Persistent Knitter

In the trek from Colorado to Washington, I entrusted my husband with the care of my orchids and other plants. Due to space considerations I was limited to one small box that could hold all the plant pots. They needed to be kept out of the cold (it was February after all) and treated gently. Well, they were kept out of the cold, but gentle wasn’t really a possibility. If any of them actually stayed IN their pots i’d be amazed.

Almost three months later I’m examining the plants to see how well they’re doing. I had just repotted some of them a few weeks before the move (probably not the best idea), and one had a little baby plant on it that had grown spontaneously near the top. It had roots jut hanging out in mid air and was growing quite well. The roots were about 2.5″ to 3″ long - so I cut that off the bigger plant and gave it it’s own pot. Well, it was bruised and beat up on the trip here, but it’s recovering quite well:

The yellow arrows are pointing out the new shoots coming out the bottom! I’ve been trying to water them just enough, not overwatered, but not letting them stay dry very long. The top of the plant had another two or four leaves out the middle that were broken off en route. I wasn’t sure if it’d survive, but it seems to be thriving!

A few of the other orchids aren’t doing so well. I won’t show pictures of those because they are just sad. I have one that hasn’t grown for two or more years. I had ‘rescued’ it from the grocery store. I realize now that was a huge mistake. I’ve bought one more orchid since we’ve been here to make up for all those that are dying; and i must have gotten it on it’s first day in the store, as it hadn’t had time to go into shock or be unhappy about the lack of light. It’s doing really well, hasn’t lost any flowers and still looks the proper amount of green on it’s leaves. (You can see that orchid here. It’s the one with the long purple spray of flowers)