Thursday, January 22, 2009

More about The Orchid

When I posted the pictures of my orchids the other day I knew I'd get a comment from Greeny.

I feel bad I don't take better care of the two I have left. When I was on top of my game I had about a dozen plants and was getting them to bloom on a regular basis. The nice thing about them is they are relatively low-maintenance, water them only when they are dry. But even still, watering three times a year is not enough. I've practiced ultra-low maintenance over the last several years and have lost all but those two. I put them outside in the summer and I forget to water them if it hasn't rained in a while. I guess last summer was good to them anyway since they are blooming now.

I was thrilled when I saw the three bud spikes on my two plants back before Christmas. The second nice thing about growing orchids is the flowers last a long time, six or more weeks. Here is a picture of what these flowers look like when they first open. I never got around to taking good shots of mine because I was busy getting ready for the cruise. Now my flowers have faded a bit and are not as pretty.

I'll have to remember to repot them after the flowers have gone. I've neglected that aspect, too. The roots have incased the pots, it'll be tough to get the plants free. Maybe I'll take them to a local shop and have it done. Any bets whether I come back with a new plant as well?

Let the Sunshine In


Dan and I ordered new windows for the house on Tuesday. We feel we got a really good price, but still 15 windows adds up quickly. I guess that's what home equity loans are for.

The most impressive part of the sales pitch was the heat lamp demo. A 250 watt heat lamp was set up and sample pieces of run-of-the-mill two-pane windows were put in front of it. You could feel the heat. Then another and another for a total of 6 panes of glass and you could still feel the heat through them all. Then a sample of their double-pane window glass was put in front of the lamp. No heat came through. During the opening and cleaning part of the demo I asked Dan if that meant I had to start cleaning windows.

They'll come out for a pre-manufacturing measuring next week, then in about 4-6 weeks when the windows are made they'll come back to install all of them in one day. I'm looking forward to being able to open and use them all. But not cleaning.
 

3 comments:

just me said...

who are you using for windows? I am starting to shop around. We have 18 - plus our slider needs to be replaced too.

Anne said...

Thompson Creek Extremely profession presentation, their product looks great, we were pleased so we signed on the line.

just me said...

they already called me tonight. business must be slow. thanks, though, for the info. Will be curious to get your opinion when all is said and done.