Laelia Orchid.

Gorgeous.

Pretty name, pretty flower, Stan.

Wow! Looks beautiful!

Stan, are you floating away yet? I hear 3 to 5 inches of additional rain fell overnight in the SF Bay Area. That’s insane!

Its been raining and windy in Haytown here but not like the northbay. Still,we are soaked. On the plus side? Temps have been mild..reaching to 60f. I see some of the tropicals are putting out new growth. I havent had to water in weeks- not even the plants attached to trees.
Thanks Kate...thats the star of winter bloomers nowadays. Until the Cattleya or Cymbidium orchids get going. Both like the cool of winter.
What a different winter..lots of rain,frost free meaning I get to enjoy the tropicalia foliage all year this year.

Stan,

We’re getting virtually nothing here. It’s just windy.
We may get .20 inches today if we’re lucky. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Area north is receiving 3 to 8 inches plus of rain.

My mom said Hayward is just soaked and soggy. She lives probably 3 or 4 miles from you, pretty close to the San Mateo Bridge. I see it forecasted rain almost every day until next Wednesday.

Aphelandra is growing new leaves at least. Anything that's cloudforest is in heaven right now. Roldana in my backyard is full of soon to open blooms and runners are everywhere.More pruning.
I got my eye on the dry lovers in the front yard...seeing if anything is tilting from wet and windy combo weather. The long range forecast is for rains until January 19th. After that a break and after that, nobody knows!

My plants are absolutely loving this rain. I think even the deserts plants are very happy, too.

A line of heavy showers moved in around 2:30 pm and it lasted 15 minutes. That was the extent of our big storm. 😂

I just noticed a few days ago my new Dendrobium speciosum cuttings from a friend (3 months ago) has flower spikes expanding right now.

Dendrobiums do well outdoors...I wouldn't say easy- they can be finickity to bloom. But they take our winters well.
More rains here after a few hours of sun today. Just an amazingly wet winter.

Dendrobium along with Epidendrum, Cattleyas and Cymbidiums are the easiest to grow and bloom here.

My Dendrobium kingianum blooms every year without care and fertilizer.

The break in the rains came..and the cold nights return. It's still winter. I have to keep an eye on Friday night,maybe throw a blanket over the most tender potted plants. Our frost season is possible to the third week of January. So if I can just get by this week...

Stan,

I’ve had about 5 inches of rain here since noon Saturday. These last two storms have been so intense with torrential rains and gale-force winds. The last two previous storm were nothing, but we made up for with these two big storms.

It’ll get pretty cold here, too. Low 40’s for the next two days.

The ground is so muddy that a Mammillaria cactus only 6" tall fell over. It was a bit shaped top heavy to narrow at the base. I pulled it up and the main root ran about a foot horizontal. Let it heal,and then pot up for now.
I think it's just about all the city's have had in a few days more than they average in a month. S.F. has had more than what it averages for the year 20" vs the 19" its yearly average.
I hope to move some things around when we hit that sunny period. Plans!

It’s very wet here. The showers just ended a few hours ago, now dry until Thursday.

Overall all the plants are enjoying all this rain. San Diego only needs a little more than two inches of rain to hit the yearly rainfall. Crazy!

The mountains have had about 12 inches of rain in the last 3 day that the runoff is filling the dry creeks in Borrego Springs in the desert. It should be a good year for wild flowers.

Just to give everybody an idea of how wet it's been. When I pulled that cactus up? It came up with pure mud..not soil,not dirt,but mud you could do pottery with- and that was a slightly raised bed. Root rot could be a problem to look out for.

I remember all that very clay soil in the SF Bay Area. It would stay wet for a long time. It is good for holding on to nutrients, though.

The soil here is wet, but it drains so quickly because of all the rock in the soil. In a few days of dry weather the soil will be dry again. Luckily, my water containers are all full.