Hey, Bud...Haven't Seen You In Awhile

Sometimes I surprise even myself. Just as I predicted last week, our grape vine had bud break this week. Got that netting on just in the nick of time.

Grape vines are the deadest of dead looking plants with they go dormant for winter. If you don't know better, you'll think you've lost it. Reminds me of the last scene of that great wine movie, "A Walk in The Clouds," when, after the vineyard burns, the hated son-in-law redeems himself to his wife's father by finding the green cambium under the burnt skin of the vine.

It's always a pleasure to see the brilliant new green leaves of the grape vine when it starts another year's worth of growth.

In addition, our plumeria is also pushing new growth out of the end of its branches.  Won't be long before we'll have those lovely, fragrant blossoms sprouting out of these plants.

That means our short little winter is really over.

With the warmth, it's also time to put our phaleanopsis orchid back on the outdoor bench. On the left is what is was looking like in December, when it started showing signs of cold-shock. Every leaf with even a tinge of yellow was lost. The two big leaves on the right are the two tiny leaves in the center of the picture on the left. Everything else is new growth.

We're looking forward to seeing how this plant does in 2013 too.

I meant to post this picture with the bougainvillea pics from last week but better late than never. Our red bougainvillea is really showing off this week. I think it's time to trim a little of the dead wood off of it.

Finally, I did a severe pruning of the camellia in the hardest to reach corner. If you're asking as my wife did, it's because I don't want to prune this one again for a looooong time.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Faking a Tropical Paradise

People in Southern California have been trying to delude themselves for over a century. Palm trees, sandy beaches, tropical flowers, lush lawns...the dirty truth is that we're not tropical, we're almost desert.

The area only looks a lush as it does because we import tons of water and splash it all over our yards in a desperate attempt to fool ourselves we're in Hawaii or some other island paradise.

In the summer, we get hot. Very hot. Our thermometer peaked at 117 last summer and regularly flirts, or goes steady, with 110. 

In the winter, we get cold and the temps can dip below freezing. 

One key factor in my garden plan is to keep plants that can tolerate a little cold so, other than our house plants and our lone phalaenopsis orchid, the tropical plants in my backyard can tolerate a day or two down to 28 degrees. Longer than that and they start dropping like flies.

It's not to say that they like it down there. Lately, the temps have been dipping into the low 30s. Our lowest temp so far is 32. I keep a thermometer in the backyard that I can see through our kitchen window. Each morning I check it to see how cold it god and then watch the weather forecast to see if its' supposed to get cooler.

The plants still react. At the top of the page is our plumeria at the height of its summer glory. The next picture down shows what it looks like during a cold spell (with a rogue Mr. Lincoln bloom poking fun at it). The leaves will all be off soon and the trees will go dormant for awhile.

Our bouganvillea looks a little ragged in the cold, as does some of the euphorbia and the guava tree leaves react with a purple hue.

The grape vine is just about to drop the last of its leaves.

If I see that we hit the magic number of 28, and it looks like colder weather will be coming, the potted plants (mostly cymbidium orchids) are moved to the garage until it's passed.

I'm watching those cymbidiums closely, there's too many buds waiting to open to ignore.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Changing of the Guard in Southern California

The last two plants to bloom for 2012... an orange begonia and our Christmas cactus which, of course, blooms at this time each year.

While Mrs. Cheapskate inspects the chile peppers, let's see what the garden has for us this weekend.

These chiles are almost black but should soon turn red.

The lavender makes an end-of-the-year stand.

And, finally, our phaleanopsis is showing signs of cold shock so we'll move it inside for the winter.

After our super short Southern California winter, we'll put it back outside, probably sometime in February.  Not much to do in the garden right now...I have a repair to make on our wooden berm that protects the front yard rose garden, then in about a month, it'll be time to prune the roses.

Darryl
Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

An Abusive Parent Tries to Make Amends...

One of my horticulture professors used to tell us that we should know all the plants in our garden like they were our children.

Didn't really catch on to what he said at the time but now I understand. I know each plant intimately, although I have to admit, I like some more than others and tend to play favorites sometimes.

 

Such is the case with my zygopetalum orchid. Not that I don't like it...I do. It's got spectacular flowers with an amazing scent but a few years ago we had the worst freeze in my memory. Two weeks of sub-30 nighttime temperatures with most nights getting to 27-28 degrees. These guys don't like that.

I had two plants, one didn't make it and I didn't think the other one did either but it eventually came back.  I left it alone to see what would happen.

Nothing.  It grew but went from being a consistent "bloom every Halloween" to never even thinking about throwing a spike.  

I neglected it and moved on to other things.

This year, after another year of no blooms, I decided to return and show it a little more love by repotting it.

Pulling it out of the pot, it came like this...no soil whatsoever. I'm surprised that it still grew.

The plant naturally fell into two pieces when I took it out so now I have two plants to repot.

Since it's an epiphyte, the process is exactly the same as when I repotted our phalaenopsis orchid.

Now to just water in, put back on the bench, and see what happens.

