Hi everyone,
I'm visiting my friend who lives near Los Angeles and she has a bunch of orchids that look terrible=2E Unfortunately for her, I don't know much of anything about orchids=2E=
These are plants that live in a breezeway, up on a counter=2E They're all in orchid pots and the medium is something that looks just like plain chunks of bark to me=2E I am pretty sure they've been living out there all winter=2E To me they look very dry, but she says she's been watering them; just how, I'm not sure, but I suspect just a little water poured in every few days=2E I took one of them out of the pot and the roots are withered and kind of light brown=2E Not rotting, but definitely not healthy, white roots=2E She says she notices that some of the leaves on a (scape? whatever a branch of leaves on an orchid is called) will just hang down and look terrible for a few days and then the whole branch dies=2E The one I took out of the pot I pruned off all the dead stuff, removed the bark from the roots, soaked it for half an hour or so and replanted it in some other orchid planting stuff she has=2E The leaves that were kind of soft before feel a lot better to me now=
=2E
Can any of you orchid people make suggestions? Is it possible that it got cold enough out there that they're damaged from that? It did freeze here, but these guys are at least somewhat protected=2E Any suggestions would be most appreciated=
!
We leave here in the morning for a few days, so it'll be a bit until I can check back=
=2E
Thanks!
Therese
Beautiful East Texas, zone 9 (visiting in CA)
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Therese H wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> I'm visiting my friend who lives near Los Angeles and she has a bunch of=
orchids that look terrible. Unfortunately for her, I don't know much of =
anything about orchids.
> These are plants that live in a breezeway, up on a counter. They're all =
in orchid pots and the medium is something that looks just like plain chu=
nks of bark to me. I am pretty sure they've been living out there all win=
ter. To me they look very dry, but she says she's been watering them; jus=
t how, I'm not sure, but I suspect just a little water poured in every fe=
w days. I took one of them out of the pot and the roots are withered and =
kind of light brown. Not rotting, but definitely not healthy, white roots=
=2E She says she notices that some of the leaves on a (scape? whatever a =
branch of leaves on an orchid is called) will just hang down and look ter=
rible for a few days and then the whole branch dies. The one I took out o=
f the pot I pruned off all the dead stuff, removed the bark from the root=
s, soaked it for half an hour or so and replanted it in some other orchid=
planting stuff she has. The leaves that were kind of soft before feel a =
lot better to me now.
Hokay, proper way to water those orchids is to set pot and all into a
container of ambient temperature water, preferably with a dilute
solution of ORCHID fertilizer in it. Leave the plant(s) in the water
until the potting medium soaks up enough water to feel moist to the
touch. Then, at least twice daily, depending upon the outside humidity,
you need to mist them with ambient temperature water this includes the
aerial roots, leaves, etc. This keeps them plumped up and growing properl=
y.
They should, depending upon species, be in a shady environment, call it
high shade. Most of the favored orchids naturally grow in the trees or
up on rocks, but mostly in the shade. Even the terrestrials like the
shade. They can be intolerant of the cold dependent upon species again
but what you're describing sounds more like they're not getting watered
properly nor fed properly. HTH
George
> Can any of you orchid people make suggestions? Is it possible that it go=
t cold enough out there that they're damaged from that? It did freeze her=
e, but these guys are at least somewhat protected. Any suggestions would =
be most appreciated!
> We leave here in the morning for a few days, so it'll be a bit until I c=
an check back.
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Like George said, but I wanted to emphasize that these plants need high
humidity, think rain forest. Putting them on trays of stone gravel with
water in the stone and/or running a humidifier in the winter is a good =
idea.
My dad kept the ones that weren't blossoming in an enclosed tub/shower =
that
fortunately had a window, he'd keep the humidity up by keeping water in =
the
tub. Not everyone has an extra one of those.
Esther Czekalski
Therese
H
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 9:00 PM
To: GARDENS@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: Orchid Problems
Hi everyone,
I'm visiting my friend who lives near Los Angeles and she has a bunch of
orchids that look terrible. Unfortunately for her, I don't know much of
anything about orchids.
