Wednesday, August 25, 2010

What's Wrong With This Picture?

 The correct answer is "Griffin is being good," but I'll also take "those inflorescences need staking."  The Miltassia C.M. Fitch 'Izumi' gives her a number of leaves to chew on, and those bloom spikes look like they could use some nudging with her cheeks.  After all, we still don't know whether Charles Fitch is a dog person or a cat person.


This plant has come a long way since I bought it (about a year ago).  It has five inflorescences and some of the buds are starting to show the purple hues of the flower.  It's in a 5" pot with multiple holes drilled in it, filled with Hydroton from RePotme.  That whole thing is in a 6" pot filled with aquarium gravel.  The gravel has kept it from falling over and it's also created -- not a semi-hydroponic situation -- a "quasi-hydroponic" one.  My Mtssa. loves the clay Hydroton marbles and and many of my Cattleyas do, too.  More accurately, my plants love that they're in soil-less medium because it makes my over-watering less offensive.  The velamen glues itself to clay and the medium takes up as much water as it needs.  


I should add that RePotme is a Kitty Approved! vendor.  One of their strengths is affordable shipping costs, which is a big deal when we're talking about big bags of special rocks and dirt.  They look really good when you do the math and compare their growing media prices to other vendors, and they just sell orchid potting supplies, which is very confidence-inspiring.


Anyway, I need to figure out why Griffin is acting so behaved -- she must be plotting something big.  I'm sure I'll get an answer when she wakes up from her nap.  Until then, I'll let her rest under the foliage and hope for the best.

No comments: