Waiting on spring…..still

I’ve been working on a lot of the same things lately.  Making more dryer balls, felting more soap, knitting more wrist warmers, crocheting more flowers for hat pins.  Not much that you haven’t already seen.  So I haven’t taken any pictures.

I went to Shepherd’s Harvest and it was fabulous.  I had a great time, met lots of old friends, made new friends, and talked a LOT!   It was wonderful.  But I didn’t take a single photo – so nothing to show you. 

I’ve started the Becker Farmer’s Market on Fridays from 3 – 6 PM.  The weather has not been very friendly, and traffic has been a bit slow.  There is not much to photograph – so again, nothing to show you. 

But yesterday, I helped Darryl finish the fence around our veggie garden.

The main garden

We now have a permanent fence of chicken netting.  Before we only had the nylon deer netting around the garden. 

Inside the main area

Several rows of plants are already up, but the bad weather and rain had prevented us from working on the fence. 

Peas in the side area

 The netting did work pretty well to keep the deer out, but raccoons would tear it to shreds and the old stuff was in rough shape.   We are hoping this will last a long time.  

And since we are talking gardening….

Phaleanopsis

…how about this beauty?  The buds were just setting last fall when I brought it in and it didn’t grow a bit most of the winter.  Slowly as it got more light this spring, the buds started swelling and today, May 28, it looks like this!  I believe this is an orchid Darryl got for me in the spring of 2011.   This is the first time to re-bloom.

Advertisement

Sorting and Blooming

The unseasonably warm temperatures of late have allowed me to sort fiber in the shop with a little heat from a propane sunflower heater.  I have now also finished sorting the white fiber for Sawtooth Star Alpacas.  The remaining colors are much smaller batches.

Sorting bags

 These are huge paper bags used for collecting leaves, lined with huge plastic bags.  The paper bags are great because they stand on their own and I can reuse them.  I sort the fiber into 6 grades – each with a range of 3 microns.  The more uniform the fiber, the nicer the yarn.  I can almost see the end to this project!

The orchids are starting to open and I thought I would share a couple.

Cattleya

I’ve had this orchid for many years.  I split it a while back so I have a couple of plants.  Many cattleyas smell amazing and this one sure does!  Very sweet.  I can rarely get it to bloom, so am pretty happy to have 2 blooms on this plant and 2 just starting to open on another plant. 

Dendrobium?

I got this the spring of 2010.  It spent this summer outside and the sun faded the name stake.  I ‘think’ it is a dendrobium, but I do not know the variety.  I was very excited to see buds on this orchid, as I’ve not had good luck with other dendrobiums.  There are at least another half dozen buds to open on this shoot.  Anyone know what kind of orchid this is?

Orchid show!

Today the snow is falling and the wind is howling.   I have sometimes shown pictures of my orchids, but today, I want to give you a little piece of sunshine in these orchid pictures.  Yesterday we went to the Minnesota Arboretum to see the orchids on display there.

This was one of my favorites.

They were amazing.   The above is a Phalaenopsis.   So pretty.  I had never seen one like it.  Next is the main reason we went yesterday.

The star of the show

This was only on display for a week, ending yesterday.  Here is its story.

The rare orchid's story

It is hard to show scale in pictures, and I’ve cropped most of these down to one bloom, but that one was very large.   Probably about 4 inches across the petals. 

Pretty yellow

This one was really big too.  I don’t know the names of most of these. 

Smelled yummy!

I do know aboveis a cattleya.  They are usually fragrant and this one did not disappoint. 

Big blossoms

I think this is a vanda – blossom about 3 inches across.  I’ve never tried to grow these.  I’ve heard they need a little more attention than I give mine.

How unusual!

I really liked this one because of its unusual coloring.  The bottom petal was such a pretty purple and the other petals were brown and green.   It didn’t seem like it belonged together!  These flowers were about 2 inches across. 

Inside the Orchidarium

This photo was taken through glass (or very clear plastic).   It is called an Orchidarium.  I believe it was invented by someone in Minnesota.   This glass box was really big.   Inside is its own little orchid world.

Little orchids

This is also inside the Orchidarium.  It was packed with lots of small orchids and several tiny ones – some with flowers about an eighth of an inch big.  All the orchids were provided by Orchids Limited– a wonderful orchid store.   I was very pleased to see a Sharry Baby at the show.   I have that orchid and have shown it in bloom here a few times.  It is an oncidium and smells like chocolate!  I have had it for many years and have just noticed it is in spike again. 

The wind is still blowing, but I hope these pretty flowers helped brighten your day a bit.

Winter blooms

My orchids are blooming! 

Double cattleya

My cattleyas rarely blooms.  They often set buds that never develop and open.  But here it has these two flowers and another bud that is just showing a tiny bit of petal coming out.

Close-up of bloom

And this smells so incredible.  One bloom will fill the room with sweet fragrance.   It is quite a treat to see (and smell) it bloom. 

Phalaenopsis blooms

This phal is actually a baby of the original plant in the same pot.  And now there is another baby – just a couple inches big.  Time to re-pot and separate.

Deformed petal

They grow over the edge of the pot, making it top-heavy and tippy.  I think the plant got bumped and that caused the top petal to be misshapen when it was still a bud.  Two more spikes of flowers to open with lots of buds on all three spikes.

Oncidium blooms

I think I have 3 oncidiums blooming now and spikes on a couple more.  These seem to bloom easily for me.  Lots of flowers on each spike.  But the flower spikes completely out weigh the rest of the plant, so they need to be propped up. 

Dancing Lady

Each flower is about the size of a quarter.  See why they are called Dancing Lady orchids? 

Does that help with the winter blues?