JustPlainOrchids Blog

After giving a few baby koi away at work, I've hit Freecycle in an effort to get rid of the other babies. I've already got about 5 people lined up to get babies so that should put a dent in my baby koi population. The problem is I'm catching the smaller ones and not the larger 3+ inch ones. They are all so scared right now that they are staying under the plants and under the water. A few days and hopefully they will be back to normal.

This morning while doing a little spot watering of potted plants I saw what I think is a wood frog from those tadpoles I bought this past spring. He's definitely not a tadpole anymore.

My Nymphaea "Tan-Khwan" bloomed on Thursday and Friday. I got to see it on Friday AM and figured I'd take a photo when I got home on Friday....but it was too late and the flower had faded and gone under water. Hopefully it will bloom again and I will be able to get a photo.  I also ordered a Nymphaea 'Perry's Orange Sunset'. I think it will have enough time to put down new roots and get acclimated before the weather cools off and I sink the tubs to the bottom of the pond. I'm not really expecting any blooms since I'm transplanting this late in the season.

I got this orchid in bud about a week ago and it's just now started opening up. The flowers look a little on the green side so they may turn more cream colored after they mature a bit. This is the first time that this orchid has bloomed so the flower spike is on the short side....but I still like it.

This second orchid is a very nice little specimen plant. It was originally in a small pot with some type of organic media like fir bark or tree fern fiber. Now it has overgrown the pot and the seller told me that he thought all the media inside had long since broken down. This one is really cool because it can rebloom on the old flower spikes.

Here are a couple of other pond plants that have been in bloom off and on lately: