I've had this orchid for at least three years if not more.  It never bloomed for me all this time and I pretty much give up on hoping that it would eventually bloom.  Well, a couple of months ago I saw a sheath developing and it gave me some hope, however the sheath did not have a flower bud emerging for a LONG time.  I have not seen flower buds that took so long to grow.  Finally the last couple weeks or so things seem to have taken some momentum and I finally saw the flower bud taking shape and then a single blooming orchid.

It was definitely a lot of excitement to see the flower blooming, and even a little bit of success felt very rewarding!

It's a small miracle that my vanda orchid bloomed.  There's no feeling like it, now that I know I can get them to bloom, maybe I will buy another one to add to my collection!

Every once in a while I like to change things up a little bit, a friend of mine had told me that it's good practice to move furniture around a little bit to change the energy of the room, and I think there might be some truth to it.  After all, when the furniture layout of a room is changed,  the way you feel about a room is different too.  I moved my desk around to different side of the room and decided that I was just going to let it "float" in the middle of the room.

I've been more or less of a orchid hobbyist for the last couple of years, this week a new development happened.  A cattleya orchid that I bought as a seedling had just bloomed, I never even hoped for a single flower, yet suddenly I saw flower buds and a few weeks later not one, not two, but three blooms all at once!

Lc. Blue Angel 'Glove' SM/JOGA

My new mounted orchid, it's very fragrant and the photo does not reflect how beautiful it truly is. 

C. maxima 

This little orchid has plenty of new growth so I'm hoping it will bloom this year or next.  The picture below is a grown plant with blooms, certainly amazing, 

Orchid talk

I still have a whole lot to learn about orchids. Earlier this year I purchased this beautiful orchid from a show, but half a year later, it's almost dead! I saw one leave with bulb wholesomely rotted away while the other ones are still ok. When I took out the plant from the bark, much to my dismay, I discovered that the roots had completely died. Not knowing what to do, I took the orchid to my local nursery. It's pretty quiet on a Saturday afternoon near holidays, but there happened to be one employee who knows how to care for orchids. He immediately ripped off the dead leave because he said the rot will continue eating into the healthy leaves until the whole plant dies. After that I took it home, trimmed off some more dead roots with sterilized scissors, and now this is what I got.

Sad isn't it?

I decided to keep it indoors as it doesn't seem to enjoy living outdoor so much. Let's keep fingers crossed that in a few months this beauty will recover from my ignorant abuse! I am also starting to keep a note book for my orchids and plants for references. As I didn't keep notes on this one, I had no idea what variety it is and how to care for it!

* some updated info found on the American orchid society website here. I believe this variety of orchid is called Cattleyas 'Ana Ingham.'

On the up side, I found this beautiful orchid yesterday at the grocery store. It's quite a amazing orchid, and unlike the last one I actually did some research on how to properly care for it.

Hopefully when Fie Fie and I put our two heads together, we are going to keep these orchids alive!

Back to basics! I mean, what can be more basic than t shirt and jeans, right? 

Here's the orchid pot I found yesterday.  Ever since my dormant orchid re-bloomed, I've been really encouraged to growing them.

Recent instagram:)