Part Three - 'Multiplication' is the Name of the Game
'Phalaenopsis' is the name of at least three of the orchids that I have been growing. I am not really certain about what the fourth one is, as I have not seen it blossom yet. It has a few buds around the base that are just beginning to come out and they just might turn out to be blossom stems. I hope that they are, so that I can tell what kind of an orchid I have growing in the moss.
But regardless of what the name is, I am excited about the prospect of seeing the orchids multiply. What makes it so exciting, is the extreme beauty and the brightness of the flowers and the fact that the blossoms just seem to last forever. In fact, even when the flowers have fallen off, because I so carelessly moved the plants, they have simply re-grown new blossoms, at least once, on the same stem.
Cutting the blossom stem about one inch below the last blossom seems to allow the re-growth of the blossoms. A little extra fertilizer seems to help too. This is a (20-20-20) commercial orchid fertilizer, for anyone interested in beginning a new hobby. What better way to stay healthy than to grow plants?
I think I first realized that I was into the 'multiplication' game for orchids, when I saw the very first new leaf begin to appear at the heart of the plant. That was within the first couple of months of patiently waiting for some action to happen. It began as a tiny, little budding triangle that just grew and grew in size, until it was actually as large or larger than the first leaves on the plant.
The next indication I had of 'multiplication' was when the roots started to sprout. They looked like huge grayish-green fishworms. The first time I realized that, I spent the night dreaming about green fishworms and laughed when I remembered the dream after I woke up.
The funny thing about the roots is that they tend to grow right out of the bottom of the flower pots and up into the flower pots next to them. I have tended to just let them grow to see where they want to go on their own. It appears that in time, without any kind of persuasion, they are planting themselves into the bark of the next plant. So much for 'multiplication'. They are self-multiplying as they become rooted in time. I can hardly wait to see the first one sprout as a new plant. Even the orchid planted in the moss, now has shoots heading into the bark of the plant beside it, in order to root and possibly propagate itself.
I don't really know if this is something that I did that made the first orchid blossom, or if this was something someone else did or it it was a natural process inherent in the orchid blossoming process. One day as I was watering the plants, after I had dusted the leaves, (because they do tend to collect some dust), I felt something very sticky on a leaf. I tasted it to see what it was and it was very sweet tasting. I was a bit concerned because there had been some children that had visited and I wondered if what I was tasting was jam or honey on the leaf. After thinking about it, I pondered as to whether or not it might be just a natural pollen. To this day, I still do not know if that did or did not cause the first one to blossom. Either way, it does not matter.
What did matter was the fact that it had blossomed.
Cross pollination may well be a factor in the blossoming process, so when I do have a flower in blossom, I shake the flower just a tiny little bit over the leaf of the plant beside it. Whether or not that does anything, I really don't know, but what I do know is that right at this moment, almost three years later, I must be doing something right, as I have three orchids in blossom simultaneously, with the fourth, the one rooted in moss and now rooting in bark too, appearing to be about to blossom also. Only time will tell what happens next.
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