Orchids that flower themselves to death

There are some kinds of orchids that can ‘flower themselves to death.’ – they put all their energy into producing flowers, then eventually they run out of energy and die.

The leaves of this orchid indicate neglect – lack of water, food, humidity and proper conditions. Yet, there is a profusion of beautiful blooms.

I bought this from a market stall in Leeds 18 months ago. It has been flowering almost continuously ever since. Despite my parents not looking after it properly in my absence, it keeps going. It’s actually doing better than some of the orchids I properly look after in Oxford.

Some plants are very different – unless they are given exactly the conditions they require, they won’t flower.

But, an orchid will survive just about everything except over-watering.

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Lotus flower in bloom

lotus bloom

I have had this lotus plant in my pond for over a year. This is the first lotus bloom – but it is well worth the wait. It is a near perfect flower, with great dignity.

The pond only gets an hour or two of sun in the height of summer because of the shade from trees. Lotus plants really need full sun, so I was pleased to get at least one. It only opens from around 11.30 to 1pm when the sun hits the pond. …

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Vegetables growing quick

It’s nearly the longest day of the year and the vegetable patch is in full flow.

veg-planter

I’m really happy with the cucumber plant on the right. I bought a small seedling four weeks ago, and it has grown really quick. The one on left came mailorder a week ago, but doesn’t look as healthy as the one I grew. It is a bit of a suntrap in this veg planter. I planted the odd lettuce as gap fillers, but the broccoli has soon smoothered. I think I made beginner’s mistake of planting too closely – I think everyone does first time.

I have bought some nets for upcoming butterfy season.

Let’s see if the cucumber start to grow! …

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Asking for the receipt

Yesterday I went shopping at a local health food store. It is in the same location as the former ‘Inner Bookshop’. I loved that shop because I bought many spiritual books there. A health food store is a poor comparison. But I still like to support a few local independent stores – I do enough buying from Amazon and Tesco.

Anyway first up I bought some Paleo organic cereal for £6.75 (375grams) I think I bought mainly because of the outrageous price. In economics, we might call it a Veblen good (the higher the price, the better we think it is – the demand curve goes the other way) I may do an economics blog post on this to justify the purchase (market research and all that)

Anyway, by the time I’m getting to the back of the shop, my inner Yorkshireman is coming to the fore. After spending £6 for a few seeds, I’m looking for a bargain to square the money circle. I see my favourite soup is on special offer £3.39 cut in price to for £2.50 – because it is getting close to its sell-by date. So I take one of these – I can eat it for lunch. I also buy some avocado humous – reduced in price. …

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