Baby Orchid (A Memoir)

Here are excerpts from my original "plant-tracking" journal entries:

9/19/2011
Repotted orchid into larger (8") clay pot with new soil (Hoffman's Special Orchid Mix - 52% pine bark, 40% Fir Bark, 8% Special Charcoal).

Here it is repotted in the Hoffman's Special Orchid Mix with 8" pot.

12/19/2011
Moved orchid to south-facing room with windows (my brother's old room).  It was advised by my coworker (who gave me the plant) that the leaves were too dark of green, thus it needed more light.  When I thought about it, compared to the new mature orchid's leaves, that is an accurate assessment.  (The mature orchid's leaves are lighter.)  I occasionally water baby orchid with a diluted Jack's Classic 30-10-10 fertilizer.



3/15/2012
My coworker advised that I clip the bloom spike to a vertical/plumb dowel, to redirect the spike.  (The spike started to grow around Thanksgiving, and was growing in the forward direction, same as the leaves).  At first, clipping the spike seemed to work, but soon the spike began to shrivel under the clip and it has since completely withered away - as opposed to the mature orchids spikes, which, post bloom, lost color and density, but retained their size and shape.  I plan to repot baby orchid back into its smaller dish and place it vertically so it stops this awkward growth pattern.  Hopefully the spike comes again next year and I will be ready for it.

4/1/2012
Not looking too well lately - leaves are looking very shriveled.  Moved it down to living room north window sill.

9/27/2012
I think it was down to one leaf and so finally I bought some of that spongy soil and repotted it into its original little pot (actually, I repotted into its old soil and pot first and the next morning that last leaf was fully turgid and erect, so I decided to buy more of that soil).  That was probably the end of April or beginning of May.  Now the orchid has 4 leaves again and tons of roots.  It even has a root grown over an inch out of the one drainage hole.  I may repot it soon, if the roots are finding their way out of the pot, that suggests to me that it needs a bigger pot.

11/26/2012
There are presently "5" leaves on this one, the 5th seeming to be stuck at some stunted length, and 2 others being shorter than leaf #1 and what is possibly leaf #3 or #4.  I was hoping it would spike again this year, but it seems the trauma it was subject to over the past year, between a botched spike and a near-death experience through transitioned soil, has preoccupied the babe's attentions.  There's always next year!

Here it is in the foreground September 2013 before it finally died.

The baby orchid never ended up blooming for me, so I don't know what type it may have been or even what color.  I suspect a bright, deep pink, though, as the undersides of the leaves were always a deep pink color.