greenfreak.net

I broke my orchidarium

June8

But it will be mended shortly

I’m growing a lot of Bulbophyllums these days that are mounted to bark, cork, etc. So I mist them every morning and every night with my spray bottle.

I opened one of the glass doors to fill up the spray bottle when the phone rang. So I slid it closed, a little too hard apparently, because it shattered in my hand.

Thank God for safety glass. Otherwise, I may not have been able to get away with just a small cut on my finger. Safety glass is great for preventing injury but what a BIG pain in the ass to clean up. It took hours. I’m amazed at how far the glass traveled.

For anyone who has an orchidarium or is thinking of getting one, heed my advice. If you have non-potted orchids mounted on the walls, and you spray them with water, that water is going to travel into the steel base (not the reservoirs) and eventually travel into the door tracks. It’s going to leave all kinds of schmutz there and corrode the little wheel casters attached to the bottom of the doors. And the doors aren’t going to slide as easily so you’re going to need more and more force to get them closed.

And if you don’t clean those tracks, you’re going to slam that door closed too hard one day and you’ll have a similar story to tell. Yes, it’s a pain in the ass to take all the orchids out, take the top off, the doors, the shelves, etc and clean the whole thing. But doing it once a year will save you from this.

The good part is that I got to talk to Robert Jacobs from Orchidarium.com again. He’s such a nice man. My replacement door will be here soon, and I’m getting a couple of sponges for the bottom water reservoirs too since the mess that I found in them was pretty gross. The sponges will keep them cleaner. Plus, he’s sending me new casters for the doors that he says are better for them. I’ll update this post when everything arrives.

Till then, thanks for reading.