My condolences...

Thanks. I bet I will get another if I run into one at a show.

Sorry I don't have pics of the ones I have sent to that great orchid pot in the sky. I did lose two tankervilliaes before I started putting them outside in FL during the summer and bringing them back inside in December.

No pics necessary. Just the tribute will do for the dear departed!

- and an offering to the Orchid gods.

Ran into this quote on a Plant Delights nursery newsletter:
“If you’re not killing plants, you’re not growing as a gardener.” J.C. Raulston
Book about Raulston: http://www.newraleigh.com/arti...

In retrospect I think I grew a lot last Summer!!

And I do every summer and winter too.

Ctna. Maui Maid 'December Bride' never did bloom in December! RIP

Too bad, it is/was a beauty!!

I might try another someday!

Agx. Eva's Blue Amazon x Acacallis cyanea never liked it here!

Why do always the beauties kick the bucket!!

I know!!!

Another lost this year. I will sorely miss Slc. Fire Lighter. My daughter picked this one out at DW's greenhouse. (It's only after doing an inventory that I can figure out who was lost.)

Oh noooooooo. Now that one gotta be downright painful!

Not as painful as the pale yellow sophronitis (rare) that I couldn't keep alive when I first started my collection. I've never recuperated from that trauma!!

I have to mention that I found one of my finches, Yauco, had passed away on Saturday AM. Always makes me cry. Buried him in the garden. I was worried Espresso, his mate, might be sick, too. So I waited a day to see if he was just upset or was sick and ran out to find another Society finch on Sunday afternoon when he looked healthy (as the name implies, they don't do well alone). There were no Society finches available locally, so I bought an orange cheeked waxbill. I had no idea if they would get along being different species (Lonchura striata domestica from India and Estrilda melpoda from West Africa), but so far so good. Espresso has a sort of awful song for a Society finch but Julius has a sweet high birdy song. I used to think that Society finches were small but now Espresso looks like a monster (sort of like when I had my second baby and my 2 year old suddenly looked like a giant!)
Together.

Julius (as in Orange Julius to go with the beverage theme)

Espresso

And my sweet bird Yauco. RIP.

Sweet birds!! Bye Yauco.

In the early seventies I used to keep a few Strawberry Finches together with a couple of Parakeets in a large flight cage. They got along very well and lined up on their perch in pecking order every night to sleep. The Parakeets tried to sing like Finches! .
Things got really funny when my neighbor asked me to "bird-sit" their little Canary while they went on vacation.
She warned me that her bird might be needing some time to get used to being in the cage with other birds. Ok. She wasn't gone for more than 10 minutes when the little canary started to sing his little heart out. And so did the silly Parakeets - the next few weeks they were trying to trill like a Canary, more or less successfully.
Unfortunately I heard that I ruined the Canary, he never sang as nice/happy? as he did in the community cage. I think he was actually lonely.

I think you are right. They look so awkward alone and so happy for some antics when there are a few. If I really like the orange cheek, I might get more. They are very fun to watch. Which is all you can do with finches. I love that they don't want my attention like the plants!