Gom. Alosuka 'Claire'

   This is another plant that I bought from Forest View. I'm not sure when it'll bloom, as people rarely post pictures of the plants, and if so, it's difficult to get the proper perspective on it. It looks like it is just finishing up this bulb, as it is sending out some roots. I'm looking forward to it though, it it looks like it will be quite the show.

Phal. equestris

   This is one of the plants I picked up from my society's meeting last month from the visitor of Forest View Gardens. Simple species, but it's a cross between the yellow lipped variety and the blue lipped variety, so I'm expecting magenta or pink.

Phal. NoIDs

   Now normally I don't pick up NoIDs, but the large standard was bought for me by my ex, and the miniature harlequin I picked up when my orchid fever was starting to get bad.

Phal. (Lyndon Lyric x tetraspis)

   Another from the 2015 AD haul. This Phal also did nothing for a while, but has made a new leaf, started a new leaf recently, and is making new roots. I did get three blooms out of it a while ago, but the spike has done nothing since then. Flower pics included!

C. (caulescens x pumila)

   Well, this is another that I received in the first batch AD 2015. It was connected in one piece, but it had grown in two separate ways, so I split it when I last repotted it. When I first got it, I had nothing besides sphagnum, so that's what it went into for a while. One of the leads actually had buds, but I wasn't watering it enough and they blasted. Now I have them in a mix of small bark, medium bark, medium charcoal, and sphagnum moss. The naming on this was a bit confusing, because it came as L. (mantiqueirae x pumila v. alba). I looked up the mantiqueirae, and I came up with Soph. mantiqueirae, which didn't match the parent in the images provided by the breeder. So I found out that since both Laelia and Sophronitis have been sunk into Cattleya, L. mantiqueirae became C. caulescens and Soph. mantiqueirae became C. mantiqueirae. Confusing, right?

Phalaenopsis Valentinii

   This is one from the first set of orchids, AD 2015. It arrived in bud, and it was a nice cherry red, but of course it had to drop. I've had it for a year, and while it's grown a new leaf, started a second, and is sending out multiple new roots, the spike has done squat. It hasn't even started a new spike, which I find quite offensive all in all. It even has a branch on it's one node that's done absolutely nothing, so this one has me glaring at it quite often. I don't know if it thinks it's spring now since I've moved it into my closet, but hopefully that brings with it new growth in the flower department.

Chapter Four: Depression and the Light

   Well, it's certainly been a long time since you've all had an update, and wow, it's almost been three years. A lot has gone on since then, like, a LOT. Shortly after my last post from January 2014, I moved out of my parents' place to live with my older brother. Then in the summer that same year, I moved in with my first ex. By the end of 2014, that relationship fell apart, and left me feeling really low. I moved into where I am now right afterwards, and just didn't have the energy to set up my stand and care for my plants. So, as one would assume, everything besides my one flask slowly withered away in the boxes I used to move them. Through 2015, I went along a personal journey to improve my mental health, and things have improved drastically since then. Then fall of 2015 rolled around, and I organised to have a friend in Montréal send me some plants from the local orchid show, I set them up in a fish tank in front of a south window in my room. And history flows from there. I'll have those pictures and the story leading up to where I am after the break.