The Shaggy Tiger

Hey Everyone,
sadly today was the final day of the EDOS Spring Show.  I had an ABSOLUTE HOOT! i always enjoy myself emensly at the shows and i never manage to keep myself out of mischief hehehehe :).

well, as i said last night, I WON 2 THIRDS! WOOHOO! and of course, i made sure i got some photos today, but for some reason i didn't get photos of the whole plants, and seeing as the Dendrobium gracilicaule is down in the shade house you'll just have to look at an older post to see a photo of it, and as for the Paphiopedilum hirsutissimum i had that in my bedroom so i just got a happy snap of it :)

oh, and you are probably wondering about the post title, well i got bored so i googled the common names of my two winners, and the Den. gracilicaule is known as the Tiger Orchid, and the Paph. hirsutissimum is often called the Shaggy Orchid, so i figured Shaggy Tiger might peak someones interest... or at least confuse you :)

well, i'd say it's photo time, wouldn't you?

well, as i am sadly always saying, i'd best be off, i want to quickly try and find an old article from the magazine The Orchadian because apparently it had an article about the different forms of Sarcochilus falcatus, and i'd really like to find what form mine is as people suggested that it was an alba form and all this stuff, so it should be interesting, so i'll leave you with a photo of my Sarc, and i wish you all;
Happy Growing

EDOS Show

Hey Everyone,
Guess what! I WON 2 3RD PRIZES! WOOHOO! I was all excited, i wasn't expecting to win a thing. i got it for my Paph. hirsutissimum var esquirolei, and for my Den. gracillicaule.

as per usual its late and i better be getting off to bed, but of course, i just had to post some photos so here they are


Champion Orchid Of Show, and First Place Cattleya Alliance Hyrbid Exhibition Type - Any Other Colour; Blc. Mount Isa 'Jean'

Reserve Champion of Show, and First Place Cattleya Alliance Hybrid Exhibition Compact Type - max bloom size 100mm; Pot. Free Spirit 'Carmela'

Champion Specimen of Show, and Third Prize Dendrobium Hybrids - Soft Canes No2; Den. Hamana Lake

Champion Species of Show, and First Prize Paphiopedilum Species; Paph. sukhakulii 'Marie'

Well that's it for now, off to bed and i'll do some more gas-bagging tomorrow :)

happy Gardening Everyone

Michael

.... I couldn't help it....

Hey All... i know, i said i was going to bed.... but just a last couple of photos...

they are from the Toowoomba Orchid Show that i went to with Grandma this week.  i'm only uploading a couple because i really should get to bed

EXCITING NEWS

Hey Everyone,
yesterday when i posted those funny photos of the dog i somehow COMPLETELY forgot to mention that my wee wittle blog has hit a milestone, it's now had over 500 VIEWS! OMG OMG HOW COOL IS THAT?!, the top countries being; United States, Australia, Russia, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa, Phillipines, Netherlands and India, in the past day i have gotten hits from some of those countries as well as Spain, and in the past week i have gotten those countries as well as Belgium and Estonia.... oh how i wish it didn't just show the top 10, i love seeing all the places around the world, i find it so interesting.... so a big THANKYOU to all you wonderful people out there, you really make me feel special :).

also, as i mentioned this week the... can't be bothered so i'm just gonna write the acronym.... this week i mentioned that EDOS show was on this weekend.  well i'll have 7 plants benched.... i have about 10 others that will flower NEXT week.... isn't that always the way?! oh well, well here is a quick, blurry shot from my iPhone of what is going along, please excuse the mess.

top to bottom, left to right; Dendrobium gracilicaulle, Brassocattleya Unknow, Phalaenopsis Tying Shin Cupid x Phalaenopsis Carribean Sunset, Dendrobium keithii, Sarcochilus falcatus, Paphiopedilum hirsutissimum var. esquirolei, Dendrobium kingianum.

well, as much as i wish i could keep blogging... i've found an odd joy in it, i really must get to bed because i have to be up at 6:00am in the morning to do some last minute gardening in preparation for mum because she is teaching in her shop tomorrow and the ladies will be having their lunch in the garden so i have to move some orchids into the shade house, finish potting some other and just generally clean up the mess that i have a habit of making... hehe oops :)... then after that off to the EDOS show, i'll be there all day each day this weekend because i just LOVE the show, i'll be going around periodically doing the rolling raffle but the rest of the time i'll be taking photos, talking to people and just generally making a nuisance of myself :)

