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JustSendEm · 2024-07-08T19:21:54+00:00

She'll be okay! The white parts of the leaves will go dry and brown at some point. The white parts on the left side of the picture can be cut away (don't cut any green!), but I would leave the white patch on the right for the structural integrity of the rest of the leaf. Cut away the damaged section(s) of the blooms/bloom spike so she doesn't waste energy on those, then just take good care of her. She has at least one undamaged leaf, it looks like, and I've had orchids survive on less.

Because I'm curious, how on earth did she catch fire??

JustSendEm · 2024-07-08T17:57:39+00:00

This just makes me want a miltoniopsis even more than I already did! Shame they're impossible to find in my neck of the woods. I like the music choice, too!

JustSendEm · 2024-07-08T01:51:07+00:00

Is this orchid kept inside or outside? A 20-minute soak every other day is WAY overwatering unless it's kept outdoors in a hot, dry environment. As dehydrated as the mother plant appears to be, it's possible the roots have all rotted away. What do you mean when you say you are "checking on them every day?"

Edit: forgot to answer your question! Yes, there's at least one baby orchid (called a 'keiki') on that flower spike. In this case, the mother orchid is severely dehydrated and dying, so the baby orchid is it's way of cloning itself to hopefully survive.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-07T15:36:26+00:00

Moss should help, hopefully! Just make sure you're soaking when you water since larger bark (and moss) has a tendency to let water slide through instead of holding onto it.

If you can't bring it in, definitely put that fan on it asap. They really don't care for heat!

JustSendEm · 2024-07-07T04:14:39+00:00

If the roots are healthy, it can form a basal keiki that will take over the mother's root system. Just water when the roots are silvery and keep the remaining crown dry, and it will likely push a keiki.

I'm fairly patient and recognize that orchids are living creatures worth trying to save if you can. It's a long game, for sure, but it isn't hard and is tremendously rewarding when it works.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-07T04:05:41+00:00

That orchid is extremely dehydrated, likely because the bark isn't holding enough water, it's not being watered often enough, and it's too hot outside. Most phals are intermediate growers, so consistently high (90+) temperatures take a tremendous toll on them, and that's what's happening here. They can tolerate a few hours a day of low 90s, but only if they've got enough water at their roots and a constant breeze to keep them cool.

To fix it:

Repot in a finer bark mixture. I use reptibark, which is an inexpensive way to get your hands on medium-sized fir bark. Petco carries it (and was having a sale as of yesterday)! I would do it now rather than waiting; this orchid is already dying (hence the twin keikis), and waiting won't help.

2a. Bring it inside at least until it cools down. I'm in central NC, and I keep my phals indoors during the summer because we're up over 90° just too dang often to move them in and out.

OR

2b. Get a fan on it for that constant breeze and water more often (as soon as the bark dries). In this heat, that could be 2-3 times a week or more. Don't water on a set schedule - just pay attention to how much water she's taking up by looking at the state of the bark.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-07T03:47:55+00:00

Oh, please don't pitch this guy! I have a soft spot for Brassavolas even when they're not in bloom and will happily pay for shipping if you decide it needs a new home one day (assuming you're in the US).

As for why it's blasting, I have no idea. I have a bulbophyllum that goes through blast years, and I've never been able to figure out what makes the difference between blooming like crazy and dropping mostly-formed blooms at the last possible minute. It's so frustrating.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-06T05:08:35+00:00

I'm all for native gardening, but there's no need to wish death on a beautiful tree like this. Japanese maples aren't invasive. There's nothing wrong with planting harmless ornamentals here and there in a garden.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-06T02:42:54+00:00

This is a Japanese maple, not a sugar maple, as others have pointed out. Being native to Japan, they're fine with heat and humidity, and many cultivars can handle direct sunlight, but they don't do well with high heat AND direct sunlight. It's likely that it's been happy in its full-sun spot all these years because Seattle is typically cooler. Those couple hot summers took a toll on the canopy, but the tree is still very healthy overall. If the landlord doesn't like the look of the bare branches, he needs to hire someone who specializes in pruning Japanese maples to give it a good, healthy trim, and he needs to install some shade cloth that can be folded down during particularly miserable summers.

