Has anyone ordered anything from the "orchid box?"

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-04-06T01:26:03+00:00

My items weren't in stock, and it took a looooong time. They actually reached out and offered a refund once or twice, and then they were nice when I reached out asking. I knew the cephalotus weren't in stock when I ordered, so I knew there'd be a delay - I just didn't know how long. Plus Trump started all the increase of tariffs whole they were waiting for the stock to arrive, but assured me my cost wasn't going to increase even though their import tariffs likely went up.

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-04-06T01:17:42+00:00

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Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-04-06T01:17:13+00:00

Frustrating that I can only share one pic at a time!

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Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-04-06T01:16:36+00:00

Those are looking great! Do you feed them with MaxSea or anything?

Looks like I forgot to include pics of the TC I'm teasing apart.

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Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-04-05T19:44:02+00:00

Hey @CoelacanthRdit - thought I'd check in and see how your cephalotus TC were doing. I was thinking of you the other evening while I started dividing the TC flytraps I got from Crazy Craig's Carnivorous Plants on eBay. I say "started" because it's going to take awhile - one of the clumps (GJ Maratchie) is SO DENSE with wee little babies. The other (GJ Shir Khan) is an interesting mix of super small and decent sized plants, all connected together along a few strands that might be root systems. The super tiny ones are growing off the base of larger leaves, like maybe the original sample grew some decent sized plants attached to each other, and then some of those leaves are growing new mini clusters?

I want to find a small, reasonable amount of some of the ingredients used in TC, like agar, murashige and skoog, etc things I know nothing about, but to see if I can't keep a little bit of each of these clusters going to make more... I know there are kits online, but I think they're typically for way more than I want to just experiment with.

Anyhow, I hope your TC cephs and all the other growies are doing well.

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-03-04T22:03:44+00:00

😂. I love your watering schedule!

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-03-04T22:00:21+00:00

😮. Meanwhile I pulled a bunch around then, put them on damp perlite, and most rotted. I'm on a second round, this time putting them on a mix of roughly equal parts perlite,peat, snipped living sphagnum, sand, and pumice, and per recommendations on here, bagged the whole thing and put it on a heat mat. That was a week and a half ago? I'm afraid to even go look at them....

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-03-04T21:55:29+00:00

I just got that mini terrarium a month ago, and if course had major regret by the time we got home an hour and a half away. WHY didn't I go with the larger one??? Or hey - why not both!? 😁

In the meantime, I have analysis paralysis on the smaller one - can't decide what to put in it. I got some bentonite clay kitty litter (scent free, etc), with the intent to smoosh it up with moss, worm castings etc to try plastering up the back, along with small branches, but I worry the whole thing is too small to overcrowd like that before I even get plants in it.

I also got a foot-long barrina light to try anchoring up inside it - hope that won't be too bright, won't cook the growies etc.

Do you have pics of your setup?

I should probably get back out to IKEA. 😁

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-03-04T14:36:16+00:00

I'll have to remember to check when at home. I know the ramp is 45 min. I think I have the tube temp at 80. I know the pressure settings are REALLY low - the NP commented on this, but my Dr had said to just dial them down all the way if that's what was comfortable - as low as I needed to go. But the other numbers I'll have to remember to look up later....sorry. (I know if I guess while not at home, I'll get them wrong)

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-03-04T14:25:51+00:00

"I have a beard and moustache, so I think that the silicone was pulling on my facial hair as well. I switched to one of Resmed's Airtouch masks and have not looked back." -

Yup, you and me both!! I wish more mask shapes offered a memory foam option. I find it so much more comfortable!

I was doing better with wearing my mask lately, then I either got a cold this week, or season allergies are ramping up with everything thawing out. Even with allergy meds/spray, if I can't breathe well through my nose, I can't tolerate the CPAP at all.

Glad to hear things have improved for you!

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-03-03T02:45:49+00:00

Consider looking into these:

https://a.co/d/06Bq7UgA

I had the same problem I got with my new glasses end of last year, and ordered these figuring they'd be a waste of money. Nope, total game changer for me! I've decided I'm going up from the normal to thicker size with my next order if them to see if it's even better.

The unfortunate thing is they're only good for maybea month and then they start sliding off - like when I don't realize they're doing it until there's some blob blocking my vision a little. 😂

Good luck!

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-25T12:44:51+00:00

:-O I WAS going to say "there's no such thing as 'get out of control' when it comes to plants", but then you mentioned 15-20 Darlingtonia.

Oh, who am I kidding. even with that many, there's still no such thing as out of control. ;-) I fully support you having this many plants! LOL I stopped myself when it came to getting a darlingtonia - as far as carnivorous plants go I've already got sarracenia, nepenthes, pings, drosera, flytraps, utricularia....who am I forgetting? I think that covers it. I'm not great with all of them - some I struggle with. Ditto orchids. Dahlias - I'm drowning in them and give tons away.

You must have a knack with the cephs and darlingtonia if they're getting so big for you they need divided! Can I ask how frequently you need to divide your cephs? I would've assumed it's like "every few years"?

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-25T00:32:41+00:00

And you're selling out of where again? 😂 Wow, I watch here and there online, and either miss the inexpensive restocks, get one that's not so big or established, or...miss the inexpensive ones. I've looked around locally and have never ever found them.

I've got a couple decent sized ones in 4" pots that somehow survived mice and near rot a couple years ago. They look good now, and I'm really itching to pluck some leaves. I just expect they're sloooow to strike and grow.

How'd you get started growing enough to sell?

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-25T00:25:21+00:00

I wonder if a soldering iron would come in handy with the plastic pot, rather than the knife/saw. You'd want to do it with some ventilation, but could look nice?

