Princess Kaiulani and Lea Marie

These were taken yesterday, Phalaenopsis lea marie salazar and a Phalaenopsis PK flava. Time to do some weeding.......

 

Safe for now

I thought I better not delay the project anymore. Originally wanted to use some pvc pipes to make the cage but thought this will be much simpler and cost efficient. Found some old vinyl coated wire mesh and managed to put together this cage with some cable tie. They should be safe for now.

Self healing

This always happens whenever there is a heat spell. The birds will try and eat my peyote. Sometime they are successful sometimes not. Increasingly they are are finding my peyotes tasty. You can see a  part of the succulent eaten leaving a deep cut. Luckily they do recover and heal. Important not to let it get into contact with water or they will rot.  I need to put up some protection soon.

A scar from the previous attact that has healed but got attacked again. 

 

seedlings are happy

About a month since deflasking, seedlings are happy... almost maintainence free. They have just been surviving on the water that run off from daily waterings of the orchids above when I go galavanting. The plastic covers are drilled with holes and the side of the containers are cut to allow for free air flow. holes drilled at the bottom of the container to allow for water to drain so the growing media is moist but not swimming in water. I prefer growing this way as compared to growing in open air compots as the original roots and weaker leaves do not dry up brfore new roots grow.  Next will be to start fetriliser and fungicide regime plus add some snail pallets, I can see some nibblings already. 

Figs

The small fruit nets work great ....  I can finally get to the fruits before the birds. 2 different variety of figs. They dont taste as sweet as they should be but the fruit size is getting larger. Plants are still small so may get better .

Quick snapshots

Have been busy ,  orchids a bit neglected , took some quick shots this morning.... 3 new growth from the Bulbophyllum spiesii and the bulbs are getting larger as the plant mature. This one is comparable to a mid size apple.  The dendrobium totem pole is also doing great. Orchids are getting established and have started to bloom.

Sorry for the silence..... Went galanvanting !

Went to chase the cherry blossoms, planned last year but missed the trip because the blooms were much earlier than expected by almost 2 weeks. This year my guess was much better. Still it was not perfect. We had planned to land in tokyo last week of march , 2 to 3 days after the start of cherry blossoms,  leave after a few days just as the blooms near peak and arrive in shizuoka then kyoto and osaka to experience the cherry trees in full bloom but  just before the trip the weather went cold hit by a stream of cold air delaying the blooming process, what was supposed to be peak blooms by end of march became only 50% to 70% and the sky became cloudy and day temperature dropped to below 15 C. Luckily we managed to make some adjustments and could delay departure by a few days to enjoy the warmer sunny weather and catch the kyoto and osaka cherry trees in full bloom.