Orchid love

 

Two posts in one day…well, when the mood strikes…

Cattleya Sun Mei Gold

The orchids have been growing buds for several weeks and now the first blooms are opening, bringing summer colours to a winter palette.

Cattleya Shinfong Little Sun

Phalaenopsis

Oncidium Shari Baby

They love the east facing windows, soaking in the morning sun when it appears, blooming for weeks. 

Last year some of the flowers lasted till May and into June. A visual feast for the eyes. 

As more start blooming, I will post photos.

Enjoy!

Louise

Phalaenopsis

Autumn lingers

Watching the news makes one realize how winter has unofficially arrived in many parts of Canada with snowy blustery days and even major snowstorms. The closest we’ve come is one night of freezing rain which coated everything but luckily the ice melted by noon the next day. Now the warmer weather has returned and with it fog follows the cooler nights. In the morning the ground is covered in frost before the sun melts it. I love how the grasses and fallen leaves are outlined in ice crystals.

This morning, the sun was shining on one side of the yard and there I found a Periwinkle flower.

Blue Bell still blooming.

White fluffy Milkweed seeds were caught in groundcover.

By contrast, in the shaded parts of the yard, the green foliage, grasses and fallen leaves were covered in a frosty coating; each leaf veins and hairs outlined in rime creating exquisite patterns.

When the leaves are down it’s a good time to examine trees and shrubs for nests and cavities which are so well camouflaged in the summer. There are discoveries to be made such as the now easily seen pendulous Baltimore Oriole nests hanging towards the end of sturdy twigs; I found 3 of these marvels in the yard.  

Baltimore Oriole nest in Birch



 I love birch trees, the tiny twigs and seeds creating stark shadows on the white bark.

Even the weedy brown Mulleins stalks stand tall looking a bit like skinny Saguaro cacti. The birds love to perch on these vantage points in the summer, to catch passing insects on the fly. Now they serve to remind me of those warmer days. I will clean the yard up in the spring but for now I leave all undisturbed, places for winter species to hide and feed during the harsh winter months.

Louise

Mullein stalks

Summer butterflies, moths and caterpillars

With the heat of summer come butterflies, moths and their caterpillars. They are found anywhere, from meadows to woods, roadsides and city gardens. Some are large and exotic like the Tiger Swallowtail, some plentiful and small like many Sulphurs and Whites.



Tiger Swallowtail on Chives

Most of you will be familiar with the orange and black Monarch butterfly. Several Monarchs have laid their eggs on Common Milkweed growing in our yard.



Monarch Butterfly



Pair of Monarchs mating



Milkweed is the host plant for the Monarch butterfly caterpillar.The caterpillars live and feed off the host plant until they are large enough to move on to a nearby shrub or plant to pupate.



Monarch buttercly caterpillar on Common Milkweed



Monarch early stage pupae




Monarch butterfly late stage pupae

These last fresh summer Monarchs to emerge will be the ones to migrate en masse on those gossamer wings all the way to the mountains of central Mexico where they will overwinter in an old growth forest. Those who survive winter in Mexico will start the journey north stopping to reproduce another generation along the way before they die. The offspring will carry on northwards stopping along the way to reproduce then die. It is the later generations of butterflies who finally reach us to complete the cycle. An amazing migration!




 

 I dare not pull out the precious Milkweed that has sprung up amongst the lilies and grasses in the garden. It is threatened by herbicide use, habitat loss and invasive species such as Dog-strangling vine. Milkweed flowers are one of my favorite summer wildflowers; the soft pink globular flower heads emit a heady sweet aroma that scents the air all around.  A small patch grows near our bedroom window and the delightful intoxicating fragrance permeates the room during warm summer evenings. No commercial air freshener can match that! The sweet nectar attracts a host of other insects too.  This late in the season, the flowers have faded and great big green seedpods have developed ready to burst out thousands of fluffy seeds to be borne on the breeze and hopefully settle elsewhere.

Another spectacular summer butterfly is the Black Swallowtail Papilio polyxenes, a large black butterfly with tail-like projections at the base of the wings with white, orange and blue markings. For a photo and more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Swallowtail

 The host plants for the caterpillars are in the carrot family which includes Queen Anne’s Lace, Dill and Parsley. I am currently watching 2 Swallowtail caterpillars developing on my parsley plant. They started off as little black caterpillars with a white band across the middle, looking a bit like a bird dropping, this is the first instar (phase).