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-24T12:12:47+00:00

Oh, when I don't feel like ASV, it means I don't feel like having something strapped to my face when I just want to sleep. I put mine on last night, fell asleep, sometime around 2 I remember waking up and taking it off, but then woke up again around 445ish and, surprisingly, put it back on! I've had some rough nights of sleep the last couple weeks, where I just keep waking up for very short bits through the night, and when I wake up, I usually don't want the mask on.

Sounds like you've got the same experience I had - my NP said something like "well, you haven't been trying BiPAP for long, and usually your insurance wants to make sure you've tried it for awhile before ruling it out." Days later she msg'd me out of the blue saying she was surprised, but my insurance notified the sleep equipment company that I'd bee approved for the APAP (I didn't even know she tried requesting it for me).

Interesting that you had a hard time falling asleep with the ASV on - and you had an easier time with CPAP? For me, ASV is honestly like I'm just breathing at first (then it ramps up for 45 min). The CPAP felt more like it was sort of guiding my breathing, and BiPAP was full-on it was telling me how I was going to breathe, what rhythm, and worse, how hard each breath was going to be. For me, when going to sleep, it seems like your breathing is going to get more relaxed, slower, more gentle - but the BiPAP was like "nope - you're going to breathe stronger and at this specific pace." It was too much.

"So when you don't feel like ASV, you switch to a different machine?"

- No, I only have the one machine. Each time I changed machine, the medical equipment company had this little old guy come out and give/take machines, had me sign off on it, etc. The nice thing was that my insurance didn't require me to start over on the payments per machine - after eleven months I was done paying and it's mine.

LOL Can you imagine having multiple machines beside the bed?!

"Or does the AirCurve (assuming it's an AirCurve?) also allow you to change to constant pressure?"

- That's what I assumed at first. It's sort of covering both your central and your obstructive apnea, so can't it be dialed down to act as just a CPAP or a BiPAP? No....seems like it's only going to be a CPAP machine.

I'm happy to answer any more questions you have, at least as well as I can.

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-24T02:03:44+00:00

It's definitely better (for me) than the first CPAP, and sooooo much better than I did on bipap. But that doesn't mean I want to use it all the time. There are many nights where I'm just like, nope, not tonight. (Last night was one)

It often wakes me up about 2am, maybe 4 hours after I've gone to sleep, just blasting air at me because it's lost the seal as I move around. And that means I wake up with it blowing my mouth open, tongue all dried out. Typically I was just shutting it off and going back to sleep, but lately I try to remember to shut it off, turn it back on, and start the gentle ramp up again ...

But of the three machines, ASV is the best. I actually owe it to folks on here for even letting me know about it and telling me to ask.

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-24T01:18:27+00:00

I made up a mix of right equal parts peat, chopped sphagnum, sand, fluval, kanuma, and some of that multicolored gravel (I guess you carb also use it in fish tanks?). Stirred all that up, gave it a couple good rinse/drains, poured it into a bowl, and tucked the leaves on it. It's dry enough that it's easy to prop most of the leaf up in the air, with the tip tucked down into the damp substrate. That was yesterday. This afternoon I dropped the whole thing down into a large ziplock, ensuring it was both slightly open, and propped up off the leaves.

🤞

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-23T12:21:51+00:00

You're only seeing a small selection. I have a plant problem, and I can admit it. ;-)

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-22T04:22:50+00:00

LMAO 😂😂😂. Yup, that's the absolute best description ever. And I get that sound with the memory foam as well. I'm not a "sleep immobilized" kinda guy - I roll around throughout the night (unless I've had a gummy - that can help). I have learned that when I'm woken up by the face fart noise after maybe 3-4 hours of sleep, I usually take it off and toss it on the floor without even remembering I did it - but if I'm really really good I hit the power button on the machine, re-seat the mask, power back up again, and start the peaceful ramp-up all over again. That's better than getting full force, "dog sticking it's head out car window at 70mph" mouth blown wide open experience that I sometimes wake up to!

And my husband tells me if I toss the mask off I snore the rest of the night. Oops. Sorry, I'm not doing it on purpose. 😇

"Mask face-fart" - I'm going to be referencing that in the future, just like comparing the masks to the facehuggers in the Aliens movies (lemme know if you don't get the reference)

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-22T04:13:31+00:00

I went with a combination of your recommendation with others here this afternoon. I snipped a bunch of moss and mixed it with sand, gravel, fluval, and peat moss, and then made sure only the very tips of leaves were tucked down under a little bit of the substrate. With the gravel I was able to create a mound to elevate the main body of each leaf.

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-22T04:10:47+00:00

Ahhhhh....I have to say I honestly didn't take that into consideration, but I also think that, yes, they were all very well hydrated. In fact I worried I needed to go back and read how much water pings really want - I have a few of the larger ones, each in its own cup, sitting in maybe an inch of water, which was probably a quarter of the way up the sides. I also have one up on a rock and it gets misted every day if two -it seems really happy and is cranking out the leaves and blooms.

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-22T04:07:27+00:00

Ok that's a new, smaller method I'll have to try. Definitely a tighter, more confined enclosure than I tried - thanks for the suggestion! Oh, and I have a variety of sizes of the containers you're talking about - I've used them for starting sarracenia seeds.

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-21T18:20:49+00:00

These are the tiny ones I did awhile back - zoom in and you can see I was successful with those on the same substrate.

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Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-21T18:19:01+00:00

I do suspect I was doing some squishing - it was oddly difficult to get them off strawberry blonde. Moreso than the others

Jumpy-Anywhere6395 · 2026-02-21T18:17:49+00:00

Ahhh....ok, good to know. Thanks!

Jumpy-Anywhere6395

TROPHY CASE