Elaine, I 'think' I'm headed toward the 200 mark ...and the next trip to Apopka will most certainly push the number higher ...I am hoping that most of my plant tags are correct AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME!.. So , as Ursula noted...I am looking ahead! Our temps tonight in Wesley Chapel are scheduled to be at 50 , so I'm leaving everyone out till tomorrow afternoon...except the very needy and oh-so-fragile Vandas ...no more of those for me ...thank you very much!

I'm with you on the fussy Vandas at this time of year, although they sure are light and easy to move. The rest of the year though, I think they're easier on the whole. Can't overwater them, so it can rain and rain with no worries. They seem to have a lot less trouble with disease and bugs than the potted or basket plants for me, too.

The big plus, I do believe, is that they never need re-potting! Now, to see if I do better this year with making them bloom, though. Only a couple of mine have bloomed so far, not counting the one I bought in spike. I did get 3 rounds out of my Jairak Heartthrob, though.

If I get to go on the next Apopka run, I'm getting more Vandas.

I don't want to hear any more about too much rain! I am already dealing with 10% humidity out in the greenhouse. The humidity here in the high desert often falls to 0 in the summer - no I'm not kidding.

My new misting system hit a slight glitch. The "mister's" output was a gallon a minute and there are three in each head (x six)! The water bill and my blood pressure were raising by the minute. 80 gallons of water a day!!! I am visualizing the water police at my door. Plan B. I bought a whole slew of Artic Mister twisters so I could steal their nozzles. I had to convert my misting system to hose threads (easy) but when the twisters came, I was missing half the misters and one nozzle. The seller refunded half my order and said keep what I got has he has no more. I have enough parts to make 5 misters. Tomorrow's project....

New plants: Dendrobrium Honohono
Vanda tessellata 'T. Orchids' x V. testacea
Cananthe herbaeae

Daisy

Daisy, I just can't imagine living with such low to none humidity...When I flew for a living ..the 14 hour flight to Asia was bad...but every day...all day???
Elaine, I'm thinking of putting my Vanda's up for adoption...would you like to look at the list?

Normally around this time of year, I am looking to conserve my rain water a bit by using house water on some of my plants. Not this year!! Again yesterday, after it rained on and off for two days, we had lightening storms with heavy, stormy downpours for the whole evening. No shortage of rain water here this year!!

Lindsey, I'm sure we could work out a really great trade. I would love to adopt your Vandas! Check with Jim, too.

Daisy, I sympathize and yes it is miserable living in that very low humidity. I've told my daughter it's just not a good climate for her to grow orchids there, although she has managed to keep a nice little Onc. from Trader Joe's alive for over a year in her bathroom. Our kids live in Salt Lake and when I go to visit, I can't believe we suffered that dryness for over 20 years before we moved here! I hang wet towels in my room there to keep the humidity up, so that I don't dessicate completely.

I liked it in the summer when we could use the swamp cooler to keep the house cool - because it added humidity too.

We have gotten 3 inches of rain in January and February - pretty spectacular considering the average rainfall is 7.5 inches a year. We got 10 inches in 2015 - El Nino is working good for us. It's illegal to collect rainwater here, otherwise I'd save some of it.

I have two humidifiers in the house to help a little bit - I buy body lotion by the case.

But the greenhouse is at the mercy of the elements the minute the automatic vents start opening in the spring. Even with the vents and the misters, I have temps of 110 in there on a sunny day. I doubled the amount of shade cloth in the last couple weeks so maybe it will stay a little cooler. All my orchids hang over a little pond with a waterfall. I thought that would keep the humidity up but it doesn't help that much.



Daisy

That's a really soothing setup you have, Daisy. Perhaps a bubbler attachment on your pump would help some with humidity. I know a swamp cooler would help, both with humidity and high temps.

I like Ken's idea of a bubbler, a bucket of water bubbling away would provide a lot of moisture. The temp in a GH here would routinely reach 110 in the summer but the humidity would be over the top also. We routinely have humidity in the 90% range.

Here as well, Alice. That's why everything must go outside, under trees, in the spring. Basically I use my greenhouses in the spring/summer only to root my plumeria and doing some seed-starting. Those high temperature are easily reached even with 80% shading. I sure hope I don't have to use any shading over my OPP but this will be my first spring/summer with that room. Right now the "normal" shading affect of the glass roof is about 50%. Will that be enough when the sun really beats down on it? Don't know. Of course, the room will have AC.

There are also little solar-powered fountains available for small ponds. Anything to throw the water up into the air there would help in Daisy's lovely (hot) greenhouse. A sprayer to keep the floor wet would help a lot, too.

Ken, with your nice large opening windows and doors, plus the 50% shading of the glass I'd think you won't have to use the a/c that much in your OPP unless it's really hot and no breeze in the evenings. Pretty sure that's what Jim uses in his OC - keeps the windows open all summer and shade cloth on the roof.

Time will tell, Elaine. This is still all in the "experimental-stages". Keep in mind that this is a living space, connected to the main house via two sets of French doors. I can always close those doors when necessary (and we do so when going to bed) to allow the windows/sliding door to remain open.

Daisy...what a beautiful oasis you have there!..all your efforts look to be paying off! Why is it illegal to collect rainwater from your own roof? That seems nutty to me where so much of it just evaporates in the zero humidity weather.

Daisy, I love your set up!

It is illegal to collect rain water in Colorado also. Water rights are still a huge issue in the western states, remember the old cowboy movies where they fought over who owned the water? In Colorado the rain water belongs to everyone and there are hefty fines if you are caught with a rain barrel.

That's really silly, jmho. If you are using water from a rain barrel to water your plants, it ends up on the ground or evaporating into the air anyway, same place it ends up if it falls off the roof. You are just saving it, then "re-directing" it through a plant.

I'd assume you are allowed to "redirect" water via gutters and downspouts? Maybe you could redirect water off the roof or from the gutters to flow across the floor of your greenhouse?

When you think about it, saving rainwater is kind of a self-defeating activity in the desert anyway. A small rain barrel would be used up so very quickly in a dry climate, and once it stops raining the rain barrel doesn't get re-filled anyway. So when you really need your rain water, it's rarely available and never enough to make much difference. I have 4 rain barrels, 75gal. each plus two 550gal. cisterns but if it doesn't rain for 3 weeks, it's all gone no matter how carefully I ration it.

I agree totally with, Elaine. As far as I'm concerned, rain coming off my root is, well, my water. Since when does "everyone" have a right to it? Let's get government off our backs. We don't have to be regulated in every aspect of our lives. Believe me, big government often doesn't know best.

Seriously, I was told by a nurseryman out there that this really does go back to the range war days when the cowboys fought over water.

Yeah, back then the big ranches would build dams across streams and rivers to save up water for animals and to grow hay. The folks downstream would run out of water while the big ranch would still have a lake full.

It's sort of the same as saving a very small amount of rain water that falls off your roof, I guess. But I think as long as you are simply saving it to water plants, most of it ends up "downstream" anyway. A small percentage is actually used up by the plants, but most evaporates, is transpired by the plants or runs off and drains into the ground, ending up in the aquifer that serves the public. Water that is used this way saves the use of treated drinking water, ultimately.

Unless we only grow what will naturally grow with the rain falling where it may, we are redirecting water with our plants, lawns and gardens anyway. (whether or not we pay for it to go through treatment and come out of the tap)

What I don't get here is that just about anybody can have a well drilled (they do issue permits) and tap into the public's aquifer for free irrigation water. Mind you, our well cost us $4000 or so but we've already saved the cost of it in irrigation water.

No wells in my neighborhood, all ground water is saved for the golf courses.