Within 2-3 days of munching on the plants the caterpillars shed their too-tight skin. With each shedding, the caterpillar is larger, colours more vivid and the pattern is more pronounced until it reaches in the final instar. Soon it will leave the parsley to find a suitable spot to pupate.

Black Swallowtail caterpillar second instar

Black swallowtail third instar



Polyphemous moth caterpillar



Yesterday a big green fat caterpillar came wandering by while I was sitting in a favorite chair on the front porch (having an organic wild untidy garden has its benefits). After snapping a few photos, I did a quick computer search to identify it and found it to be the caterpillar of a large silk moth: Polyphemous Moth Antheraea polyphemus.

The hosts for this species are trees such as Oak, Maple and Birch and we have plenty of these in our yard. For a photo and more information about this beautiful moth check out this site:    http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Antheraea-polyphemus.

Other recent caterpillar finds in the garden:

Toadflax Brocade Moth Calophasia lunula  caterpillar

 Several caterpillars were feeding on a large Toadflax plant. They are a species imported from Europe decades ago for control of this invasive plant. http://bugguide.net/node/view/76334/bgimage for a photo of the moth.




Toadfl



Pandorus Sphinx moth caterpillar



Pandorus Sphinx Moth Euphorma pandorus caterpillar

Final instar, found feeding on Virginia Creeper. I’ve also found one feeding on Wild Grapevine which we have in abundance. For photo of moth check this link http://bugguide.net/node/view/3937



a tangle of flowers



When reading about all these caterpillars, I found that many are considered pests. I suppose if you had enough of them they could wreak havoc on host plants but I have never found this to be the case. Perhaps the many birds and bats and other natural predators found in my wild tangled organic garden help keep these in check. I see Robins making trip after trip to the nest with beaks full of caterpillars, worms and other insects; Baltimore Orioles, Warbling and Red-eyed Vireos pick insects and tiny caterpillars off leaves; Eastern Bluebirds, Phoebes, Pewees, Eastern Kingbirds flycatch from strategic perches and Big Brown Bats swoop through the yard at nightfall. They are surely helping to keep everything in balance….

Louise

Scented orchids

Recently, I attended a large orchid show put on by the Southern Ontario Orchid Society. I thought it would be so nice to be surrounded by beautiful blooms on a cold blustery February day. I was not disappointed. The show boasted 6,000sq. ft. of orchids, one section for vendors and another for orchid displays. There was a stunning array of orchids of every size, shape and colour as well as mosses and small ferns used in the displays. Some orchids were hanging from branches and tree limbs, others nestled in moss or on weathered wood. Lovely scents wafted.

The crowds were incredibly thick from the beginning and it was hard to walk around but I had to check the sales tables. I was hoping to find a fragrant orchid that was easy to look after. One vendor in particular had a lovely display and was very helpful. I ended up buying two miniature scented phalaenopsis, 1 for my daughter and one for me. It has a soft baby powder-like fragrance.

I was going to leave when I spotted a very beautiful fragrant oncidium and well...I could not leave without it. It had a tall spike covered in small red and white orchids and a delightful fragrance.

This is a large mature orchid with 4 long flower spikes over 3 ft tall. It now sits in a south facing window where I can control the light level with a blind. Since only 1 spike is in bloom with the others in bud, it should bloom for a long time. The soft scent reminiscent of white chocolate fills the room with a gentle, not overpowering fragrance. Another way to cheer up a winter day.

We've had some balmy days this week and with the days getting longer and the sun hotter, I can feel spring in the air. Soon the first spring migrants will arrive and from then on my binoculars will get quite a workout.

Louise

Winter blooms!

 On a dull February day in 2009, on the spur of the moment, I bought a Phalaenopsis  orchid in full bloom and reveled at its delicate beauty; it reminded me of the Belizean rain forest that we visited that winter. Even though we visited in the dry season, it rained every night and in the forest the orchids were laden with drooping stalks covered in dozens of blooms.

After buying that first orchid I was hooked, I wanted more. I went back to the store and found a bunch of leftover dying orchids. All that remained were some shriveled leaves in nice pots priced at $10 each. No idea what colour they were. I offered them $5 each and ended up getting 4 at that price. After some repotting and fertilizing, these orchids are all thriving and have bloomed repeatedly.   

27 blooms and more coming

All these photos are of my “rescues” currently in bloom. Two more have buds almost ready to open. In the dead of winter the blooms bring joy, a splash of colour against the backdrop of white.