Orchid Challenge: I win!

Back in November of last year I set a lofty Orchid Challenge goal of getting half of my orchids to bloom this season. I am happy to announce that I win!

This is the fourth of 8 orchids that bloomed. This one seems to bloom late so it's late summer and it's just doing its thing now. I have to say that this was my ringer. It has bloomed every year so I was pretty confident. It's an Epi. Green Hornet (read more on last years post). It seems to only bloom on new stalks and this year there are two new stalks. Crossing my fingers for two spikes of flowers next year.

Here is the recap of the reblooms:
Orchid Bloom: 1 of 4 -- Neolauchea Pulchella Orchid
Orchid Bloom: 2 of 4 -- Den Aussie Chip Orchid
Orchid Bloom: 3 of 4 -- The rescue orchid

And some guest bloggers reblooms:
The Jenny's Lady Slipper
Marisa's Cymbidium
The Jenny's Leopard Orchid (rebloom part 2)

Nicely done ladies. Who says orchids are hard?! (can you hear them all dying in my kitchen as we speak...)

Air plant: Ionantha Peanut Clump

I call it Peanut. It was the largest one out of the bunch that I was digging in at the Orchid Show with a lot of new little clumps starting to form. It's still only a few inches at it's longest point.

It was this very pretty soft to bright pink but now that I've had it for a few months it has kind of dulled down a bit. I am wondering if it would like more light. It only gets indirect in the little square vase it lives in. Since it is blazing hot in Sacramento right now, I may not try that just yet.

The little Peanut seems to be growing a few new leaves, but very slowly. I have no idea how to make it bloom again so I will stick with watering it enough to keep it alive. That's the plan. Come on little Peanut!

Black Mondo Grass

Black Mondo Grass also known as Ophiopogon planiscapus 'nigrescens' is actually part of the lily family and not a grass. This is most obvious when it blooms...





Here's some cool info on propagating it from seed... useful if your are patient, since a small container of black mondo grass is about $12, and can get really pricey if you want to use it as a ground cover...
http://www.cooltropicalplants.com/Black-mondo-grass.html

Libertia peregrinans

By The Jenny, Guest Blogger

This spiky plant is pretty awesome. Green and orange. More orange on the sides the sun hits the most, more green on the shady sides. This Spring it sprouted a bunch of white flowers. To tell the truth, the flowers don't really go. Pure white trillium type flowers on a rust colored grassy thing. But it would be silly to turn away flowers, so bring 'em on.

Volunteer Pot

By The Jenny, Guest Blogger

Well this was quite a shock. I've been planting different herbs in this shallow pot near the front door for a few years now. This year, thanks to all the rain, they ALL came back. The mint, the oregano, the chives, and the 3 foot tall parsley. Very nice indeed. This lazy gardener approves.

Azalea Resurrection

By The Jenny, Guest Blogger

These poor little azaleas. Didn't bloom at all last year. And it took them an extra long time to get leaves too. This year was a different story. Might have been all the rain. Maybe the mild temperature. It wasn't anything I did, I assure you. But look how pretty and orange the blooms are! Go flowers go.

Masdevallia, new orchid!

This is the one and only orchid I bought at the Orchid Show back in April. But how could I resist? It's a whole different type that I don't have and it's really cool. The flowers are orange, but they sometimes have a reddish look to them. If you get up really close, you can see that there are tiny little hot pink hairs that are giving it the red color. Pretty damn cool, right?!

When I bought it there were a lot of little spikes growing so I thought that it would keep blooming for a while. But alas, it wanted a lot more water than my other ones so within a few weeks it had lost all the blooms. I'm sad because it had so much potential, but I did learn it's water needs.

Next up, trying to get it to bloom next year. Until then, it's a happy little leafy thing in my window.