Darryl
Copyright 2012- Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Taming the Wild Orchid...Repotting Epiphytic Orchids

Today, I repotting an orchid. Specifically the phalaenopsis orchid from my previous post. It's finishing its bloom so it's a good time to repot.

The phalie is an epiphytic orchid. That means when found in the wild, it grows on the side of trees, not in the ground. There are orchids that grow in the ground, the cymbidium is the most well known, and are called terrestial orchids.

Since they do not grow in soil in nature, we do not use soil when growing them in pots in the garden either. Most commonly, epiphytes are grown in chopped up chunks of bark. Some times, people will mount them on cork oak or tree fern bark and hang them on the wall too.  I'm using the bark-in-the-pot method.

First, you need to know when to repot. With orchids, it's pretty simple. When they are about to burst the seams of its pot or the potting mix is completely disintegrated is a sign that they need to be repotted. I do mine every 2 - 3 years. 

After the bloom is done is the best time unless it's the dead of winter. If it is, wait until freezing temperatures have passed and the weather is warming up.

You'll need the following to repot:

1. A pot to put the plant in. You can use the same one if there is enough room. There should be at lease 2 inches on each side of the plant. A phalaenopsis is a bit unique in that it grows up more than it grows out, so it doesn't need a whole lot of room to spread. Something else, like a catteleya orchid...which grows bulb after bulb on a creeping rhizome...will need more room to expand.

2. Pruning shears

.

3. Pruning seal. This is a tarry like substance that you spray on plant cuts like spray paint to prevent pathogens from entering into a plant wound.

4. Vitamin B-1 solution.  This is sold commonly as plant starter or transplanting solution.

5. A flame source like a lighter or candle.

6. A hammer

7. Orchid mix. This is sold commonly at garden centers or online. It is chopped up bark and comes in various size chunks. I prefer the small to medium chunks.

Remove the plant from it's pot. You can see that this phalie, like most that you'll find in supermarkets or drug stores, was grown at a factory nursery in a plastic bag-like pot in sawdust.  A few taps on the size of the pot will help it slide off easily.

Remove the mix from around the roots as much as you can. Pull off any dead roots. If you need to cut anything off of the plant with shears, run the blades over a flame first to kill any pathogens that might be there. If you cut off a piece of the plant, seal the wound with pruning seal.

Put an inch or two of orchid mix in the new pot. Hold the plant centered over the mix with the roots spread out with one hand and fill the pot with orchid mix with the other hand to the brim.

When filled, take your hammer with the handle down, and use it to pound down the mix to compact it (they make tools specifically for this but they're based on hammer handles anyway...no need to spend money on them). Do this repeatedly...fill and compact with hammer handle...until you have a tightly compacted mix filled to withing a half inch of the rim of the pot.

Mix a half capful of B1 solution into a half gallon of water and thoroughly water the plant. Now, let sit for 5 - 7 days in a shady area with absolutely no water. If you water too soon, the damaged roots can rot. This gives the roots time to heal. After this, go ahead and put it where it will be permanently...see my phalaenopsis post for tips on where to grow it.

Other chores this weekend:

Sweep the patio...probably my least favorite gardening chore.
Prune the lavender and baby's breath.
Fertilize...for the roses, this will be the last feeding of the year.

Darryl
Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

The Beauty of Butterflies

Phaleanopsis orchids are very beautiful. They're also popular, being the best seller at flower shops, drug stores, department stores, and more as quick, relatively cheap ways of buying flowers for someone who wants it to last more than a few days by buying the blooming plant instead of the cut flowers.

It is also one of the hardest orchids for a beginner to grow.

Also called the butterfly orchid, Phalies are native to southeast Asia. Think the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. That's the environment you need to try to recreate...very hot and humid.  Most people need a greenhouse for this.

We usually avoid this variety but have received a few as gifts over the years.  Mostly, after they've bloomed, they're moved to my mother-in-law's house where she has a greenhouse and they can sit there until they bloom again.

We kept one back this time, however. The plant you see on this page was given to us at Christmas time in 2011. The blooms last for weeks and at the end of February, we moved it outside. This year's mild winter meant that the plant didn't freeze so we just let it live there as the weather grew ever warmer.

At the beginning of summer, I was in for a shock as the plant developed new buds and bloomed again. We actually got a phaleanopsis orchid to bloom again out on our plant stand in the back yard.

Since the area it sits in (shade on the north side of the house) gets a daily sprinkling, the plant gets enought water and humidity. Our temperatures over the summer ranged from 90 - 110...perfect for this heat-loving plant. I guess that was just the ticket for this guy.

We've moved it inside to enjoy the blooms but will put it back outside throught the fall. Let it winter in the house and move it back out and see if we can get a repeat performance.

We'll talk about other, easier to grow orchids as we go along here but if you get one of these butterfly orchids, don't toss it out when it's done. Put it in a warm place, water once or twice a week, fertilize every month or so, and see if you can't get it to thrive too.

Darryl
Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved