With Dendrobium nobiles in bud, I wanted to post a vintage drawing of a dendrobium. Not necessarily a nobile - looks like it says Dendrobium macrophilum. This is from L'Illustration Horticole, 1888 (therefore public domain) by Pannemaeker

Orchids in January: Promises

A couple of hours with an ice pack on my back, and 600mg of ibuprofen, and I was up to walking around with the camera and looking at the "promises" of orchid blooms. They are gradual, but they always bring hope. A bit over one year ago, I didn't know if I could bring orchids into bloom, or if they would even survive. Now the windows are full of orchids, many with buds or spikes. Most are in South windows unless otherwise stated.

This Cymbidium continues to lengthen its spike. I try to be patient. Actually, there is no other choice! It's my first attempt at a Cymbidium, and I'm happy it's come this far. The flowers are brownish with magenta spotted lip, difficult for me to describe. If I've indexed it right, it can be found by clicking on the Cymbidium label.

As I was walking around taking photos, I noticed a new spike on this Burrageara Stefan Isler "Lava Flow". I am SO EXCITED! COOL! I was ready to give up hope for reblooming Oncidium alliance orchids. This one really grew nicely last year, several new pseudobulbs, a full specimen plant. I've been noticing the newer pseudobulbs swelling, and looked as recently as this week without seeing the any new spikes. I was starting to think about whether I wanted to keep it.

So like a proud parent with a camera, here is the spike! Did it grow from almost nothing to 3 inches overnight? Or did I just not notice it? Still quite some growth to happen before it blooms, but I think that the biggest hurdle is getting it to decide to make a spike. This is so cool!

Like the good child in the family, this Yamamoto Dendrobium Fancy Angel "Lycee" continues to behave and impress, without much encouragement, out performing everyone else and not getting a lot of credit for it because it is so reliable. Starting to spike again after a beautiful performance 2 months ago. A very reliable and beautiful flower.

This Trader Joe's Yamamoto Dendrobium "NOID Purple" (my name) is also a strong performer, but hasn't bloomed before this winter. Here we see new buds swelling. I also bloomed last winter and again during the summer. (Added later - I forgot I had decided this is Yamamoto Dendrobium Love Memory "Fizz". Looks just like it, and with that name I must have it.)

Here is the keiki that I started from above Trade Joe's Yamamoto Dendrobium "Purple", sharing a supplemental light source in the South window. The light is mainly there for the two Dendrobium phalaenopsis - type hybrids, that I suspect need more light in the winter. They are "Anching Lubag" and "Genting", for the record. Whether they will grow and rebloom is a question I hope is answered this year. The Yamamoto keiki, now a plant on it's own, is fattening up nicely and is maturing. It would be cool if it bloomed at a small size, but regardless, it's fun to have started an orchid plant "from the beginning".

Here is the Trader Joe's Epidendrum "NOID Red" (again, my name. Creative....) but it needs to be called something. These are said to be very easy, but you never know until you grow them yourself. It's making several new spikes on growth that happened in 2010 so it's another case of "I did it!" It's in a South window.

Iwanagaara Appleblossom "Fantasy" appears to have a nice spike on one of the new, larger-fatter pseudobulbs that grew last year. It's in a South window. I understand that these can give up while there is still a sheath, but have some hope. Holding it to the light, there appears to be a flower bud inside that sheath. Same is true for unpictured Potinara Achung Yoyo "Little Goldfish" which, if only because of the name, I would love to see it bloom.

A beautifully burgundy-leafed Phalenopsis (or is it Doritonopsis?) which has had a slowly growing flower spike for about 6 months. Inch by inch..... It's in a North window.

This rebloom-on-old-spike Phaenenopsis is another case of reliability to the point of taking for granted. Of course, I haven't had it bloom from a de novo new spike yet, but it's been in bloom for months and months. The photo doesn't do it justice, it's darker than the photo shows. It's in a West window.

Another Phalaenopsis about to rebloom on existing spikes. This one is white with pink polka-dots. Quite pretty. It also has a de novo spike. It's in a South window. In my area, even South windows are gloomy this time of year.

Back Pain Saturday

I was headed out to haul some bark mulch and pulled a back muscle while changing shoes. Oh the irony - didn't even haul one load.

Three days ago on my day off I DID get a truckload of medium bark nuggets. Spread some on one freshly-cleared and weeded border, so I hope that will be weed-free this year. It depends on whether kitty cat likes the medium nuggets for her "world's biggest litter box". I'm hoping not. Once she decides a garden bed is the world's biggest litter box, she has it dug up within a few weeks, not only destroying the neat appearance, but bringing weed seeds to the top so it is weedy - all doing away with the effort. I've thought about laying chicken wire on top of the old soil, then covering with mulch. Instead, this time, I got larger size bark, to see if that is less attractive to her. There are lots of spots with the smaller bark if she still chooses.

Frustrated about the back Sitting here with my feet up, ice pack on my back, and just took 3 ibuprofens. I hope it's tolerable tomorrow.

If I can get up later I'll take pics of the orchids in-bud. They are "promising" a nice show.

Pruning, sprays, and apples

Today was day off from work.

Pruned more roses. Most of these are either David Austins or cutting - grown "found" varieties with no name. I cut most back to about 18 inches to 2 feet, removed dead stems, and removed old 3rd and 4th year canes and puny little ones. Some authors now state that roses can be pruned back with a hedge clipper to a uniform height, and the range of 3 feet is better than smaller. However, clearing out old growth and twigs, they will be easier to maintain next year. Fewer old stems will mean less carry over of any residual disease. Fewer, more robust stems will mean easier to spray with neem when blackspot hits. Although I didn't spray at all last year. I hope the pruning stunts them a little next year - they were way too big.

Sprayed the genetic dwarf peaches with Lily copper spray. The spray includes an adherent to make the copper stay on the stems. Today was just slightly drizzly, morning only, so most should stay on the stems. I know this is way, way too late by the books. They should have been sprayed in December. My thought now is if the spray reduces peach leaf curl by a bit, I may still get some peaches. Even if PLC is not prevented entirely. As always, we'll see. I may spray again in a few weeks, and again before buds open. Depends on my schedule.

I used up left-over spray on the pear tree, some roses, a cherry, and a fig tree. I don't know if it will be helpful, but I hated to let it go to waste.

We have a lot of apples remaining in the refrigerator. I just ate a Liberty. Surprisingly good. Much better than a commercial apple.

New Test Fruits for 2011

I have some spots for new fruits. Golden Delicious has to go - no apples for 7 years; 2010 was the most promising but succumbed to disease. There is no room for consistent non performers. In addition, Chinese Mormon Apricot died last year. And finally, the Hazel nuts produced, and the squirrels got every nut. I don't think I can protect them from squirrels, and if I do it will be too much effort. So I think the hazel nut trees, will go, even though they look like they'll have a lot of nuts this year.

I need to re-think the peaches, too. The genetic dwarfs actually look beautiful, bloom like crazy, but require a lot of effort to cover from the rain to prevent leaf curl. I didn't have time this year. I may spray with copper this week, if I get a chance. Not sure how that will work if it is freezing.

Here are the selections I am thinking about from Raintree.

I did research on late-blooming (to avoid frost), leaf-curl-resistant peaches. There isn't enough information to choose one over the others - if I could, I would pick the latest-blooming, most leaf-curl-resistant. However, it looks like the old variety, Indian Free, has a good record in the Northwest (taking that with a grain of salt). The down side is it needs a pollinator, but I currently have 3 genetic dwarf peaches and one peach-plum hybrid, so I hope that at least one of those will suffice. Raintree states: "Said to be one of the all-time highest rated fruits at taste tests, this heirloom variety was grown at Monticello by Thomas Jefferson, who prized it for its rich color, flavor and size. Naturally resistant to peach leaf curl, the tree produces heavy crops of large, aromatic cling stone peaches that have red skin and white flesh marbled with crimson stripes. When fully ripe in mid to late season, the rich, sweet, distinctive flavor is excellent both eaten fresh." and David Wilson nurseries states this peach wins their taste test. I feel frustrated about the genetic dwarfs, they are really beautiful small trees and I invested a lot of time and effort, and space, to them, but to (potentially) lose a year's crop because I didn't have time to do leaf curl prevention in November/December is frustrating. And it takes several years to bring a new tree into production.

Cherries have been doing well, but the challenges are early bloom, resulting in loss of a lot of cherries to frost, and splitting when there is a late rain. Two years ago I added a tart cherry, Sure-Fire. It had its first few cherries last year, and I hope for a larger crop this year, although it is still young. Tart cherries do not nead a pollinator. Many, but not all, sweet cherries do, and it's complicated because some will not pollinate others. Raintree Nursery (source of these pictures) has pollinator information. I chose this variety, Almaden Duke, as a self-fertile variety, hoping they are sweet enough to eat out of hand and will bloom later. We'll see.

Finally, I want to re-think strawberries. I usually get too many in June, and they become a mess of runners. I would like to try an ever bearing variety in barrels or raised beds, for easier maintenance. I have a couple of barrels to use, so plan on trying that. I chose Seascape Ever bearing to test due to good reviews on the internet.

The change for strawberries will mean much less maintenance. The barrels are very easy to maintain. And I hope an extended season with fewer berries at any given time. This is in keeping with my goals of 2011. The cherry is easy to maintain at small size by backyard orchard culture methods (see label link), and the peach should be easy as well - so genetic dwarf may not even be necessary.