New experiment...

My parents, after us kids moved out, built an extension of their dining area. You know, the 80's ranch houses that are kitchen and dining area pretty much in one space? Well, Dad built a deck onto the back and part of the deck was built on for an extension to the dining area. This was given huge bay windows and one wall is the sliding glass doors.

Anyway, Mom, being Mom, expanded her houseplant collection to include tropical plants (banana tree, pineapple tree, palms, and other plants. One plant she is in love with is the orchid.

It got to the point where we just called it Mom's jungle. =)

So, a couple of weeks ago, she asked me if I wouldn't want one of her orchids. She had too many and was thinking to give some away. Hehehe...I already have Great Grandmother's African Violet, and she recently gave me an avocado tree she started, oh and a Christmas Cactus that won't stop blooming!


I've never tried an orchid before and I was kind of worried I would kill it. She said not to worry about it, they were really easy. So I took one home with me on Saturday when we were up there.


It's actually a hybrid orchid, called Mtdm Ruffles - "Scent of a Woman". (It actually smells more like chocolate!)

From what I've been reading, the plant needs more water than my Mom was giving it, a couple of the leaves have the accordian folds in it that shows drought...

Still, here it is. My new baby... (As always, click on the pic to enlarge...)

And this is the rest of my jungle...

My Christmas Cactus - the one my Mom gave me and it won't stop blooming. Every time I think it's stopped, I find new buds on it!

My African Violets. The one in the foreground actually belonged to my Great Grandmother. She died in 1996. The other violet is one I picked up at a gardening store when I lived in Renton. It's been cultivated a couple of times and various friends have those babies. The plant in the background is a baby Christmas Cactus I saved from my former belly dance instructor. She had a bunch of plants that were not doing well and was going to toss them out. This started out as two sickly little "branches", probably no more than four inches in length. I almost lost it a couple of times, but it's managed to hold on. Last year was the first time I had any blooms from it.

My avocado tree-ling.