# Orchid Crimes



## Shiva (Jul 27, 2012)

I was wondering what's the dumbest thing you ever did to your orchids?

For instance, a couple of years back, I thought there was a bug in the middle of the new growth of my Phrag. Memoria Dick Clements. So I took a tweezer and pulled it out only to realize it was a bunch of new flowering buds.:sob:
I'm still waiting for that plant to flower!!!


----------



## Paphman910 (Jul 27, 2012)

Sold a Paph rothschildianum with a funny shaped leaf that bloomed for the person next spring! Turned out to be a flower bract.

Paphman910


----------



## Yoyo_Jo (Jul 27, 2012)

I have poured rubbing alcohol straight from the bottle onto paphs and let it sit hoping to kill off mealies. Works great; unfortunately also kills paphs really well too. :sob: I know better now.


----------



## cnycharles (Jul 27, 2012)

same, but sprayed the alcohol all over an oncidium which was fried when the roots got soaked


----------



## newbud (Jul 27, 2012)

I put 3 new mounts I just got on the window pane with those little plastic sticky hook things, facing south and fried them all the first afternoon they were in full sun.


----------



## John M (Jul 27, 2012)

Oh man! These are funny/heartbreaking! Paphman, what a hard lesson to learn! Oh, you must've been mortified!

I'm sure that I've committed many "orchid crimes" in my time; but, the most recent was when my precious Paph. helenae, with just two growths and a leafspan of less than 2" came into bud. I have lots of plants of all sorts; but, I was really excited about this one. I watched that bud emerge from the leaves and rise up on a thin, yet, strong stem. The bud wasn't much larger than a very pregnant grain of rice! I was positive it was going to be the smallest helenae flower ever. Cool! I was so keen to see if, although very small, it was a nicely coloured and shaped flower. So, one day I decided to move the pot from it's spot at the front of the east bench, next to the greenhouse door, to a more prominant and visible location a few feet away. I put it next to my potting bench, where I could be certain to not lose track of this tiny plant and accidentally miss watering it....or worse, knock it with something that I was carrying through the door. Within a couple minutes of moving it, my mind wandered and I forgot that it was in it's new location. I whacked it with something that I was carrying past the bench and sent it flying down to the floor, where the bud promptly snapped off! It has not attempted to rebloom since! Whaaaaaaaa!


----------



## abax (Jul 28, 2012)

Let's see...there's so many. When I finished building my greenhouse, I was so excited that I carried all my orchids
into the new gh without a thought of humidity and far more
light than my shade lovers were used to. I managed to
kill ALL my Paphs., several very nice blooming Chinese
Cyms that I was very proud of and a couple of blooming
Phrags. That was 12 years ago and I'm just now beginning to grow Paphs. again. Dumb!


----------



## JeanLux (Jul 28, 2012)

Some of you may remember the pics I posted last year after my gh cleaning! I moved the greatest part of my orchids outside for a day, and being too busy foregot to give them shade! A lot of them got too strong sun for too long: some did not survive; for a good number of them damage is still visible  ! Jean


----------



## NYEric (Jul 28, 2012)

If you've been reading my 'Miscl Stuff 'thread you know there are some doozies! For the worst, let me remind you of 3 words, "sangii, stove, cooked"! :sob:


----------



## cnycharles (Jul 28, 2012)

sangii salsa? 

as a beginner I put most of my orchid collection on the back porch (south facing), with a sheet of white reemay fabric (landscape fabric) hooked to the roof down to the ground to cut the sunlight. when I got home from work the wind had blown the fabric away and most including a prized phal bellina were bleached yellow and obviously dead. I have pictures of that bellina flower, and even back in the mid-80's the flower was as nice as any true bellinas found today


----------



## Lanmark (Jul 28, 2012)

I spent several hundred dollars on my second Neofinetia falcata 'Manjyushage' -- a nice, big, multi-growth plant -- and promptly fried it under too much light. Dunno what the heck I was thinking...


----------



## keithrs (Jul 28, 2012)

I decide that I wanted to clean a Den. speciosum's leaves of water/fertilizer spots after its first bloom to bring it in the house. I had heard white vinager would do the trick. So, I poured some in a spray bottle and sprayed the whole plant.... Top to bottom. Let it set for several min. Than wiped the leaves off. Cleaned the leaves but the next day the roots where brown and dead. Luckily speciosum's are trooper and it bounced back, but it took three years to re bloom.


----------



## likespaphs (Jul 28, 2012)

i got my first orchid
it was all downhill from there....
:crazy::rollhappy:


----------



## cnycharles (Jul 28, 2012)

I was posting to ayereon's roth thread, when I remembered a really sad experiment...

