New Name, Same Roots: Welcome to The Potted Historian

If you’ve noticed a bit of "dust" on the digital shelves lately, it’s because I’ve been busy digging.

For a long time, this blog served as a digital greenhouse journal, a quiet space to record the slow unfurling of a new bloom or the steep learning curves that come with managing a collection of over 50 specimens. It was about the moss, the humidity levels, and the tactile joy of watching a new root tip push through the medium.

But as my research into the history of orchids grew, I realized that I’m not just growing plants; I am living alongside a history that stretches back centuries, to the first-century woodcuts of Dioscorides and the Materia Medica.

Why "The Potted Historian"?

The Root of the Matter: Why We Call Them Orchids

Walk through a greenhouse today and you’re hit with a wall of blooms so delicate they feel almost impossible. Like most growers, I’ve spent years obsessing over the symmetry of my plants and those architectural petals that seem to just drift on the air. But lately, my research into pre-16th-century herbals has changed how I look at them. I've realized that for a Renaissance scholar, the "beauty" of the flower was really just a side note. To them, the real story was happening down in the dirt.

The title page of Andrés de Laguna’s 1555 edition of Dioscorides. A stunning example of the leather-bound book that defined botanical history and the anatomical origins of the word orchid.

Phragmipedium x roethianum

 

Phragmipedium × roethianum has one of those quiet, interesting histories that makes you appreciate it even more once you know the backstory. It’s a natural hybrid that showed up in the wild long before anyone officially put a name to it, popping up in the parts of Ecuador where longifolium and hirtzii overlap and apparently decided to mingle. Growers and field botanists had been spotting these

Orchid Documentation Automation: Because Copy/Paste Wasn’t Cutting It

Lately, I’ve been diving into scripting at work.  Real, hands-on automation that makes you think about structure, edge cases, and keeping things maintainable over time. And being the nerd that I am with a hobby I love, my first thought was: I can totally use this for my orchids!

What started as a simple spreadsheet to track my plants has evolved into a fully automated, modular, and surprisingly elegant system for managing both my Orchid Inventory Workbook and my Keiki Inventory Workbook. It’s become a sandbox for everything I’ve been learning... cleaner logic, better data handling, helper functions, and workflows are smooth as butter.  Learning JavaScript has been a bit daunting at times but having a background with HTML

A Long Overdue Update: A Goodbye I Wasn’t Ready For

My Galeopetalum Starburst Parkside has bloomed!

Hello, my dear readers!

I am a bit late in posting because life has gotten in the way, but I'm happy to report that my Galeopetalum Starburst Parkside has bloomed. The first bud opened up on February 10th and since then, the remaining seven have completely opened up. Every morning when I open my office door, it smells so good because of the scent that the flowers provide.

One of my First Scented Orchids is About to Bloom Again!

When I was down in Florida last April visiting with friends and family, I made a stop by an orchid shop in Orlando called City Oasis (P.S. if you are ever in the area, go check them out!)  On that trip, I purchased two orchids, both very new to me and very fragrant.  I purchased a Galeopetalum Starburst Parkside and a Coconut Orchid (Maxillaria tenufolia).  I was super excited to add these two unique orchids to my collection.  

The Galeopetalum, we'll just call it Starburst for the duration of this post, has bloomed a total of two times since I brought it home back in April.  It has been thriving in the environment I have set up for it and it's so happy, it's about to bloom again for a third time!  When in bloom, it has bright spotted green and purple blooms.  To describe the smell of these blooms, to me, it's a bit sweet and spicy; it's definitely unique in its fragrance.

an image sourced online of the blooms

Thinking Outside.... the Pot?

When I was in Norfolk the other weekend visiting the orchid grower's greenhouse, we got into a discussion about Keikis.  (Keikis are the baby orchid plant that grows from a mature orchid's flower stem or pseudobulb - I have a couple of posts under the topic of Keiki) I happily showed him photos of my Keikis and how some of them either were in full bloom or would be blooming soon.  One of the things he suggested to me was to take a small pot with orchid bark mix in it and set it on a shelf with the keiki roots in it, above the mother plant so that when it came time to cut the keiki from the mother, the keiki wouldn't go through "shock" as bad, since the keiki plant would already be used to the environment of its roots being nestled down in orchid bark.

What is... An Epiphyte

The Encyclopedia Brittanica describes an epiphyte (pronounced: "ep-uh-fight") as a type of plant that lives on another plant or object just for support.  Some common types of epiphytes are orchids, air plants, mosses such as Spanish moss, ferns like Staghorn and Birds Nest ferns, bromeliads, hoyas and others.   For this post, we'll focus on orchids.

an example of an epiphyte orchid attached to a tree in its natural habitat

Goes to an SCA Event, Makes a Side Quest for Orchids

This past weekend there was an event called Twelfth Night, for my medieval reenactor group, in Newport News Virginia.  Last week while I was planning my route to get there, I was looking at Google maps and seeing what all was along my route, like covered bridges or orchid suppliers.  Needless to say, there weren't any covered bridges, but I found an orchid supplier in Norfolk Virginia.  The supplier was a vendor at the Triangle Orchid Show this past September in Raleigh; I had bought two orchids from him while I was at the show.  I reached out to them via email after looking at their website and falling in love with one of their unique orchids.  We coordinated plans for me to visit their greenhouse, pending weather.

Um, hello gorgeous!

Phalaenopsis Joy Fairy Tale

New Series Coming: What is __________?

 Good morning and Happy New Years!