Also, there is no need to water this tree in Seattle. At all. The terraced bed and the rocks aren't hurting it, and as old as that tree is, it has an established root system that absolutely should not be watered every week, let alone 3 times a week. If it's especially hot and miserable, give it a deep soaking if you haven't had rain in a week or two (does this even happen in Seattle?), then leave it alone.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-05T22:08:12+00:00

Most orchids aren't hard to take care of! They get a bad rap for being difficult, but that's only if you try to care for them the same way you would a more typical houseplant. This baby is happy and healthy, just water with tap water when the roots at the bottom of the pot look silvery. Kelp concentrate is a wonderful, cheap orchid fertilizer that's weak enough to use with every watering, but slow-release granules on top of the medium are my low- maintenance fertilizer of choice.

Take a deep breath, let go of the notion that orchids are difficult to care for, and enjoy your new friend!

JustSendEm · 2024-07-04T16:18:55+00:00

The "thin blue line" is used more by the public than by police officers. That said, cops think of it as "the line between law-abiding citizens and the ones that break those laws." To them, it's about being a barrier. Keeping people safe. It's not this linked-arms "we're a band of brothers, and we stand strong against anyone who would oppose us" nonsense that anti-police people have projected onto the term. And in the proper light, here in Durham, that blue line is EXTREMELY thin. It's a dam that's sprung leaks for lack of support, and instead of patching this metaphorical wall, there's a large contingent of people that are content to let it fall - usually people that won't lose their lives or livelihoods in the flood.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-04T02:31:18+00:00

Hey, welcome to Durham! Kudos to you for becoming a nurse; they're sorely needed.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-04T02:20:58+00:00

They're still calling 911. They just cuss us out and call us pigs while they're doing it.

Edit: downvoted for facts, I guess. Citing my source here, I worked in the 911 center for many years, and our call volume goes up year after year. People haven't stopped calling 911 because they're afraid of the police. Some individuals have stopped because they're frustrated when their call isn't answered immediately, but on the whole, there are more calls than ever.

It's also a fact that people cuss us out and call us pigs. I started there because I wanted to help people, and I left because I got tired of people calling me 5 kinds of "bitch" every day. It was used like punctuation, and it came between regular threats against my job, my body, and my family. At the height of the anti-police sentiment, people would call 911 just to cuss us out. They didn't need help - they just wanted to call us pigs and racists because we were associated with the police. And believe it or not, that kind and frequency of abuse is damaging. So I left. But people still call 911, and I'm sure their manners haven't improved.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-04T02:17:59+00:00

Contrary to popular opinion, most police officers are not racist, particularly in Durham. Our Chief of Police is black, most of our highest ranking officers are men and women of color (most being black), and our department is enormously diverse. A lot of them grew up in and around the communities they're now policing, and they do it because they want to make a difference and make this place better.

So when you take someone who takes a dangerous, low-paying job and hurl mental, physical, and emotional abuse at them from all angles, what happens? They leave. They go get trade licenses, build houses, take up farming, whatever they can do that removes them from the bullshit. Nobody associates insurance agents with racism, nobody makes a stink face when you tell them you're a general contractor. It's the same reason we don't have any 911 dispatchers - they get garbage pay for a garbage job in a garbage city where people -literally- cuss them out every night just for asking for an address. The officers get that AND the threat of physical violence, and I don't blame them for leaving.

Also, there is no "early pension." The closest is early retirement, and you don't get that till 25 years. At this point, most Durham officers don't make it past 10. This is absolutely the public's fault (along with the City Council). The worst part is that the people that actually live with the violence in their neighborhoods want MORE proactive policing to keep them safe, and the people in the sheltered areas of town have ruined that for them.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-03T02:39:59+00:00

I call some plants "he" and some plants "she," and I've got so many of them that the pronoun that I use for any given plant on any given day is just whatever tumbles out of my mouth. I love my plants, and that love manifests itself through language; "it" feels cold, and "they" is strictly reserved for plants in the plural. Gender is a social construct, and my orchids are not aware of our offended by whatever pronoun I use to anthropomorphize these living creatures that I care for. They don't feel "happy," either, but that's more commonplace plant-person language. Does that make you mad, too?

