My Orchids

A year ago July when I had the cantaloupe size infected mass removed along with a hysterectomy & appendectomy, my niece gave me my first Orchid. 

Phalaenopsis orchid my niece got me 

It's one of those 'just add Ice' Orchids,

has grown a new leaf since it finished blooming in december.

 it took me a year to finally accept that I was good at growing Orchids, because it thrived even with me feeding it ice. I have now expanded my Orchid collection to 4 different kinds, I first got more from lowes clearance rack, in sad conditions, one the store had potted directly in a no drainage container that I have outside in the shade hanging upside down to prevent root rot,

only phal not doing well, I cut the bloom off.

 & help it grow roots. Others gotten simply after they bloomed from a local garden center, or when small before blooming known as lowes bag babies.

Cattleya Orchid

 I learned what to plant the orchids so their roots can breathe & not to over water. 

I have 6 phalaenopsis or moth orchid, 3 paphiopedilums or lady slippers, 3 Cattleyas, & one Oncidium. 2 are currently in bloom & yes i'm wanting to try and cross pollinate them

Named phal I crossed with itself

..ok, so growing the seeds will be a challenge, but I crossed my first named phalaenopsis with itself...two pods are forming. the lady slipper I'll wait on so I can enjoy the flower longer.

Oncidium Orchid

I'm looking forward to lot's of blooms next year as I got most of my orchids after they finished blooming.    
My latest Orchid is a Lady Slipper in bloom- It's beautiful a green purply color!

blooming lady slipper

 I'll wait to try & cross it, letting the named phal grow pods, & figure out how to germinate the seeds(not easy from what I've found out.) 

Paphiopedilum lady slipper

I'm also working on a drawing with orchids in it, only it's going slow as I haven't felt good lately & my vision has been a bit blurry.  

 I have my orchids on tall shelves hoping my 2 cats do not try to eat them, some plants I've noticed they like to try & chew on,

Phals & Oncidium

 so far so good with them leaving the orchids alone, although I recently traded some of my scilla & muscari bulbs for a walking Iris which I had to put outside for now, good thing it's summertime here. the cats uprooted the irises when I first potted them up. come winter I guess the walking Irises will live in the bathroom out of reach of the cats.

Angel Ark Foundation

Sealife

In July 2012 I had to have surgery, after I healed, I noticed my artwork took on much more detail, I had more energy than I did before, and I had family & friends wanting my art. The piece to the right is for a friend who runs a pet rescue, I love how the detail of the pets turned out, I even added in one of my cat's 'Troubles'. When I got Troubles & her sister they were 4 weeks old, they climbed out of the box I had them in & troubles climbed into the dashboard of the car. It was early april & not hot yet, & I was at my mom's house. The previous owner lived further away & Mom's house was halfway. My car was parked at the time.
      The next piece I drew for my cousin, I had started another drawing titled 'Life of a Sea Turtle' & my sister asked for it right away, when my cousin also wanted one I drew this for her. both have the beach/deep sea split view & the sunlight coming down. although I did use different sea animals & the first drawing did not have the birds. I wish I could find a childrens book company to get a contract with to draw for. I'm having so much fun drawing animals & plants that my next drawing will be of Orchids.

Check out this entry I found on Prismacolor!

Check out this entry I found on Prismacolor!

HandMade Crafts By Skayc1- Sharon Kay Cloud's Art - site

Lately I've been doing more Artwork, making customized color pencil drawings, Portraits in particular of families or from special events. A friend I knew from High School has been trying to help me promote my art, she liked it so much she commissioned me to draw one for her, since then I've mainly drawn family members. I like looking at photographs, then drawing the person/people. I try to capture more than just an image, I enjoying capturing the 'personality'. I'm finding I love using Prismacolor Pencils, plus good quality paper. I recently got a 14 x 17 drawing pad, and have found that getting a copy made for my records is harder at that size. I was very nervous letting "Kinko's" place my most recent drawing, on their drum roller copy machine. If they damaged it, It would be lost, I could try to make another, it just wouldn't be the same. When it comes to printing my copy of my original work, even the places such as "Kinko's" can't quite get the blues just right, it misses some of the yellows as well. I've found only one place that can get the colors close to matching my drawings, and that is postnet. They were closed this past Saturday, so I was not able to find out if they could scan the larger size. I liked the detail I was able to get with the 14 x 17 drawing, so if I have to scan it at one place, then print it at another I will. I just need to learn how to price my work, seems I had them priced too low.

