The Orchids Of Torrence

There was a show today put on by the South Bay Orchid Society. All the communities in near distance to the coast around the Long Beach area.  Mom lives in that area, heavily Asian and the group of us, Dafney, Mexican Monkey, Mom and I went to the exhibit. Afterward, we stopped at an Asian market that was like a general store, with a bit of everything from kitchenware to sleeping mats (a whole aisle for soy sauce) for lunch. Not a bad lunch either. Steamy bowls of noodles, sushi, tempura and it was all good--cheap too, about thirty bucks for the four of us including drinks.

I can grow things, but when it comes to orchids, I haven't really tried well enough or failed miserably. When people give them to me, they last, they endure and then, die. The show was five bucks and every hour there was a class on how to grow orchids.

I thought to sit in the class and find out what I do wrong. Well, I found out, I don't live at the ocean. They do have an Orchid Society in the valley but I never heard of them. The instructor suggested I ask one of valley orchid growers how to keep one alive because he didn't know.

I thought, when he said how to water them, (every two weeks) what medium they like, "rocks with good air space, kind of one rock that could fit easily in the palm of your hand. Smaller rock for Cymbidiums but not pebble size a bit larger it sounded more like a class on cacti  but orchids?  How easy is that?

Only when I asked, "Would this work for the San Fernando Valley,"  did the man laugh and said I should see how the orchid growers of San Fernando do it.

Probably with greenhouses but I'm not going to build a greenhouse, the chickens might want it.  I'll do it my way, although I did get enough information and ideas that I think I could set something up on my patio. One orchid grower said to me that when it gets below fifty to take them in for the night, except for Cymbidiums, they can go to the low forties and high thirties.

I think I'll have to increase the water when the heat of summer lays like a pizza oven on the valley, but I do have the misters and I think I can make an area that might work pretty well for a small collection of orchids.

If not, I'll grow zucchini, that never fails. They are developing a high protein zucchini for interplanetary exploration. Huge mega farms will be on Mars soon and no doubt the produce will be available in markets alongside the garlic from China that's there today. If Americans want to buy garlic from China, why not zucchini from Mars.