I am probably no different than most hobby growers turned fanatic, and we all begin to dream of a greenhouse sometime along the way, the Holy Grail with seemingly limitless possibilities. Needless to say, creating orchid culture nirvana doesn’t just happen. Building a greenhouse is quite an undertaking requiring a lot of planning and hard work. My case was no different. The greenhouse build has been the most requested topic I have gotten while silent, […]
Oh you guys already know about this one. I have mentioned it before and I finished building it this summer, but here comes the photo evidence finally. The third vivarium in my very small growing space, but I make it work. It is nowhere near as large or as technically complex as the cool vivarium, but it does the job. It is an intermediate vivarium dedicated to vandacesous orchids, primarily Neofinetia but a few Vanda, Ascocenda […]
I got a small flask of Paphiopedilum bellatulum from Equatorial Plant Co in 2008 and deflasked them in August the same year. I have since traded all the seedling but one plant that I kept for myself and it is now blooming for the very first time, 3 years and 7 months later. I am like a proud momma! You really have to be patience when you raise orchid seedlings, but in this case it was more than […]
It would seem I have made the same journey that many people make when they build vivariums… starting off with something looking very close to nature, and eventually ending up with something a little more practical. Originally I aimed to recreate a little slice of the cloud forest in my inner city apartment and the result turned out great! Vivarium was fully operational in the beginning of May 2010. Everything was thriving and I was finally […]
This is what happens when good lights go bad… or at least when you wire them up badly. They eventually burn out and die. So after about a year and a half I had to bite the bullet and rebuild all four lights for the cool vivarium. Because one after one, they had all started to give me trouble this fall. Light being an absolute […]
I have not had a whole lot of time to write lately, and I have had soooo much to write about too! There is so much blooming over here right now that I have not had the time to photograph them all. But I have a pretty good reason for it. I am very pleased to announce that […]
Finally, I have completed an upgrade to the fog delivery system in the cool vivarium. This new system is delivering the fog horizontally, cascading down about two thirds of the back wall and the right side, enveloping the plants mounted there in a cool mist, and filling the whole vivarium with fog in about 3-4 minutes. I have to turn the fans […]
Yes you heard me right, yet another rain system upgrade… I have actually been wanting to simplify the watering setup I have for quite some time now. I basically wanted to take out the drip system and expand the rain system instead. Yes, admittedly I am a perfectionist and a little […]
For the past few weeks I have been working on a few long awaited upgrades for the cool vivarium. Well, long awaited for me, I am not a very patient person… Now they are finally all done and I am very pleased with the results. So here is an updated photo of the viv today along with an account of all […]
I have been working on solving a problem, a rather nice problem I suppose… but a problem never the less. All the mounted orchids in the cool vivarium are doing really well and are growing like crazy. They are also putting out roots like crazy. A lot of them have grown straight through the EpiWeb mounts and begun to attach to the back wall. […]