These are plants that live in a breezeway, up on a counter. They're all =
in
orchid pots and the medium is something that looks just like plain =
chunks of
bark to me. I am pretty sure they've been living out there all winter. =
To me
they look very dry, but she says she's been watering them; just how, I'm =
not
sure, but I suspect just a little water poured in every few days. I took =
one
of them out of the pot and the roots are withered and kind of light =
brown.
Not rotting, but definitely not healthy, white roots. She says she =
notices
that some of the leaves on a (scape? whatever a branch of leaves on an
orchid is called) will just hang down and look terrible for a few days =
and
then the whole branch dies. The one I took out of the pot I pruned off =
all
the dead stuff, removed the bark from the roots, soaked it for half an =
hour
or so and replanted it in some other orchid planting stuff she has. The
leaves that were kind of soft before feel a lot better to me now.
Can any of you orchid people make suggestions? Is it possible that it =
got
cold enough out there that they're damaged from that? It did freeze =
here,
but these guys are at least somewhat protected. Any suggestions would be
most appreciated!
We leave here in the morning for a few days, so it'll be a bit until I =
can
check back.
Thanks!
Therese
Beautiful East Texas, zone 9 (visiting in CA)
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Ditto me. My aunt grows orchids. The bark is normal growing media for the orchids, because as George said, they normally grow in the trees and actually do not usually grow in the soil. They need very high humidity. My aunts grew them in a special room that was lined with greenboard to withstand the humidity. They always had pots of water out in the room to up the humidity. And George's suggestion of dunking the pots is a good one, especially at this point when they need some recovery work.
Brenda
Date: Wednesday, March 2, 2005 6:00 am
Subject: Re: Orchid Problems
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Hey George,
I'm curious about soaking the orchids like that, because I do hate to
see all that nice fertilized water draining out down the drain...
Do you use the same water for multiple plants? Do you worry about
transferring diseases or anything? I have had good luck with my orchids
so far, with not a lot of fuss... but I have been hesitant to reuse the
runoff fertilized water...
Peg in RI
Hokay, proper way to water those orchids is to set pot and all into a
container of ambient temperature water, preferably with a dilute
solution of ORCHID fertilizer in it. Leave the plant(s) in the water
until the potting medium soaks up enough water to feel moist to the
touch. Then, at least twice daily, depending upon the outside humidity,
you need to mist them with ambient temperature water this includes the
aerial roots, leaves, etc. This keeps them plumped up and growing
properly.
They should, depending upon species, be in a shady environment, call it
high shade. Most of the favored orchids naturally grow in the trees or
up on rocks, but mostly in the shade. Even the terrestrials like the
shade. They can be intolerant of the cold dependent upon species again
but what you're describing sounds more like they're not getting watered
properly nor fed properly. HTH
George
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Not George, but I just use the fertilized water on my other plants. The
first bud on my white, hurricane-surviving phaleonopsis opened yesterday!
When I came back and first saw it (knocked out of the shrub by the
hurricane and laying on the ground ever since August) I thought it was a
goner and the leaves still look terrible. But I hung it back up on my
balcony and started fertilizing it and it put up a spike and is starting
to flower. Lots of buds but the first flower is much smaller this time -
maybe because it was neglected all summer. I didn't even expect to find
it still alive when I returned.
Karen (Pittsburgh, PA zone 5b/6) now on Sanibel Island, zone 10
On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 08:46:02 -0500 Peg's Verizon Mail
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Mine were growing outdoors in Saudi Arabia, humidity was about 9 - 10%
most of the time and we only got 1/2 millimeter of rain in 5 years. I
had a high patio cover that provided about 80% shade and had set up
automatic misters to each plant (over 200 of them, mostly dendrobium)
that misted at least three times a day. At night we got the sea breeze
coming onshore and they seemed to like it. Once a month they were dunked
for about half a day in a weak solution of orchid fertilizer, took lots
of buckets for that job. They bloomed a lot and when they, the three
colors of frangi pani, and the other plants were in bloom we opened each
end of the patio for guests. It was amazing how polite and nice the
Saudi's were when the plants were in bloom. They would come through with
their children, read the labels, in Arabic and English, and tell them
about the flowers. If a child reached for a bloom the parent would
gently pull their hand back and tell them "No, no, look only."
