A little gem!

A lovely little orchid Sticki..

arent they beautiful SL? have you started collecting them yet?

Yes I still have a few, now I'm onto the butterfly wings orchids ponerorchis and wild orchids.

oh they are dainty little things ~ how lovely

I love all orchids though Sticki, that's why I ended up specialising in them :-)

What a little beauty, lost one of these many moons ago, have not tried again.

Which is your favourite SL?

Thanks DD, Does it tempt you to grow them again?

Yes, this one is very nice. Where do you grow them, Sticki?

That's gorgeous! How many varieties do you have?

kat they were outside all summer and autumn and then brought them in for the flower in january

thanks delonix i have 3 sorts ~ this, the snow white one as in the other photos and one other ~ sorry i have forgotten its name ~ Bampy will know what it is.

Fantastic :-)))

That's gorgeous, love it, and fab photo too!

thanks junna and louisa, you are very kind

Thats nice Sticki..........

thanks milky, amazing little things arent they!

Wow that is truly gorgeous Sticki !

they are pretty arent they amy, sweet little things i think but amazing too! thanks amy

Beautiful sticki.

thanks treetop, there is another one on the way, this time mainly white!

Thanks for welcoming me Stickitoffee. Love the clarity of your pics. Trying to figure out how to operate this fone and now know how to take pics, but as for the rest...sigh :-[

you are very welcome mouldy!!

thank you! which phone is it? someone is bound to have the same sort on here and might be able to help.?

Hi, Sticki!
You'll know by now that I got the fone sorted. Lol.

I thought as much! And your sense of humour hasn't been lost in the meantime!

Goy has a habit of hiding parts of my news, comments & so on, then unveiling them at a later date.
Has this ever happened to you?

er no? how do you mean?

isnt it updating the 'things you have commented on?'

Definately not!
Stuff just 'disappears', then reappears at random. Lol.
I trawl through page after page of my cheeky remarks, searching for specific comments, in particular, but to no avail, then a few days or, as has happened twice, a few weeks, they turn up on my news page.
It only concerns me in case you, or anyone else thinks I'm snubbing them!
That apart, it's like an adventure...I never quite know what will happen next. Lol.

thats very odd! but sometimes this site does do strange things!

i wouldnt worry.....at least it isnt boring that way!

That or I get booted off site & have to log in again. XD

I seem to forever be 'logging in' again, drives me nuts!

Still, it's free. :-)

well thats true! shouldnt moan then but i dont understand, its the only site that does it

It also deletes my fave pics & likes, occasionally. BOO!
That's easily rectified, but irritating. Grrr!

im sure it shouldnt do that! did you contact the people who run the site? i havent actually checked mine are all still there.

Nah, like I said, each sign-in then becomes an adventure & staves off senility, as I check to see what's missing. Lol.

i seem to have 125 pages of favourite photos!!!!! and 8 pages of favourite blogs ~ i cant check all those!!!!

I've been reduced to a paltry 8 fave pics, 3 blogs & I think it's 12 members.
The techy is dealing with the photo uploading problem now, then will have a look at my prob.
Fingers xed.

I hope they fix it! Got to keep up with the times!

It's not just that...I was depending on fave pics for plant groupings (colours, sizes, soil & sun preferences, etc) for Autumn onwards. Boo!

I can only think as a back up you could have a list of the link addresses?

Eg: autumn colour
http://www.growsonyou.com/gardening/slideshow/autumn-colour/259284

You've lost me there.
Sorry to be so dense, but I don't understand. Lol.
Incidently, have you recalled the name of the orchid above?

Morning!

I think this is pleione tongariro.

Oh, sorry, I'm not quite so sure how easy it would be using a phone but either keep a list of the members, the titles of their blogs and photos that you like and look them up that way or write down the web site address for each one you like, hand written or copied into a memo type app like S Memo on the phone?? It would take a while so I hope they fix the problem!

Problem solved, Huzzah!
Tongariro...from Tonga originally?

I dont think so! more likely the foothills of Nepal or China?

Where orchids originate, so I read.
I thought maybe your particular one might have had the Tonga connection.
Beautiful wee thing.
I've planted about 20 of the 'peacock' variety, back at the start of this gardening adventure & just hope some of them come through.

I found this:
'The Pleione genus originates from mountainous regions, where it grows on rocky ridges covered with humus and in rotting tree trunks and layers of humus, rather like ferns.

Origin
The first Pleiones were not imported to England until the beginning of the last century. There are around 16 species and subspecies of Pleione, all of which come from the same part of the world (China, Northern India, Tibet, Thailand and Nepal). Several hybrids have now also been created.'

I wonder if someone created the tongariro variety and named it after the project that is in Africa?

those peacock orchids look lovely!

That's what I meant, saying the 'Tonga connection' Lol.
I managed to plant up another 20 of the peacocks today, among other stuff.
It was such a contrast to last night & this morning with all that rain.
I got 4hrs kip & awoke to sunshine & a faint breeze & thought...Get up & get planting!...so I did.
There's not a lot of wind forecast for tonight, but more rain, however, I'm leaving my babies, or what's left of them, outside overnight, where I can keep an eye on them, as I do my fox & slug patrol. :-)

we had mostly drizzly rain today ~ the day before was lovely so i think you got our weather a day late!

4 hours sleep ~ been there, done that!!!

Yeah, there's no let up in sight.
If I can discourage the foxes long-term, then the slugs can be easily dealt with using copper rings to protect my plants, then I can get back to some 'normal' sleeping pattern. Lol.

are those copper rings expensive?

I don't know, really.
I'm going to buy some copper piping from B & Q, then just hacksaw it into the necessary lengths.
Genius or what? Lol.
Seriously, I bet it'll be a fraction of the cost.

good plan ~ and if you want it to form a circle ~ could you cut it into small pieces and thread it onto string ~ like beads?

No, I'd use copper filings. :-)

oh ok, are they quite sharp?

will they sink into the soil?

No, they're powder, as copper is quite a soft, pliable metal.
That's one of the reasons why it's used for electrical wiring.
I guess the soil would absorb it, but I was thinking of it as a stopgap measure.
It'd be feasible to buy electric wire or cable, strip off the insulating plastic, twist or plait the wires, bend it to shape & use that, or beat it flat to produce a strip, which can be shaped to suit the plant's circumference.
Alternatively, thin 'slices' of larger bore piping could be used. :-)

i was just thinking slugs dont like travelling over sharp things, I can imagine twisted wire would work.

Don't you believe it.
Broken eggshells or glass has only slowed, but not stopped them!!!
Tongs or copper.
That's my strategy. :-)

i have tongs ~ and a bucket of salt!!

Actually, I haven't tried salt.
Don't want to kill them. Lol.
I chuck them over the trellis on to the wasteland behind.
They have half a chance of being eaten by the foxes or birds & half a chance of finding a hidey-hole, before the sun rises.
It leaves me with a clear conscience. :-)

If I do that they find their way back.......but they are bigger!

Ah, but at some point I'll have all my plants copper-ringed.
Genius or what?

Ah a ring fenced garden!?

Boom-boom! Lol.

;-))