Orchid Spotlight ~ Phalaenopsis Mini Hybrids

 I love these miniature orchids! The first one pictured below is my first orchid. It bloomed almost continuously even though I knew very little about how to care for it. I bought it several years ago at the Walmart in Hartford. I believe it is a Phalaenopsis Equestris, or a hybrid with that parentage. This type of plant stays small and blooms profusely, often for months and even more than once per year. The petals are a different shape than the larger moth orchids. Mine was showing signs of mineral depletion in the leaves, so I cut off the bloom spike. It is now getting a premium orchid fertilizer. I look forward to blooms again after its much needed rest and rejuvenation.

This next mini is a cute one with pale yellow flowers that fade to white. They have tiny magenta freckles and a magenta lip. I'm not sure of it's parentage because the flower is different than the Equestris. It has lovely slender, pointed leaves. It is also done booming and is under rejuvenation. I bought it February 21, 2026 in West Bend, at Sendik's grocery store.

The next mini is the second one in the picture above. I named it "Paintbrush". It is a multiflora, meaning it has side branches on its flower spikes. It finished blooming a couple weeks ago and is now rejuvenating.

This next mini is a recent purchase. I really wanted a purple one but that one had crown rot. I chose this one instead. I call it "mini pink fairy" because the flowers seem fairy-like to me. We bought in Sheboygan. It is a very small orchid with generous masses of flowers. I believe it is also a multiflora. Many of the mini orchids have striped petals. 

I have more that I will show in the next post. 

This is the fertilizer I bought. Since my tap water is so hard and alkaline I buy distilled water for this fertilizer. 

• Famous Michigan State Formulation of Orchid Fertilizer
• Urea Free Fertilizer for Orchids
• Recommended for use with reverse osmosis (RO), rain or tap water low in alkalinity

I'm going to sign off for tonight, actually morning, as it's nearly 2 am. Nite!

Fixing Sad

 Hubby is getting better, and that made me feel better. 

But a part of my day has been missing, people are missing, a daily Internet get-together is missing. A year ago in April the creator of a Facebook group I joined in 2016 passed away. He was so loved by everyone. He was there every day, to say good morning, to welcome new members, to encourage us as growers, to comment on our pictures with his vast knowledge of plants, to make sure we were kind, to keep out politics, to gently enforce group rules. We would comment on each other's posts, support each other, and make friends. He was always there, until he wasn't.

The group has not been the same. People stopped posting, well, some people are posting, but many who have shared their lives and succulents for the past 12 years (the group was created before I joined) have not been posting. The group was not the same. We were like a community. So Thursday, the last day of April, I wrote, in honor of the group's creator, here are some pictures of my succulents. Let's see your plants! I miss him and I miss all of you!

People are responding! Some people are still missing, maybe they will respond later. People are thankful for my post and more are posting each day. It is a joy to see the group become more active. Sometimes recovery takes effort, and instead of just thinking about it, you need to do it.

We had some cold weather and now it has warmed up again. We still have some cold nights forecast. Today was beautiful, sunny, windy and warm.

We found an interesting place to walk. It's a wetland management area, with a network of levies to walk on. It is a large area and we will be checking the maps for more places to go. For this visit we were near Rush Lake, only a few miles north of Ripon.

As a reference, here is the Fish & Wildlife Service website: https://www.fws.gov/wetland/leopold 

The orange area on the map is where they have counties with management areas in the state of Wisconsin.

We set off for a walk. Hubby was still coughing so we made it short.

I imagine these fields will dry up after the floods recede

A broken Robin's egg?

Way down at the end of this waterway is a large tree with an eagle's nest. I also don't know what that gray dot is in the sky, slightly to the right. Dust on my lens I guess. It's only in this picture.

Zoomed in to see the nest

Cropped to see an eagle sitting on a branch!

Cool looking wooded bridge

This building must house a pump because quite a bit of water was rushing through that big, brown pipe

That big, lone tree would look neat in the morning mist or something

We headed home after this. 

Nothing Going On, A Lot Going On

 It seems like April is three months long. We had an insane amount of rain, which caused flooding in many parts of Wisconsin. Rivers flooded and people needed to be evacuated. In addition to the huge amounts of rain, we also had widespread tornados. There were three that did damage. Aside from drenching rain and thunderstorms, we were not affected by flooding, giant hail or tornados here in Ripon. 

On top of all that, my hubby got sick. There was some type of respiratory thing going around at his work. He said one guy was coughing so hard he threw up, and went home. In any case, hubby caught it because he was coughing and wheezing. He took Tuesday off, and worked sick on Wednesday. He came home with a fever and coughed all night. Thursday he called off and went to the doctor. He got antibiotics, asthma spray, and a note to be excused from work for Thursday and Friday. He had a chest X-ray, covid test and flu tests. The tests were negative, but his X-ray showed some inflammation. They told him he has pneumonia. He's getting better.

Today is one of those days. I miss my mom. I miss my daughter. I miss my other daughter, the one here on earth. I miss gardening. I want so much to have a patio of big flower pots full of flowers. How the heck am I going to water them and not drain water on the downstairs neighbors? It gets hot up here, upstairs. The apartment faces west. I miss sunrises. Some of my succulents hate me. I lost a couple. My Lithops look like death warmed over. My Adromischus look like crap, except for a couple. The plants that are doing well look good. I have a few Sanseveria now. They are easy. Orchids seem to love me. So I am loving them back. Now that I know how to grow them I have jumped in with both feet. I now have 15. I need to slow down.

Last weekend we went to Harrington Beach State Park. Hubby was feeling better and we both needed a walk. We were shocked by how many trees were down. A google search said about 170 trees were knocked down by the recent storms.

I don't know if the damage was a tornado or wind. We had a good walk around Quarry Lake exercise-wise but the downed trees were sad.

I hope next month is better. My daughter is planning a get-together, not sure when. We are hoping for better weather for walks.