We couldn't take them home with us so I advertised them and the whole
arrangement for sale in the local Arabic/English newspaper and got 25
offers in one day. We took the high offer and they brought a crew and
carefully removed all the plants and the cover to another home. I threw
in the gas grill that I had along with instructions on not using it
under the cover. I do miss those orchids though but won't get back into
growing them other than Miz Annes nice terrestrial, which is no problem
at all.
George
eczekalski wrote:
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Yes, I did. My orchids were hardly ever harmed by bugs but were highly
sensitive to humidity. When the orchids had soaked up all the water they
could take up the rest went into the ground around the frangipani trees
and the Bo tree. I can't speak for your area though.
George
Peg's Verizon Mail wrote:
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
See, orchids will survive even when you kick them and generally mistreat
them. We had a couple of phalenopsis that my sis was going to throw out
because they were "dead." Put them in a bucket of water, soaked them
good, changed their growing medium from Spanish moss to bark, charcoal
is also good, not the briquette kind but natural charcoal, and
fertilized them a couple of times. Took them back to sis a few months
later and they were starting to bud out again. She still has them three
years later but now knows how to keep them going. They don't really like
the air conditioning down here unless they're growing over a pan of
water or are misted several times a day. AC cools the air by removing
moisture from it.
George
Karen A Barker wrote:
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Sorry Marg, different plants react in different ways to methods of
watering and to bugs. I've never had bugs on orchids, even the ones we
have grown here. Even our terrestrial is not bugged by bugs. Don't know
why but can conjecture that there are none of their native bugs around
here and the local bugs obviously don't like the taste.
George
Margaret E.Millard wrote:
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Not George, but Reusing the run off water for another plant isn't a great
idea. That is how I spread that bug problem I had last year. I reused water
just once, when I was short of clean rain water and man! what a problem I
got into. The eggs or nymphs spread so quickly and I only did it for the
last couple plants thatw ere of the same variety. I captured the run off
into a clear glas bowl, looked it over carefully then thought nothing there
and reused it....welll. No!! don't do it!!
Marg in N.S. Zone 6b
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/mmillard/index.html
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Well, the greenhouse gets up to 120F in the summer and may even be
higher but that's as high as my thermometer in there goes. That's with
the door open and the fan running 24/7. I guess I could buy some
shadecloth and keep it cooler but still don't think the orchids would
survive in there. The terrestrial comes out of the greenhouse in the
spring and goes on a garden bench on the patio where it is in full shade
all day and gets bottom watered via a plastic saucer it sits in plus it
gets rained on pretty often.
The orchids in the desert weren't an accident, I had a friend there who
had a number of them so I knew it could be done if done correctly. We
went to Thailand on vacation in 1981 and I hand picked the orchids at an
orchid farm about 30 miles outside Bangkok. It was run by an ethnic
Chinese who was an expert and had gathered his initial stock from the
wild and then cultivated them. The gentleman was vary knowledgeable and
have me info on how to grow and propagate them and then I went on to US
and bought about a dozen books, all of which were helpful.
Isn't it always that way, gardeners try to grow things that sane people
KNOW won't grow in their climate.
George
Mary Leunissen wrote:
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Thanks, Marg... So I've probably been doing the right thing. Besides,
the orchid fertilizer I bought is lasting forever... I got it when I
bought my first plant, at least 3 years ago, I guess. I sometimes
wonder if it has lost its oomph, but the plants keep blooming, so I
figure I must be doing something right!
I'll let it go... !
Peg in RI
Margaret E.Millard
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 9:42 AM
To: GARDENS@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: Re: Orchid Problems
Not George, but Reusing the run off water for another plant isn't a
great
idea. That is how I spread that bug problem I had last year. I reused
water
just once, when I was short of clean rain water and man! what a problem
I
got into. The eggs or nymphs spread so quickly and I only did it for the
last couple plants thatw ere of the same variety. I captured the run off
into a clear glas bowl, looked it over carefully then thought nothing
there
and reused it....welll. No!! don't do it!!
Marg in N.S. Zone 6b
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Gee, with all that humidity you have down there, I
would have thought you'd have them everywhere;-) Why
is it we gardeners just HAVE to grow things in areas
that aren't suitable for them. Orchids in the desert
for example;-)
Mary L. ducking and running .....in ALL this snow!
--- George Shirley
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
George, where in Saudi were you?
I have a friend who lived in Jeddah for 5 years. Her husband worked for Saudi Arabian Airlines. Was really interesting hearing the stories from there.
