Posts Tagged ‘flower’

Hyacinthus (Hyacinth)

Hyacinthus (Hyacinth)

Hyacinthus (Hyacinth)

Hyacinthus (Hyacinth)

Amaryllis

An Amaryllis. Such a nice flower to have in the winter!

The Amaryllis plant (Hippeastrum), originally from South Africa, produces large, lily-shaped flowers.  The latter are white, pink or red and grow at the top of a long stem. It is a tropical plant.

Here’s how to get the most out of these beautiful flowers:

• plant the bulbs (making sure that one third or half of the bulb is outside of the soil) in a good potting medium and place the pots near a window, facing South;
• at the beginning, water lightly;
• once the flower stem appears, increase watering;
• after it has flowered, fertilize the Amaryllis for three months, to nourish the bulb’s reserves (but use only half of the recommended amount of fertilizer);  http://www.biofloris.com/fertilizers/seaweed-extract-1l.html
• when the leaves start turning yellow, start watering less;
• when the leaves have completely dried up, store the pots in a cool place;
• resume the growth cycle in December;
• be sure to repot every three years.

Amaryllis

Source:  Joan Lee Faust, LE GUIDE COMPLET DES PLANTES D’INTÉRIEURES

Photos: Wikipedia

For further reading, we suggest the following websites :

http://organicgardening.about.com/b/2010/12/16/og-tip-of-the-day-growing-happy-healthy-amaryllis.htm?nl=1

http://houseplants.about.com/od/foliageplants/p/Amaryllis.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaryllis

As a small “PS” to our posts about orchids over the last few weeks, we thought we’d share this with you today.

When we use a lemon or eat an apple, we can picture exactly where the fruit comes from. Same for sugar and eggs. But do we all know where vanilla comes from? Of particular interest with the baking season just about to begin…

Did you know that vanilla comes from an orchid? One with pretty white flowers that grows like a vine. In fact, look at the label next time you buy vanilla yoghurt.

Vanilla Flower

                                        Photo: Wikipedia

Here’s a detailed image of a vanilla plant. (Click on the image to enlarge)

Parts of the Vanilla's Flower

                          Photo: Wikipedia

Most of us buy vanilla in a small bottle. This, of course, is vanilla extract.  It is prepared by a process that is rather complex and costly: most commonly, cured vanilla beans or pods (the fruit of the orchid) are cut up into very small pieces and then percolated with alcohol and water.  This curing process takes up to several months.  (Careful: culinary experts agree that artificial vanilla-flavored products to replace the real extract do not do the trick, especially when freezing dishes). 

Upon arriving in Mexico, Spaniards came to know vanilla from the Aztecs in the Tenochtitlan region, which now constitutes Mexico City.  The latter had obtained the vanilla from the Totonacas in Veracruz. Today, vanilla from Papantla is considered to be the highest quality vanilla in the world. 

Here is a picture of a vanilla plant taken at the Botanical Garden in Montreal, Quebec, Canada:

Vanilla Plant

Here are some interesting links to find out more:

General background

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_(genus)

To take care of an orchid plant, click on:

http://www.gardenguides.com/92928-care-vanilla-bean-orchid.html

For fascinating insights of the history of vanilla:

http://www.clanorchids.com/culture/vanilla.html

http://www.nielsenmassey.com/historyofvanilla.htm

http://www.indepthinfo.com/vanilla/history.shtml

Orchid

Last week, we posted a blog on how to best take care of orchids. Over the next couple of weeks or so, we will be sharing some footnotes to our orchid text, including a tidbit about vanilla and some more photographs of orchids.

Today, we’d like to share the following post with you, written by Michele Collet.

Enjoy!

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-dramatic-and-amazing-sex-life-orchids

Orchid

Orchids

Orchid

Many of our readers have written asking us how to best take care of their orchids.  We consulted a biofloris.com friend named William who is a biologist and works at the Big Barn Garden Centre in Victoria, BC.  William was kind enough to submit 10 key pointers indicated below.

Keep in mind:  most of the commercially available orchids are tree dwellers. They live on branches on trees in the wild. If you try to mimic such conditions and heed these ten pointers carefully, you will find they are easy to grow and will produce flowers regularly.