Night night everyone, and for those with orchids, may they keep on blooming.... and PREFERABLY IN TIME FOR YOU TWICE ANUAL ORCHID SOCIETY SHOW!!!! hehehehe :)

The 15 Stages of Doggy Bliss

Hey Everyone,
it's only been a couple of days since i last posted but it's felt like YEARS!
well i've been galavanting all over the country side,
drove to toowoomba on friday after my final exam, chemistry, then that night found out i had to fly to Newcastle, so back down to brisbane we go, then to the airport saturday morning at 4:00am, i didn't know the world existed that early, then an hour flight to Newcastle, then spent the day there, then had to be at the airport at 4:00am the next morning and flew back to brisbane, then off to toowoomba Monday around lunchtime, and now i'm finally home.


Now, on Monday i took some photos of Nalle our giant schnauzer, (pronounced; Null-eh), having a roll on the grass in the front yard and i thought it was just WAY too funny to not post it hehehehe.

well here they are, once they've loaded go through them in quick succession, i find it hilarious.

oh, and as for the red stain on his bum it isn't you-know-what, he sat in red clay mud and i wasn't willing to scrub that area too much, so once i finished rinsing him off i let him have a roll around, but then i cleaned the rest using the hose after he finished having his roll.... he didn't like getting squirted with the hose again, hehehehe.  and i must apologise for the photos, i ended up uploading the bad photos around 5 times each but each upload they just got worse and worse so i'm sorry

I LOVE his expression in this one

Happy Gardening, and i'll try get some more photos up tonight to catchup a bit

Upcoming Eastern Districts Orchid Society Show

Hey Everyone,

The Eastern Districts Orchid Society Spring Show is on this coming weekend and going on last year's and the hear-tell of who has what in flower this year it is promising to be an absolutely spectacular show and if you can get to it then i HIGHLY suggest you pop by and have a look, the displays, information and of course plant sales are always amazing.

and of course, a bit of somethin' to wet your appetites from last years show.

Happy Gardening Everyone, its holidays so i'm going back outside to bury myself in mulch and cuttings and pruning, and of course, what doesn't benifit from a good HACK BACK! muhahahaha :)

Had to Say Goodbye to an Old Friend Today

Hey Everyone,


You probably won't hear much from me for the next couple of days... My dog, and best friend of the past 13 years, who has been there for as long as I can remember died this morning.  He has had several cases with getting Paralysis Ticks, but this time he got one too many.  The dogs have been on tablets which should have killed the ticks however new research has shown that there are several different types of paralysis ticks, they found this because in the Canungra Valley near Brisbane they found that there were paralysis ticks with 2 different types of DNA and the tablets obviously don't work on the second kind of DNA.  Therefore sadly, after 13 years of being my best friend Monty, our salt and pepper Miniature Schnauzer had to be put to sleep.  He must have gotten the tick around Monday or Tuesday, but yesterday around lunchtime i noticed his breathing was wheezy, so looked for a tick, after shaving him i found one near his mouth, fully engorged.  then last night he got worse, as they do for the first 24 hours, and he had trouble standing, then this morning he couldn't stand at all and was shaking and really bad.  So mum took him to the vet who put him out of his pain immediately.... all i can say is that i balled my eyes out all the way to school, sobbed through both of my Geography exams, then cried on the way home.  we stopped off on the way home to buy some comfort food (half a Caramel Cheesecake and half a Boston Mudcake) and then did some retail therapy, so now my mum has an iPad, and i have a $400 pair of Bose speakers... but at the drop of the hat i know what i would prefer to have... my first, and best friend...

Michael

Something Interesting

Hey Everyone,

here in Australia we start a season on the first day of the month, for example, for us, Spring starts on the 1st of September, Summer the 1st December, and so on, and i've always thought it was the same all around the world, however, I have just found at that this is actually incorrect, many/all (i'm not sure) Americans actually dictate the seasons on the Spring and Autumn (Fall) equinox and the Summer and Winter Solstices.  Now i'm not sure of why australia does it differently but apparently so do many other countries as well, many do it on the dates of the Equinox and Solstices and others on the 1st of the appropriate months.  how truly fascinating.