Brenda
Date: Wednesday, March 2, 2005 9:20 am
Subject: Re: Orchid Problems
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
About a 150 klicks down the road at Madinat Yanbu al-Saniyah, ie Yanbu
Industrial City. Jeddah was where we often went for shopping and good
eats. Air France had a big hotel with a very good restaurant there and
the shops had everything from antiques to haute couture. Lady named
Rosemary Daughtery organized the trips and I "commanded" them. We went
on a company owned Mercedes bus with reclining seats. Rosemary was
totally fluent in Arabic, she had been there about thirty years by then
and I was fluent enough to bargain with the shopkeepers, who, by the
way, got insulted if you didn't bargain with them. Plus I liked the
sweet mint flavored tea they served, may be why I came home a diabetic.
travelled inside the country extensively, even going to Madain Salah on
a trip, the Nabatean tomb city. Part of my job was going cross country
every two months driving the east/west pipeline to check for leaks, etc.
Sometimes I flew by helicopter but the most fun was going with my friend
Ali Sawadi, the pipeline foreman, in the suburban loaded with food and
water and camping out at night or with the Bedouins. I saw gazelles,
baboons, and even a leopard once, pretty exciting for a small town Texas
boy. Wouldn't go back at all now, even though I've been offered some
very big money to do so. Can't run as fast as I could back then.
George
BRENDA PINK wrote:
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Sounds very interesting. My friend's hubby, working for the airline, could fly anywhere for their holidays. They had only to list the home port as the one furthest away and then they could fly anywhere within that range for really cheap. I know they went to Turkey and a number of places. And of course, always took different routes home to Canada. They always brought back beautiful gold jewellry and pearls, etc. Was going to go visit them once, but my friend said I'd have to lie and say I was a sister and the airfare was $5000. So I said "see ya back in Canada"!
He also told of brand new planes being flown out over the ocean and the pilots not figuring out the gas mileage, so when they ran out of gas, they'd just dump the plane in the middle of the ocean. New enough planes that there was still that plasticy smell. Also told of plane loads of mail being dumped over the ocean during the religious holiday (Haj?) because they didn't want to deal with backlogs of mail. They lived in a US compound, had a Safeway there, but everything VERY expensive. It was also hard on my friend because of the way the women had to behave (themselves) and she was a police officer back home!
Brenda
Date: Wednesday, March 2, 2005 12:15 pm
Subject: Re: Orchid Problems
> About a 150 klicks down the road at Madinat Yanbu al-Saniyah, ie Yanbu
> Industrial City.
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
I think that is one reason I love the House plants so much. Liking to have
what won't grow naturally outside.
I allow nature to do what it wants in most outside parts of the property,
especially now, but inside I like to have more exotic stuff.
Because I do have other plants, that I occasionally rescue from gifts, cheap
bins, garbage or yard sales, I do bring in some nasties from time to time
although I try not to. I don't use heavy duty pesticides which sometimes
causes real headaches.
I am using Neem now and it is doing well by me but I am probably due for
something to strike. I find the smell of it is so intense, others don't
seem to notice it but It really makes me feel ill.
What happened last spring was I had a few fly type creatures then I had a
million of them and we could hardly breathe. I ended up using a peroxide
recipe to go after the eggs fly traps and hand crushing, changing growing
mediums and then got neem in.
I have some mites now that need eradication, they seem to be ok with neem
so will try the peroxide solution again. It seems to damage some of the
finer roots but soft bodied pests seem to explode with it so I will try
again before the problem gets out of hand.
It is probably because they are in the house that we have pests the orchids
don't face in the wild. I might set a couple out in the yard this summer,
but they are so dear and they are all commerative so.....I hate to loose
them. Some of my bigger house plants are going to anew home today. A
landscaper/horticulturalist working with a local resort is taking them on. I
am real happy about that.
Marg in N.S. Zone 6b
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/mmillard/index.html
http://MargMillard.ca
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Queensfreecycles/
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Maybe it depends on the plants. I've been doing this since October with
nary a problem. Mine are balcony (outside) plants though. Might be
different for house plants - they're probably more susceptible or
something.
