It Finally Happened: My Orchid Re-Bloomed

It has been about 10 years since I have been buying orchids at Trader Joe's and other such places.  I convinced myself that buying them over and over again is like saving money because the flowers last at least a month and would be cheaper than buying cut flowers every week.  (Not that I have ever actually bought cut flowers once a week, but IF I did....).  I have never once succeeded in a re-bloom.  They were basically long lasting cut flowers.  Yes, I poured over my books and other peoples blogs about making it happen.  I watered frequently, I watered infrequently, I trimmed the stem, etc.  None of these things ever actually worked.  Eventually the leaves turned yellow and the plant was tossed.

BUT, now everything has changed!  My mother bought me a lovely yellow orchid for my birthday last November.  It kept flowers on it until mid-December.  A few months later I was visiting a friend and noticed that he had an orchid on the verge of re-bloom.  His answer was simple, keep the orchid in a window and every time you water it (like once a week), give it a quarter turn.  Could it be that easy?  Window, water and quarter turn?

So, I did that very thing.  I set a calendar reminder to water the plant every Thursday.  The way I water is pretty straight forward.  My pot has holes, so I stick the plant under the kitchen sink and soak through with water.  Then I make sure all the water is drained out.  Yes, of course, I did still forget to water it some Thursdays and it still re-bloomed.  As I said, my plant is in a pot with plenty of holes so it gets plenty of air (the perk of taking ceramics classes is being able to make holey pots in just the right size!).  I cut off the flowerless stem about mid way down and just above one of the nodes (or what I think was a node).  I placed it in a west facing window because that was the only practical window in my apartment. I watered and turned for a couple months.  Sometimes, I'd put a few drops of African Violet fertilizer in the water, because that is the fertilizer I already owned.
Then, out of now where it started growing a new stem.  A month and a half later, it started blooming.  There have been blooms on it now for at least two months and it seems to be going strong.

Yellow and pink orchid re-blooming- July 2012

My Four Easy Steps to Re-Blooming An Orchid:
1. Put the orchid in a window.
2. Make sure the plant has plenty of air circulation around root system.
3. Water once a week by soaking the roots and letting excess water drain out (i.e. no standing water in the roots).
4. Turn the plant a quarter turn with every water. 

I hope these steps work for you too.

Chive Blossom Infused Vinegar

It has been ages since I blogged.  Still gardening, just not blogging.  You know the story.  But I had to break my silence for this discover.  I saw somewhere (and I am sure I pinned it on pinterest) chive blossom vinegar.  Yes, yes, yes.
I have two chive clusters growing this year.  What happens is that my chives all start flowering, I dead head the flowers when they are dry and just bury them back in the soil.  So, as you can imagine, my chive clusters keep getting bigger.  Sometimes I remember to eat the flowers on salads and once I sprinkled the petals on some risotto (highly recommended and really impresses the guests). I really like eating the flowers, but I just forget about them.  It feels like this season the little purple flowers have been prolific.  Constant flowers.  I was thrilled to find this recipe for infused vinegar.

Vinegar recipe:
Snip Chive Flowers (just the good ones) and cover them with white distilled vinegar.  Let sit for 2-3 weeks.  Strain and filter.  Filtering is just super straining to get a clear vinegar.  Basically use a coffee filter.  Also, you can shake the jars from time to time if you feel the urge.

What I did:
This morning I snipped off approximately 6 chive blossoms.  I rinsed them to get rid of any inhabitants and set them on a towel to dry a bit.  Then I washed a canning jar and the lid.  Ready to go.

Because I was feeling particularly excited, I snipped of a largish onion blossom as well.  I had bought some purple bulbed green onions last spring from none other than Walmart.  They grew very nicely and I enjoyed the constant availability of fresh green onion.  I didn't eat them all and I now find myself with a dozen or so way too overgrown/massive green onion stalks.  Several stalks formed large white flowers.  I'm nothing but curious, so I have just been watching them grow.  I am hoping that they will go to seed and give me some volunteer onions for the fall season.   (I love volunteer plants.  I've got a volunteer lettuce and parsley plant growing right now from former plants that have since gone to seed and been removed).  But in my excitement for chive blossom vinegar, I thought why not have purple green onion blossom vinegar as well.  So I plucked off one of the large cream colored flower heads and dumped it in a second jam jar.

I filled both jars with vinegar.  After only a few hours the chive vinegar is turning pink and smells like onion.  Now to wait.

My plan is to continue to add chive flowers to the vinegar they become ripe, or perhaps start a second jar.  It isn't too early to start infusing stuff for the holidays.  I may try the next batch using white wine vinegar instead of distilled vinegar.  And who knows, I am feeling inspired to toss a few blossoms into my jug of refrigerator pickles.  YUM!