January: It’s a New Year

KAT
Despite coming to me with a broken spike and a sun-damaged leaf, Kat is bringing in the new year with buds blossoming! She has adapted beautifully to water culture. Her leaves are shiny and firm, and her root system seems to be working perfectly.

ELEANOR
The new year started out well for Eleanor, or at least that’s what I thought. As the month began, her flowers were still beautiful, but her leaves were beginning to show signs of distress. As the month progressed, I knew something had to be done; her root system was failing, so I made the decision to cut her spike. The first two images were taken on January 3. If you look closely, you can see that her leaves were already wrinkling. The third and fourth images were taken on January 23. In retrospect, I probably rushed my decision, but a week later, I decided to put her back in media using Miss Orchid Girl‘s methods.

01/03/2025

ALAIS
Blooming takes a lot of energy from an orchid, especially for a grocery store orchid. Alais is showing signs of stress. Her leaves are becoming limp and developing wrinkles. This means her root system is beginning to fail. From December 25 to January 3, she lost almost half of her roots. There was no choice, I had to cut her spike.

PETRA
I’m learning that plants in general don’t like tons of room around their roots. With this in mind, Petra was moved to a white wine glass which fit her perfectly. She has made the transition to water culture with amazing ease. Her roots are all thick and solid with light green growing tips.

CHANDEBISE
My stout old man, Chandebise, continues to grow, producing new roots and leaves every now and then. He, by far, has the most robust root system of all my orchids, followed by his brother, Poche. At this time, he has yet to have a spike come on, but I’m hoping that I might find a spike on him soon.

HOOTIE PIE
The struggle is real for Hootie Pie. In late November I moved her to the Orchid Whisperers Modified Water Culture, putting her in a vase and soaking her roots for about an hour every day with the Cal-Mag water to just below the base. Because her base is so low, I am only able to get a few roots into the water. She has two newer roots that grow off and on. I also give her water with root stimulator every now and then. There has been some improvement. In her November picture, her leaves all look thin and crunchy like a corn stalk. Now, her leave look a little plumper and her roots are definitely making progress.

POCHE
Last, but not least, my first water baby, Poche. Shortly after my last update, I found something very exciting hidden between his leaves; Poche has a SPIKE! I’m so excited because this is the first spike on one of my orchids that is in response to the care I’ve given them. I’m not sure how long it will take, but I should have flowers in about a month!

FOLLOW UP: Poche’s first bud popped open on February 22!