It’s been a good spring, and I’m looking forward to a better summer. Last year at this time, I was a few weeks into a couple of months of difficult breathing and, eventually, fevers and chills that kept me bedridden and wouldn’t go away. This year, I plan on spending two weeks in the Philippines and then a month in Rhode Island, visiting family, biking, writing, beaching, and being generally active. Such, I hope, will life ever be, on enteracept!
But first, I figured I should set up my orchids for spending a lot more time on their own. We got a bunch of “self-watering” trays—deep trays topped with felt soak-pads that will keep plants hydrated for a couple of weeks at a time. I will post an update about them in more detail at some point—whether they work or not! I want to give my young cattleyas, in particular, a little more support while they’re on their own. Here’s a picture of the ones that host my Roy Tokunaga dendrobium, a few phals, a few paphs, and a nursery dish of infant cattleyas.
Also, the young catts all needed repotting, self-watering trays or no. I got them (see the list below) over the course of a couple of local orchid fairs in February (North Jersey Orchid Society) and March (Deep Cut Orchid Society), except for the Fu Shu Glory “Happy Holidays,” which I fell in love with during a feature episode on Miss Orchid Girl’s channel and purchased online. I’ll post the sources of all the plants, along with pics of the blooms I hope for, below. I haven’t had a look at any of their roots, nor at the state of the sphagnum moss they’re all potted in. The Happy Holidays, in particular, was already pushing out of its pot and I’ve been musing about what it might like to move into.
With the hottest, brightest time of the year coming on, I decided these chicos would like to try life in clay pots on the soak trays. I know, I know, in general, cattleyas want to dry out. But plants always need more water when it gets hotter; it’s one of those textbook guidelines. And these plants have been accustomed to their nursery media, mostly sphagnum moss, which tends to stay wet longer than bark and stone. I decided to stay partly with the moss, which will help draw water up from the soak pads, and supplement with a more standard cattleya mix, which will allow better air circulation. The clay will both absorb excess water and “breathe” it out as it evaporates from the surface of the pot. And I will keep my fingers crossed for the full two weeks. Surely, that will help.
Anyway, here’s a photoblog of my clay-potting session.
Four young cattleyas ready for repotting (along with a dendrobium that I wanted to repot but didn’t). They are all in their original nursery pots.
The chicos:
Cattleya gaskelliana
Cattleya Memoria Marina Camillo
Cattleya Heaven’s Gate “Crystelle” x Cattleya Krull’s Dragon Fire “Tamiami 18” (it doesn’t have a shorter name, as yet; I’ll call it Heaven’s Crystelle Dragon)
Rhyncattleanthe Fu Shu Glory “Happy Holidays”
The extra plant is a young dendrobium that I was going to repot but decided to leave be for now. Scroll to the bottom for the horror-show from which I scurried.
The pots: these were ooky from languishing outside for some years. I scrubbed them with warm water and sprayed them with antibacterial counter cleaner—the nice, botanical kind. Oh, and don’t you love this li’l dish brush? I got it at a sweet little store called Besame Mucho on a visit to Key West. It’s French. Yes, a chichi dish brush.
The medium: I had a little Imperial Cattleya mix from RepotMe and I mixed in some small stalite, partly to stretch the mix and partly to make it finer overall. The RepotMe mix is fairly coarse, and these plants are just smol!
The sphagnum moss: not that lovely, golden stuff from New Zealand that looks like Rapunzel’s hair. This is blue collar moss from Wisconsin, the kind you’d use if you had to make three dozen hanging petunia balls for an evening wedding outdoors in a New York summer. It’s fine.
Unpotting the plants: the roots on the gaskelliana and the Marina Camillo were beautiful. I had to snip away a few on the Heaven’s Crystelle Dragon, but it too was in decent shape. Unpotting the Marina Camillo and the Happy Holidays required some delicate work because they had grown through their pots. (I could’ve just potted them up with the old plastic pots and all, but I don’t like doing that if I can avoid it.) The Happy Holidays had grown so thoroughly through its baby pot that I had to cut said pot away entirely. The Marina Camillo required less dramatic, but delicately performed, pot demolition. I lost no roots!!
Repotting: I’d call this more an up-potting session than a repotting session, except in the case of the Heaven’s Crystelle Dragon, as its medium had decomposed and it had some dead roots. I lined the bottoms of the clay pots with fresh moss and brought it up the sides a bit. The roots snuggled into that pocket of moss. Then the high-drainage medium filled in the cracks. I bounced the pots off my tray a few times to let the medium settle, then got a bit more on top.
And here are my repotted catt chicos! I’ll follow up with their placement on the soak pads . . . And with how they fare after my travels.
Caveat: Will I have to to up-pot these orchids into plastic in the fall? The cooler months are fairly dry here and clay might require more frequent watering than I’m comfortable with. Welp, that’s a question for September.
Here are images from the web of the blooms that I hope my young catts will one day produce.
Rhyncattleanthe Fu Shu Glory “Happy Holidays”
Purchased from Barefoot Orchids
Image courtesy of Barefoot Orchids
Cattleya Heaven’s Gate “Crystelle” x Cattleya Krull’s Dragon Fire “Tamiami 18” (“Heaven’s Crystelle Dragon”)
Purchased from Waldor Orchids
Image courtesy of Waldor Orchids
Cattleya gaskelliana
Purchased from Ten Shin Gardens (they were one of the international vendors at the North Jersey Orchid Society show)
Image courtesy of Orchid Roots
Cattleya Memoria Marina Camillo
Purchased from New World Orchids
Image courtesy of New World Orchids
And, as promised . . .
Here’s the dendrobium affair from which I ran. Roots growing out of Styrofoam and then back in! Nope, I’ll live to repot another day.
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