Christmas Orchid

I bought this orchid about six weeks ago.  It had lots of tiny buds that promised a show of beautiful flowers when they bloomed.  And it did not disappoint.  Look at this beautiful plant!

It's an Oncidium Twinkle Fragrance Fantasy orchid and it is gorgeous.  And it's timing was perfect!  We had my husband's annual staff Christmas party at our home this past weekend and this beautiful plant was in full bloom.  It fit in perfectly with my Christmas decorations.  The flowers are tiny white blooms and quite fragrant for an orchid.

It should bloom for weeks and every time I look at it, it makes me smile :)  Now my challenge is to get it to rebloom!

Greenhouse First Inhabitants

This past summer wonderful hubby bought me an early Christmas present--a 9' x 12' greenhouse!

Beautiful, eh?

I'm so happy to finally have one.  It will be wonderful to house my patio plants and citrus trees over the winter, in addition to starting my spring seedlings.  We live in the hills and it does freeze here.  But the greenhouse looks lonely so empty, doesn't it?  Well...not anymore :)

I love orchids...I have four of them. 

A Cattleya

A Dendrobium

A Phalaenopsis

and I think a Cymbidium (if anyone knows for sure what this is, please enlighten me!)

Although they do very well in my house, all producing new growth, none of them has rebloomed.  So I did some research on orchids and I think they all need more light, a more humid environment and cooler evening temperatures.  So yesterday, I moved them into the greenhouse!  Hopefully, this will improve their chances at reblooming.  I'll continue to fertilize and water them and I guess we'll see what happens!  If anyone has an advice/wisdom on orchid growing they'd like to share, I'm all ears!