Karen (Pittsburgh, PA zone 5b/6) now on Sanibel Island, zone 10
On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 10:42:04 -0400 "Margaret E.Millard"
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Yup, it's truly amazing. I did manage to kill off the very first one I
ever had (years ago) though - this was up north and I overwatered it
during the winter.
Karen (Pittsburgh, PA zone 5b/6) now on Sanibel Island, zone 10
On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 10:25:01 -0600 George Shirley
writes:
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
BRENDA PINK wrote:
> Sounds very interesting. My friend's hubby, working for the airline, could fly anywhere for their holidays. They had only to list the home port as the one furthest away and then they could fly anywhere within that range for really cheap. I know they went to Turkey and a number of places. And of course, always took different routes home to Canada. They always brought back beautiful gold jewellry and pearls, etc. Was going to go visit them once, but my friend said I'd have to lie and say I was a sister and the airfare was $5000. So I said "see ya back in Canada"!
Good grief! Was that first class airfare? We used to fly around the
world for US$1500 each on TWA and Singapore Air and could stop at any
place we wanted as long as we didn't backtrack. We visited a lot of
places and our house is full of "stuff" from wherever we were. All of
our dining room suite and bedroom suites came from Hong Kong, company
shipped it to Saudi free and shipped it home free. Lots of oriental
carpets, many from Pakistan, others from Turkey, Greece, Iran, and
Morocco. Probably not worth anything to anyone but us and we enjoy it.
> He also told of brand new planes being flown out over the ocean and the pilots not figuring out the gas mileage, so when they ran out of gas, they'd just dump the plane in the middle of the ocean. New enough planes that there was still that plasticy smell. Also told of plane loads of mail being dumped over the ocean during the religious holiday (Haj?) because they didn't want to deal with backlogs of mail.
Could be true but I, thank goodness, never experienced any Saudi pilots.
Most of their overseas flights were driven by foreigners, Americans,
Canadians, Brits, Koreans, etc. but did enjoy flying Saudia as there was
no alcohol served on board so no drunken roughnecks on the way home.
Internal flights were mostly manned by Saudis and I witnessed a couple
of accidents caused by pilot panic or by passenger idiocy. A pilgrim
ship sunk just outside our harbor in, IIRC, 1983. All the passengers and
crew got off safely in the many lifeboats, one of which a friend and I
salvaged off the beach with the idea of turning it into a fishing boat.
Alas, the Saudi Coast Guard confiscated it, later saw one of their
officers fishing out of it. Hajii's were a big problem what with over 2
million of them showing up each year. In 1982 they quit allowing them to
wander about the country and all had to go into Jeddah, either by air or
by ship.
> They lived in a US compound, had a Safeway there, but everything VERY expensive. It was also hard on my friend because of the way the women had to behave (themselves) and she was a police officer back home!
We lived in an open city with over 100 nationalities living there. The
city was purpose built and had cable TV (two religious channels and one
for information), built in burglar and fire alarms direct to the
emergency services stations, paved streets, lots of trees and shrubs and
flowers planted and all air conditioned houses with solar water heaters.
Pretty neat place to live with an international school and several
Muslim schools for the children. A mosque in every quadrant with a
resident mullah and library and several civic centers. We had
commisaries in each village of the city but loved to visit the Safeway
store in Jeddah or the one in Damman on the east coast. Women who
couldn't adjust to be regarded as second class citizens usually went
home in less than a year, the rest camoflaged themselves with long
dresses or trousers with a tunic top and wore scarves over their hair
and didn't use much makeup. Miz Anne looked like someone's dowdy old mum
and still got flashed and propositioned often. She knew how to handle
herself though.
*******************************************
I am not a greedy person except about flowers
and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.
--May Sarton
*******************************************
Don't think it would have been first class, but bear in mind that for us to get to Louisiana, it would probably cost $1500 cdn and then translate your $1500 US into cdn and you're probably looking at close to $3500 CDN anyway. BTW - a first class flight on Singapore Airlines from Vancouver to Singapore is $10,000 Cdn. I know, I looked it up. When we did that flight, my travel buddy said "gee it would be nice to be surprised with an upgrade to first class". When I saw what a first class ticket cost I replied to my friend "they'd probably rather have that seat empty than bump us up!".