I was in college for horticulture and had been told that in nature, a certain species now called cuitlauziana pendula, grew at fairly high elevation and in winter the temperature could get down to nearly freezing, and often light snows could cover the pseudobulbs. I was in upstate ny and it was late fall, so I put the plant outside so it could get some chilly weather. I didn't look at the forecast too closely to notice that the temps were actually supposed to drop to around 27˚F.... when I saw the plant the next late morning, it had that dark green unhappy look. soon it was all mush (I guess I hadn't learned very much in school yet)


----------



## likespaphs (Jul 28, 2012)

likespaphs said:


> i got my first orchid
> it was all downhill from there....
> :crazy::rollhappy:




or it could have been the sanderianum (gift from girlfriend) that i have been nurturing for years after losing most of the roots, pulling off a dead leaf and {snap} disconnected the plant from the roots

:sob:

i should have learned from the Tao of Pooh

"A fish can't whistle and neither can I." There's nothing wrong with not being able to whistle, especially if you're a fish. But there can be lots of things wrong with blindly trying to do what you aren't designed for. Unfortunately, some people aren't so wise, and end up causing big trouble for themselves and others. The wise know their limitations; the foolish do not. To demonstrate what we mean, we can think of no one better than Tigger, who doesn't know his limitations ('Tiggers' can do everything'), which brings him in lots of trouble. Piglet instead knows his limitations and that's what makes him sometimes more brave than you would expect from such a small animal. So, the first thing we need to do is recognize and trust our own Inner Nature, and not lose sight of it. Inside the Bouncy Tigger is the Rescuer who knows the Way, and in each of us is something Special, and that we need to keep:

"Tigger is all right really," said Piglet lazily.
"Of course he is," said Christopher Robin.
"Everybody is really," said Pooh. "That's what I think," said Pooh.
"But I don't suppose I'm right," he said.
"Of course you are," said Christopher Robin.
This text is taken from 'The Tao of Pooh' by Benjamin Hoff, published by Mandarin Paperbacks. Also published by Mandarin Paperbacks and written by Benjamin Hoff; 'The Te of Piglet'.​


----------



## abax (Jul 29, 2012)

Interesting, pawtuckit. I think that's the longest post I've
ever seen you write. You're very strange, yaknow. ;>) I'm a tad odd myself.


----------



## likespaphs (Jul 29, 2012)

{don't tell anyone but i copied and pasted}
i'm not gonna be in pawtucket much longer....


----------



## cnycharles (Jul 29, 2012)

hey, you can't leave.. i won't be able to tell anyone that i actually know someone from rhode island!


----------



## abax (Aug 1, 2012)

What cnycharles said...also I love the word pawtucket. It
works on sooo many levels.

You are invited to KY. We'd love to have you and it's safe
here! Anyone who uses a line from e e cummings is a friend of mine.

Getting back to the thread, I just whacked a venustum bud that I was so looking forward to
seeing...DAMN!


----------



## paphreek (Aug 1, 2012)

I just blasted a Miltonia in spike out of its pot whlie watering, today.


----------



## nikv (Aug 2, 2012)

My biggest crime is not learning from my past mistakes. I think I've purchased four or five Den. cuthbertsonii over the years with the intention of growing them well. Most of them didn't last a week. Note to self: I cannot provide this species with the conditions it requires. It takes a while for this sort of thing to sink in.


----------



## Shiva (Aug 2, 2012)

nikv said:


> My biggest crime is not learning from my past mistakes. I think I've purchased four or five Den. cuthbertsonii over the years with the intention of growing them well. Most of them didn't last a week. Note to self: I cannot provide this species with the conditions it requires. It takes a while for this sort of thing to sink in.



Took me 20 years, to find out I had to specialise in a very few species and their hybrids to be successful. 20 years to realize I couldn't give perfect conditions to all my babies.


----------



## abax (Aug 3, 2012)

Oh holy ****, paphreek, did you lose all the spikes??? I don't grow Miltonia well, but I sure do admire them.

It's taken me 11 years to figure out I can't bloom Neos.
I can grow 'em, but can't bloom 'em.


----------



## Ruth (Aug 4, 2012)

I think this is one of my better mistakes. Just this past week we had our carpet cleaned and re-stretched. I took my Blc. Lawless Romeo 'Juliet' (I posted a picture of it about 2 wks ago) which was just finishing blooming outside, and put it on my potting table. I thot I had put it back under the shelf so it wouldn't get any sun, plus I have an shade umbrella over the potting table. Well guess what? Burned leaves, dumb dumb dumb!:sob:It can be saved, but the plant looked quite nice before this happened.


----------