Well, yesterday i was out in the garden weeding out my bromeliad garden as well as splitting up some of the broms in there as well to fill up a couple of spaces, it's not done yet but it's coming along nicely, i hope to finish it off next week.  i would finish it tomorrow but Friday is my chemistry exam so i'll be studying my little bum off in preparation for it. and then after my exam i'm being picked up by dad and we are zooming up to Toowoomba to set up for a Craft show up there.  i may not stay up there all week next week, though then again i might, it all depends on how i feel at the time.  if i do stay up there you wont hear from me because Grandma doesn't have any internet access.  but when i do come back.... whenever that may be i'll have some photos to show you, they'll be more of the Carnival, and some of some orchids that i was given by a friend of mine yesterday, he gave me 3 TRAYS of them! how nice is that?! and they are some really rare ones too which is very exciting.

Also, guess what! i now have a whole 10 followers/subscribers, so to those 10 wonderful people out there, THANK YOU! :)

now, The Buzz from the Bees, (the bees in my garden have decided that they want to have a segment call The Buzz from the Bees about what is, or will be in flower :), so i'll let them tell you whats in flower)

The Dendrobium gracillicaule has finally opened after several months of waiting, they are a beautiful yellow on the inside and a spotty red on the out side and smell really nice, but we can't really figure out what they smell like.. we'll have to get back to you on that one.  And we bees had an entertaining time watching the silly human try to get the camera to focus on the flower instead of the wall of the shade house.... it was very funny.

Oh how pretty they looked in the setting sun this afternoon, pitty the silly human had to see us in there and chase us away for fear that we'd pollinate all the flowers and they would die.... what does he know, as if we'd want to pollinate a creepy flower that has glowing eyes... can you see it?

another wonderful view of those pretty flowers

The weird and wonderful Ruscus that the young human got off one of his orchid friends is flowering again too... but it weirds us bees out too much so we don't go near it.

The tag on this one says Paphiopedilum hirsutissimum, that weird kid was jumping up and down today because he was so excited that it was starting to open, he said something about an orchid show coming up... who knows, we don't like the frowny face on this one when it opens up so we might not go near it too much while it's open

we were really excited when the kid got some good photos of his Dendrobium kingianum today, he tried several times last week but each time they didn't turn out right, but he tried again today and succeeded.  this one smells really nice and it is hanging right at head height so whenever Michael walks into the shade house he always gives it a sniff and keeps walking with a smile on his face...

Yesterday a heap of new orchids appeared in one of the shade houses, all those ones there in the photo are new, as well as a couple on another one of the benches, apparently they got given to the kid by one of his friends, how nice is that, we bees are all really looking forward to when they all flower, the kid said something about there being some rare ones, or something, so he'll probably get on here and tell you all about them when he gets some time on the holidays.

we were excited to see an orchid in bud come in with the new orchids so it should be really interesting to see what the flower looks like, apparently it's a first time flowering seedling.

we bees are a bit worried.  we try to steer clear of the pond down next to the shade houses because there are some nasty bug eating plants down there, but we had to go and have a look when the nuisance started whooping and hollering with excitement because this is the first time one of his nasty plants has flowered.... how terrible, another thing to eat us.. though the flowers themselves aren't going to eat us, we snuck into michaels room and did some research on the computer while Michael was locking up the chooks, i Betcha he's going to make us pollinate the flower, and then he's going to be growing hundreds of these things

Not only is the Mormolyca rigens growing ANOTHER flower (its been in continuous flower for 6 months now, which apparently also due to the 6 months means it can go in the upcoming orchid show), but we are excited because look at all those new growths coming on it, new growths mean more roots, more roots mean a healthier plant, a healthier plant means MORE FLOWERS! YAY!

we also spotted the kid taking a photo of his Promenae today, apperently it has 2 flower spikes coming on it, see them? they are those weird white things wither side of the front bulb.  he was very excited.

that weird Dendrobium keithii is in flower again, we were wondering when it would flower for several months because we never saw it flower, but then one day we were eaves dropping on the kid while he showed his mum around the shade house and he said that this grows the flowers on the bottom of the stems, which would explain why he has it growing up so high in the shade house because then he can always see it when it flowers

and finally, the big Dendrobium chrysotoxum is covered in buds that will turn into flower spikes, last years show was amazing so hopefully this years show is equally so, or maybe even better, legs cross (we bees don't have fingers you see?).

Well, thats all from us bees and we aren't going to let that kid back near the blog again for the rest of tonight because he has study to do for his Geography examS, yes plural, tomorrow, and he better keep going.

so, may your gardens keep blooming, and why don't you appreciate us bees a bit more, we do some hard work.

... in the words of Tigger, TTFN, Ta Ta For Now