My friend said it was funny watching the Saudis on their flights to North America. In the plane, on the way TO NA they would change into their robes and head covers...on the way BACK to Saudi, they'd change into business suits. One would think it would be the other way around, but I guess they were trying to make a statement in both countries!
Your city sounds beautiful! I remember having an arguement with my sis IL she was trying to say the water in Dubai would be brown (have no idea where she got that from). Immediately 3 of us were saying Dubai is one of the most progressive, advanced cities in the world. Strangely we couldn't convince her. I think she just has a preconceived notion of what things are like in certain places.
Date: Wednesday, March 2, 2005 6:38 pm
Subject: Re: Orchid Problems
> Good grief! Was that first class airfare?
*******************************************
The man who has planted a garden feels that he
has done something for the good of the world.
--Charles Dudley Warner
*******************************************
BRENDA PINK wrote:
> Don't think it would have been first class, but bear in mind that for us to get to Louisiana, it would probably cost $1500 cdn and then translate your $1500 US into cdn and you're probably looking at close to $3500 CDN anyway. BTW - a first class flight on Singapore Airlines from Vancouver to Singapore is $10,000 Cdn. I know, I looked it up. When we did that flight, my travel buddy said "gee it would be nice to be surprised with an upgrade to first class". When I saw what a first class ticket cost I replied to my friend "they'd probably rather have that seat empty than bump us up!".
I keep forgetting that your money is worth less than ours now. When I
was a young sailor, visiting Canada when the St. Lawrence Seaway opened,
it was about 10 cents more than American money.
In all the years we flew we were never upgraded. When I worked in Yemen
the company flew all management people in Business Class via Lufthansa,
that was really nice. When we came home from Saudi I upgraded us to
First Class and that was really nice.
> My friend said it was funny watching the Saudis on their flights to North America. In the plane, on the way TO NA they would change into their robes and head covers...on the way BACK to Saudi, they'd change into business suits. One would think it would be the other way around, but I guess they were trying to make a statement in both countries!
The Saudi women were really funny, go into the bathroom with the full
burka outfit and come out in a designer dress from Paris and full
make-up. Many of them were stunningly beautiful too. Saudi friends who
came to the US for various schools would always eat in Jewish
restaurants and deli's because that was the only way for them to get
Hallal food. Thought it was funny because the Saudi government TV always
talked about the "Zionist Enemy."
> Your city sounds beautiful! I remember having an arguement with my sis IL she was trying to say the water in Dubai would be brown (have no idea where she got that from). Immediately 3 of us were saying Dubai is one of the most progressive, advanced cities in the world. Strangely we couldn't convince her. I think she just has a preconceived notion of what things are like in certain places.
Our city was really neat, bus stop on each block, free buses that ran
from about 0600 to 2200, lots of benches, fountains, etc. Our water was
desalinated from the Red Sea and, while we practiced water conservation
out of habit, we were allowed all we wanted. We covered our townhouse
(1750 square feet, 2.5 stories with a roof parapet 5 feet high and a
flat, tiled roof) with bright red bougainvillea growing from the ground
and from roof boxes. Had to hire some East Asian gardeners to come in
periodically and trim it up around the windows. Somewhere I've got a few
pictures of the house. All red oak garden and patio doors, and inserts
in the walls for privacy but we could see out. Many people go to other
countries with the idea that they're all primitive. We visited Qatar,
Dubai, Bahrain, and all the UAE states and they were very modern. Oman
was nice and so was Syria, Lebanon was pretty much torn up by civil war
so I wouldn't take Miz Anne there but went on business. Yemen wasn't bad
either, electricity was erratic but we used bottled water that the
company provided. Wouldn't go back to any of them but enjoyed it while
we could.
George
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The man who has planted a garden feels that he
has done something for the good of the world.
--Charles Dudley Warner
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Okay, we are back and the orchids are doing MUCH better! Thanks to everyones input, and it looks like they were mainly just way too dry=2E Lynda was watering enough, she thought, but after lots of soaks they all just look dramatically better=2E Even greener, and most of the shriveling on the stems is disappearing=
=2E
Thanks to everyone who answered from both of us=2E I knew you wouldn't let me down=2E ;-=
)
Therese, going home Tuesday
Beautiful East Texas, zone 9
*******************************************
The man who has planted a garden feels that he
has done something for the good of the world.
--Charles Dudley Warner
*******************************************
