Mindy Carlson

March is the time of year when Winter and Spring begin their tug-of-war. This week (so far) Spring is winning. Temps are in the 70s and approaching 80s. Coats are gleefully left behind in favor of short-sleeved shirts showing off pasty arms earned from three months of hibernation.

Winter’s grip has been so strong this year I’m shocked to realize it’s time to plan my garden. And I have … nothing. No inspiration. No burning desire to try a particular vegetable. Just at lot of “OMG what am I going to do??” feelings.

Embarrassing to admit, but I haven’t exactly cleaned up my garden from last year. I still have tomato cages out, my sugar snap pea trellises are up (well, up-ish. One of them is teetering at a precarious angle from January’s snow storm), and my potato plant corrals are out.

But the excitement will hit me. It always does. Soon I’ll be sifting through my gardening catalogues, folding down corners and taking notes.

I was helped along today by an emergency re-potting of one of my orchids. Poor Blanche.

(I have four orchids, currently. In order of pictures below: Blanche, Dorothy, Rose, and Sophia.)

When I got her, Blanche was planted in sphagnum moss, as are 99.999% of all orchids you buy in big box retail stores. And I … didn’t repot her. She had blooms and you don’t mess with an orchid when it’s got blooms. You wait until they fall off and then you mess with their soil.

But I didn’t. Blanche was doing great. Big gorgeous dark green leaves and happy green roots. Why mess around?

The problem with being potted in moss is that moss holds water like a sponge, so you have to be really careful you don’t over water. You never want orchids sitting in damp soil for too long. And since moss takes forever to dry out, you almost have to underwater your orchids.

Except last week I didn’t. I gave Blanche the same amount I give my other orchids in bark substrate, which is about double what I should’ve given her.

Whoops.

I didn’t notice any trouble until I spotted yellowing on one of her leaves.

It doesn’t look like a big deal, but on the other side one of her leaves had already turned watery at the stem and fallen off. (No pictures because I freaked out and threw it away as if destroying the evidence would erase the crime. Amateur.)

And then I saw this poor bud.

Orchid buds don’t look like that. Well, healthy ones don’t. You can see part of one that is still healthy right above it.

I touched the moss and it was soaking wet. It felt like I’d just watered it, but I’d watered it 5 – 7 days ago. So I pulled it from it’s pot and teased out over 3 cups of sphagnum moss from the pot. It’s only a pint-sized pot! There’s no way so much moss should’ve fit in there. Then I snipped off a shocking number of injured and diseased roots and let it dry on newspaper for a minute while I mixed up Paige Tailyn Johnson’s Sexy Plant Juice Spray, which cleans and disinfects naturally.

[From Paige: Here is how I make my sexy plant juice spray:- 2 cups of water – 2 tablespoons of neem oil – 1 tablespoon of peppermint castle soap – 1 teaspoon of isopropyl alcohol READ ME:- It’s best to use this spray in the evening, since plant leaf pores naturally close at night—helping prevent clogging. Plus, applying after sunset avoids the risk of harsh sunlight reacting with neem oil and causing leaf burn. BONUS: use a microfiber cloth gloves to ensure that you are cleaning those leaves!]

When Blanche was dry enough, I gave her a spray down, then wiped the leaves dry. I keep my orchids in indirect light so I’m hoping none of the leaves will burn. But this was an emergency so I’m willing to take my chances.

I put Blanche in some dry orchid bark potting mix and then didn’t water. She’s wet enough already. The dry bark should draw out some of the extra moisture her roots soaked up.

While I had the orchid bark out and the Sexy Plant Juice Spray mixed, I decided to repot Sophia. She’s tiny, but it looks like she was potted in a sponge/rooting plug. Her roots have nowhere else to go. She’s too big for her Shady Pines sized pot.

I think I got to her just in time. Her leaves have a bit of a withered appearance, which means she’s too dry. Her plug isn’t holding moisture for her anymore. So! She got a bigger pot with some proper orchid bark. And I watered her with a small amount of orchid fertilizer which smells like a rotted vegetable draw. I use it because it does the trick and my orchids bloom year after year, not because it smells good.

Keep your fingers crossed for Blanche. I’ll know by next week if she’s going to survive. But we all know Blanches are fighters.

Suddenly I have the urge to find a seed catalog and dig out (pun not intended, but appreciated) my gardening notebook.