The black orchid

Tags

orchid

This really has been a year of gardening surprises for me. The little Stella fig (Ficus carica ‘Stella’) grew over six feet tall (from six inches) in one season and even bore fruit. The dwarf pomegranate (Punicum granatum var. nana) flowered soon after I brought it inside for winter. And now…

The Maxillaria schunkeana (no real common name, but sometimes called the black orchid because of the extremely dark red flowers) bloomed. I got it back in February at an orchid show. I’m no expert on tropical orchids; I used to keep a couple when I lived in the tropics, when it was mostly a case of water them and otherwise ignore them to do their own thing. Until February, I could never be bothered to try here in Canada. But I like “black” flowers (see the When Black Roses Bloom page).

When I bought it, the dealer said it could flower this year, probably in summer. Summer came and went, and no bloom, so I chalked it up to my own ignorance. I can’t find much information about caring for this plant online; most of it seems to be people on message boards in the same position as I am (Hi, I got this plant…what do I do with it?), and there’s even less in the books. It really seems to be an uncommonly kept species of an uncommonly kept genus, although an orchid specialist might say otherwise. I’ve found a bit on its native habitat in Brazil and started with that, but little to nothing on its growth cycle. I did ask the dealer for advice when I bought it, but promptly forgot it all.

When autumn rolled in I placed it in a Wardian case (which Ikea somewhat pompously calls a mini-greenhouse) and put it in a “bright shade” area. Today as I was somewhat disconsolately watering it and wondering if I’d ever figure it out, I took it out for inspection (bugs, fungus, etc.). And then I realised holy shit there’s a flower.

I obviously missed the bud formation, so I don’t know how long the bloom has been open, but it was fully open when I noticed it. And there’s a shoot forming, so soon there’ll be some new growth. The whole plant is still pretty small, so I’m not sure if I should repot it, but in any event I’ll wait until after bloom to decide. Now I’m wondering if there’s a correlation between blooming and new growth?

Anyway, horribly poor pictures follow.

Maxillaria schunkeana front

Maxillaria schunkeana side view

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The long dark of the year begins.

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pomegranate, roses, worms

Well, I suppose it really began back when Daylight Savings Time ended.

The little dwarf pomegranate (Punica granatam var. nana) I got in April is over a foot tall now. It was quite happy outside on a sunny patio all summer; I didn’t prune or shape it at all and it formed a nice compact little bush. When I brought it inside in October it shed a few leaves – no surprise there, and the top growth continued rather spindly, also no surprise. Then it started flowering. That was a surprise. It’s currently sitting in a south-west facing bay window, so I entertain a few hopes of little pomegranates in a few months.

Out in the garden, I’ve mounded the roses, but not yet burlapped them. This November has been fairly but inconsistently mild, but it looks as if the cold is here to stay now. All I’ve got left to do outside is wrap up a few things, bring some potted plants under cover (garage or basement) and empty the rainbarrels. Oh, and the patio fountain needs to be emptied and brought in too.

The worm bin I started in February has exceeded all expectations. The compost it produces is very rich and dense, almost fudgy. That makes it difficult to use as a potting medium, so I might look into trying different bedding materials to see if that makes a difference; currently I use shredded paper. I might try shredded dead leaves (free, like old paper) or coir (coconut fibre; requires a trip to the garden centre and not free). Some people aren’t happy about a bin of worms in the house all winter, but I think they’re worth their weight in gold. Especially if it means I don’t need to trek through a foot of ice and snow to get to the compost bin in winter.

Autumn harvests.

Tags

cabbages, Jerusalem artichokes, raspberries

I haven’t done much in the garden for the past few days, but there isn’t really much to do now. There are a few things to clip down and compost, but even those can wait until spring, and I won’t mound and burlap the roses until probably the middle of November.

I did make a start of harvesting the Jerusalem artichokes, a.k.a. fartichokes (Helianthus tuberosus). And by that I mean that I dug up the one that I planted out of place last year, though gods know why I did that. It also meant that with it gone, I could finally plant the poor suffering raspberry plant (Rubus sp.) a fellow Master Gardener gave me in May. This is a slight departure from my usual gardening M.O. because I very seldom put anything in my garden unless I know exactly what it is. She’s had that raspberry variety for a long time now and no longer remembers the name (so I can’t look it up), but I’ve seen it growing and tasted the fruit and I’m satisfied to have it. So I planted it in the space left by the fartichoke. That unfortunately was all I had time for today before it got dark, so I’ll have to deal with the remaining Jerusalem artichokes later in the week.

Another thing I’ll harvest soon is the remaining ‘Melissa’ Savoy cabbage. I started three plants this year, but one of the seedlings didn’t make it. Of the other two, one took longer to really get going than the other, so they naturally staggered their harvesting times, which was ideal. The first one got picked nearly a month ago.

This second one has been the subject of some attention when people visit the garden; for some reason they think it needed photographing. I’m not sure why; to me it looks pretty much how a cabbage ought to look and the first one looked the same…but I did take a picture. Apologies for the bird netting; I thought if I planted them at the edge of the strawberry patch, the netting would keep the accursed Cabbage White butterflies (Pieris rapae) off them. It didn’t. I used a lot of good words the first day I saw the butterflies just sailing right on through.

Anyway, soon cabbage will be on the table again. I like Savoy better than plain old white cabbage, and anyway I don’t see the point in growing the same things as in the supermarket, which are sadly increasingly becoming GM varieties.