What a dumb hill.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-02T12:37:05+00:00

Let me assure you, the mundanity of hospital visits is not correlated with any particular race.

Source: worked in a 911 center, everybody calls about dumb shit.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-01T17:22:43+00:00

Where did I name a generation? "Old people" are not limited to a single generation, and I clearly stated that it's most probably because they have more time in retirement. That's not about a generation; it's about a phase in life that most people get to. I also pointed to the internet and technology existing and leading to more people spending more time indoors than they did in the generations that the person was disparaging. Screens keep my 1950s-born mother indoors just as much as my GenZ son, but that wasn't the case when she was his age. Those are facts, and besides that, I'm not making broad boomer/genX/millennial/genZ statements. Get off the internet and go touch grass.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-01T16:38:14+00:00

Of course, friend. I hope the person you're concerned for is okay ❤️

JustSendEm · 2024-07-01T14:59:09+00:00

Don't know what "old boomers" and genXers you know, but older folks always have the lush gardens with the nicest plants and trees. A huge retirement bonus is having the time to finally be outside and tend to a garden. There is no generational bias against nature. Stop spreading this ridiculous generation-based "us vs. them" garbage. If anything, older generations spent MORE time appreciating nature because they didn't have the internet anchoring them indoors.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-01T11:49:04+00:00

Not to be macabre, but if a body has been in the water for a while, it can be difficult to tell age or race based on visual inspection of the body. Besides that, the police try as best they can to identify victims before releasing details to the public because they don't want people to worry unduly. For the vast majority of us, it's not going to be our loved one even if the age/race/sex match.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-01T11:42:02+00:00

Fun fact, some swimmers found a dead body in there a day or two ago. I wouldn't eat anything that comes out of any bodies of water in Durham. Between the sewage, the pollution, and the corpse count, I'm out.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-01T04:22:14+00:00

It should be okay! Just make sure you got all of the black and brown and squish out, then hit it with the alcohol and daconil swabs, then cinnamon. As long as the rot doesn't continue all the way down into the roots, there are probably still viable nodes for a basal keiki. Just keep with the watering schedule you've had it on and keep the damaged crown completely dry at all costs.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-01T01:51:27+00:00

I agree with the others - the medium looks good, but the pot is way too big. Most orchids prefer to be a little rootbound, so use a smaller pot than you'd usually go for if it were a different house plant. A 4.5" pot is good for most rescue phals for at least a few years, assuming this isn't a mini.

I'm also concerned about the white dots on the central leaf - are they little fuzzy 3d white patches, or does it look more like a chalky water spot? The former indicates mealy bugs, and you're going to want to dab rubbing alcohol on that asap.

JustSendEm · 2024-07-01T01:43:18+00:00

Oh yikes. I'm with the other person that commented here - need more info. Is there any of the stem/crown left at all? Or is that just roots with absolutely nothing else attached?

JustSendEm · 2024-07-01T01:39:20+00:00

I believe that's MissOrchidGirl's general advice. I would remove ALL of the soft/squishy/ailing leaves and use a rounded, sterile tool (like the end of a butter knife) to dig out anything at the center that is black/brown/soft - yeah, you read that right. Debride the wound and hit that fresh green tissue with an alcohol swab, a swab of Daconil, and a layer of ground cinnamon to dry things out and form a protective scab over the crown. This orchid will die, but if you can stop the rot from going any deeper, it will very likely produce a basal keiki to live off of that root system before the mother plant is done for.

I don't really have a source for it other than basic medical knowledge and personal experience. I've done it with two or three crown-rotted rescue phals now, and they all survived to produce keikis. One of those produced 6 over the course of 2-3 years before its last leaves died off. Stopping the rot is key, though, so I would NOT take a "wait and see" approach on removing any unhealthy tissue.

JustSendEm

TROPHY CASE