1.- Don’t put the orchid in direct sunlight, but in a bright room. Direct sunlight will burn the leaves.

2.- The potting medium is bark to mimic the tree branch. The roots need to breathe. So don’t add soil to the bark medium. The orchids get all their nutrients from the slow decomposition of the bark.

3.- Let the medium dry out between waterings but don’t leave the potting medium dry for too long.

4.- Water the orchid by placing the pot in a sink and pouring water through the medium. Make sure you get the aerial roots wet too. Let the water completely drain before putting the pot back on the table or shelf or wherever you keep the orchid. In the wild, water pours down the branch, wets the orchids’ roots and drains away quickly.

Orchid

5.- Some roots will grow out of the pot. Don’t try to bury them. They are aerial roots.

6.- Don’t let the orchids sit in water. If left in standing water, the roots will rot and the plant will die. (that’s why you let the plant drain in the sink as in 4 above). Try not to get water on the leaves or let it sit in the crevice of the leaves either. Again, this causes rot. If you do get water in the crevices, dab it out with a paper towel).

7.- Fertilize the orchid when it is growing. It will usually grow only one thing at a time: a root; a leaf; a flower stock. When you fertilize, water the plant first, then pour the fertilizer solution through. This is because you want to make sure the roots are wet before your fertilize them.

Orchid

8.- Water with room temperature water so as not to shock the plant.

9.- There are specially formulated fertilizers for orchids, although I have had good success with all-purpose fertilizer. If you are growing orchids in bark, you can use a fertilizer with higher nitrogen (typically 30-10-10). Organic fertilizers are available from biofloris.com. If you use regular houseplant fertilizer be sure to dilute the solution by at least half, otherwise you will burn the orchid roots.

10.-  There can be some pests but because orchids are small, you can usually handle the pests in the most environmentally friendly way and that is using a q-tip soaked in alcohol and dabbing each bug off individually. The most frequent ones I have come across are aphids and mealy bugs.

Now for some interesting links:

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.  Here is someone’s list of the world’s 30 most beautiful orchids:

First 15:        

http://gomestic.com/gardening/top-15-worlds-most-beautiful-orchids/

Second 15:  

http://gomestic.com/gardening/the-worlds-most-beautiful-orchids-two/

And here is a photo encyclopedia of orchids, with more than 12,000 species listed. It is user generated.

http://www.orchidspecies.com/]

Orchidaceae, the orchid family, is the world’s second largest family of flowering plants, the first being the asters (sunflowers, daisies, etc). Scroll to the bottom of the following page to see some of the amazing variety that this family produces:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchidaceae

In my blog last week, I closed off by saying that the best types of fertilizers for indoor plants are those which come in liquid or powder form.

Of course, to choose a fertilizer, you must take into account your plant’s needs. For example, if your plant is about to flower, then a fertilizer with a stronger concentration of potash will encourage plant vigor. On the other hand, if you find that the leaves of a given plant are beginning to look anemic, a fertilizer with a stronger concentration of nitrogen would be better.

Also, of course, organic fertilizers are what I recommend.

Fertilizers which come in pellet form, used for outdoor gardening, are not recommended for indoor plants because they take too long to dissolve.

There are no strict rules when it comes to the frequency at which you should fertilize indoor plants, except in those cases when artificial lighting is widely used. Because plants exposed to artificial light are constantly exposed to light, they cannot really differentiate between seasons and/or day and night. Therefore, they can be fertilized once a week; however, be sure to water them with clear water at least every four to six weeks in order to get rid of excess fertilizing matter present in the soil.

Plants exposed to natural (sun) light do not need to be fertilized as often. A good time to fertilize is when you start noticing that your plant star to form new leaves. It is not always necessary to follow product instructions. Many times, you will be the best judge of when it is opportune to apply fertilizer. It is a good idea to fertilize a flowering plant repeatedly when buds start to show, right until the actual appearance of the flower. Plants with large leaves tend to grow more slowly and require fertilization only about every three months or so. However, the sudden yellowing of these plants’ leaves may be a signal that fertilization is called for.

For more information on fertilizers, simply click here.

The contents of this blog were inspired by a section in a book written by Joan Lee Faust given to me as a birthday present some years ago.