiny and the canes were skinny when my orders arrived.  I was not so sure how to grow them here in Texas but I tried. At first, I was scared I might kill them in this Texas weather. 

I decided to removed them from their pots and attached them to a branch of a tree that I picked up from the neighborhood. Left them outside my apartment patio.

 After few months of having them,  the original canes have no signs of growing longer but new growth immerged. Texas weather was not so good for the plants, the orchids were very slow in growing. However last year, one of the canes bore a pair of purple flowers. I was very happy.

I left my orchids outside during the cold months and they survived. 

Summer came and my plants seemed not liking it  clinging on a dead branch. Their growth was very slow.

I decided to repot them using cow manure, barks, charcoal, and perlite. Whew, after a month, the canes started to grow longer with larger leaves, fatter canes, and more plantlets immerged from the old cane. They like to be potted  and watered everyday. 

I separated five little plants growing from the old canes and potted them. They were growing nice until the cold season came. I left them outside the apartment. The cold weather caused  my plantlets to lose their leaves. The plantlets are leafless now but my two original pots are looking okay. Hopefully, I will get them to bloom again,  this year. More blooms hopefully. I can't wait to see blooms  because it is almost blooming time for them.

Oh, well, I am glad I repotted them. I think repotting them was a sucess instead of attaching them to the branch because the canes are longer this year. I am not in tropical Philippines but I feel good because now I know how to grow them here in southernmost part of Texas.

Sunday, the day I water my orchids.

Sundays, are the second day I water my orchids. I assigned two days to water them,  one batch of orchids on Saturdays and the other group on Sundays.

I feel great that I finished watering them today.  It takes dedication and patience to do the toil but it is worth it. I see my plants healthy and growing.

More Pictures of my orchids

My Phal in glass vase

My First Bloom

This is the first Phal I got to bloom since I started the hobby of collecting and raising them indoors two years ago. I killed a lot but I have more successes in keeping the plants alive now.