Stuffed Squash blossoms

So this year I'm growing three kinds of squash; yellow neck- from a seed package, butternut-gotten from store bought fruit, and pumpkin-gotten from a friend who grew white pumpkins last year. Of the three only one hasn't produced-the yellow neck. I'm breaking all the rules, the vines are all planted in my huge container along with corn! In the beginning we had frost, it killed a most so I replanted, I did go overboard.

and now the squash has spilled onto the ground and is going out of control. I am watching the buttternut and pumpkin squashes slowly get bigger.

in the meanwhile tons of blossoms are enticing me, they smell so good in the morning. So this morning I decided to stuff some of yesterdays blossoms.

I went outside, gathered some blossoms, brought them inside, soaked them in cold water to remove any ants.

then let them drain and dry. In the meantime I gathered some leftovers from yesterdays BBQ- some grilled steak, grilled corn, a fresh picked jalapeno, an egg, some cheese. I mixed this all together and stuffed the blossoms with it.

I the heated half a stick of butter in my skillet and fried these blossoms. some people will dip the blossom in batter, I don't I long time ago realized that fried squash without the flour tasted better to me, so I decided the same would be true of fried squash. Yes a few have a small bitter taste- The larger ones didn't get cooked long enough, but these are so yum!

The pictures are from my second batch.

The second batch I removed the tiny leaves on the outside of the bigger blossoms and cooked them longer- none was bitter

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I go against the flow

Pollinating daffodils

Pollinating Hyacinths

Tulip Seed Pods

Amaryllis Seed Pods

You read often that seeds gotten from store bought produce are sterile, or wont grow fruit. Usually what in fact is meant by that is if you grow the seed you won't get the same quality of fruit. I am finding that I going against the flow, I'm planting those seeds in-spite of the nay sayers. What those experts fail to realize is I don't expect the same quality and I don't believe in a kill gene. I have learned how to tell if the seeds grew long enough to have 'viable' seeds- for example a red, yellow or orange bell pepper is more likely to have seeds that will grow than a green bell pepper. I'm also wanting to learn how to cross pollinate flowers. last year I tried to cross pollinate roses, I had started to late and failed. I successfully crossed amaryllises and got seeds! The nay sayers would tell me it will take too long to get a flower. I think the wait would be well worth it. I've crossed tulips (plants I got from the grocery store) and two of the three have produced a pod- the seeds are growing, while I wait till I can put the bulbs outside. I'm working on crossing some hyacinths as well. I gathered seeds from my mom's Japanese Iris and planted them in October then gave a cold time in the refrigerator. I've brought them out and they are beginning to sprout. I did have a few hips grow on my roses that bees pollinated, plus got some seeds from others, these are starting to sprout after they had and still have a cold time in the fridge.

Rose Seedling

Pear Seedling

Avocados growing nicely and other updates.

The first two avocados that I grew from the pit have gotten tall! I had them on top of a bunk bed that I dont use which is close to the window, and moved them. I'm letting them grow some before pruning them once again. I've pruned them several times already and I'll prune them again before moving them outside in may. I'm also planning on re-potting them to a bigger container when the weather is warmer as well.

The leaves have gotten huge, and these two are growing fast. That's a snake plant near them and 4 amaryllises. Two of the amaryllises already bloomed, then got attacked by a paint brush, and grew seed pods that have already cracked open. I'll plant the seeds soon.

Here are my plants on top of the bunk bed, the two nearest the ceiling are the ones I moved.

I also use a phillips grow light in the room.

I grew some pear some pear seeds in my refrigerator, along with some other seeds. One Rose and Three of the pear seeds have germinated inside the fridge. I'll bring most of the seeds out of my fridge at the end of feb, beginning of march.

My trailor will start getting warmer inside during that time. I need a grow matt to try to germinate seed. Also I have tons of seeds that I'm going to winter sow. I planted spring flowering bulbs in containers last fall and have left them outside. The sneaky daffodils tried to send up their stalks in December, only to be put on hold my Mister Winter. I've sucefully sprouted two fuzzy kiwi- 3 others dampened off.

My rose seedling might not make it, It's not been doing well, it too looks like it's dampening off, I do not know if I sprinkled cinnamon on the soil soon enough. Cinnamon is a natural fungicide and dampening off is caused by a fungus.

Brought my avocado and mango seedlings inside, as well as the strawberry plants and the pineapple, which is growing a baby pineapple plant.

Little Avocado seedlings first Pruning

Today I went to look at the avocado seedling that I have been growing. It's been about a month and a half since I started the first two seedlings using my damp paper towel and ziplock baggie method. The plants are about 6 inches now, and while I don't think I should cut them in half as others do, I did decide to give them a good pruning, just the tips mind you. I'll bring them inside in about two weeks cause It gets cold here in the winter, and they would never survive the snow. Instead of pinching the tops off, I simply snipped the tops off. I wonder if I should do the same for my mango seedlings?