I hope everyone made it through the holidays with their hearts filled with joy and love :-)

The progress on my Ikea cabinets for my plants is progressing, although I'm getting close to being complete.  It's been a learning experience for sure, but I'm glad that I can finally put my plants on display and enjoy them.

new buds on another one of my Phals

A quick update on the book I got from an Inter-Library Loan: 

Getting Through the Holiday, Blooms and New Projects

It is now the final Friday of the year and I have some exciting news to share!

When I went to open my office door on Christmas morning, I checked on my orchid that had the keiki that had the blooms on it.  On December 18th, I had predicted that that orchid would bloom in about two weeks.  Much to my surprise, one of the buds was slowly opening up on Christmas morning.  Since I couldn't remember what color the blooms were on this particular orchid, it was exciting to see such a lovely surprise.  By the next day, the flower had fully openend.  The other buds on the orchid are progressively getting bigger, so I will have more blooms over the coming weeks.

Looking for Books and Other Related Musings

 I haven't compiled enough research yet to make another solid post on my findings, but I've been searching around for books, articles and other types of media regarding the history of orchids and their uses.  The other night, I happened across a "sample" of a book online that looked interesting but it didn't give me enough information to make an informed opinion on whether it could be used or not for my endeavors.

I used WorldCat which is a global catalog of library materials online to search for the book I found the sample on.  In North Carolina, there was only one place listed that had this book on its shelves and that was NC State.  Even though this book was on a topic I'm interested in, I didn't want to purchase the book only for it to not have the information I am looking for, for my research project.  The book itself, is a moderate expense and while I do love my books (glances over at my bookshelves), I have become a bit selective on what books I purchase.

Orchid Research and Salep

My research into the world of orchids is still in its infancy, but what I have learned so far has been fascinating to say the least. Not long ago, I wrote a blog post about incredible specimens of amber that were found with insects preserved inside, carrying extinct orchid pollen dating as far back as the Miocene and Cretaceous periods. It was a thrill to look that far back, but my next stop in this historical journey brings me to a place that feels a bit more familiar yet no less legendary: ancient Mesopotamia.

a depiction of King Ashurbanipal from relief carvings

Mesopotamia was situated within the Tigris and Euphrates river basins in the northern part of what was called the Fertile Crescent. While we know this area today as Iraq, it also reached into parts of Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Kuwait. One of the most significant hubs of this region was the ancient city of Nineveh, which eventually became the capital of the Assyrian Empire. At its peak around 700 BC, it was actually the largest city in the world, renowned for its art, education, and culture. It even boasted beautiful gardens, parks, and a zoo.

The man ruling over this empire from 669 BC until his death was King Ashurbanipal. He was such a unique figure because he was a true scholar-king; he often depicted himself wielding weapons right alongside a stylus to showcase his knowledge of literature and mathematics (Britannica, n.d.). He established the world’s first "universal" library in Nineveh, which is considered the most comprehensive and systematically organized library in history (British Museum, n.d.). It is estimated to have housed over 100,000 texts, remaining unmatched in size until the Library of Alexandria was built centuries later.

Phalaenopsis Organization (finally!), New Growth and Flower Spikes, Oh My!

So back when I first started collecting orchids, I didn't really think about tracking their progress or marking the ones I lost/did not survive (it happens).  A while back, I happened to come across an article on tracking orchids that had a really nifty template within it for Excel sheets, but it was a bit too complex and some of the functions just wouldn't work.  Despite this, it gave me the idea to create a spreadhseet in Google Sheets to inventory and track my orchids.

You can view that spreadsheet on my main website page at: https://sites.google.com/view/orchidjourney/orchids/orchid-collection

When I started filling out the inventory sheet, all of my Phalaenopsis

Research Beginnings

My current research project for the Society for Creative Anachronism is to study and research the origins of orchids through history and how they were used in different cultures.  I realize that this research project is a vast undertaking, but I'm so fascinated with orchids, I yearn to know more and wish to share what I find with those who are interested.  I'm officially raising my nerd flag high!

 

There's no time like the present to start researching the history of orchids.

Did you know...

Update: Patchouli in a Pickle Jar

An update to my previous post from November 13, 2024
Post link: https://rebeccaorchids.blogspot.com/2024/11/patchouli-in-pickle-jar.html

A dear friend messaged me this morning commenting on my Patchouli in a Pickle Jar post; she had been making perfume oil for many years.  I shared with her some updated photos of my Patchouli plant and I thought I'd share an update about the plant here too.

Looking back at my receipts, I found that I purchased the Patchouli plant on November 2, 2024.  Due to the growing requirements of the plant and how it likes high humidity, I knew I needed to plant it in something that would give it the environment it needed.  Also, it had appeared that the plant had been cold shocked, so it would need to heal through that as well (my fingers were crossed!)  I knew that it would eventually outgrow the pickle jar, but I had no idea that it would be this quick!!

Patchouli - photo taken November 26, 2024

Patchouli - photo taken November 26, 2024

Man, look at all that healthy growth!

Watering Day and other musings.

Me, organizing my Ikea greenhouse

Today was a good day to water some of my orchids.  I have eight orchids that are growing in spaghnum moss which require a more diligent watering schedule than my orchids that I have growing in orchid bark mix.  With us running the wood stove in the basement for supplemental heat, the air is a bit more dry than normal.  With my Phals and other orchids that are in the orchid bark mix, I try to water once every two weeks whereas the ones in spaghnum, I'm generally having to water once a week.  

While the orchids were in their one hour water soak, I took the opportunity to straighten up my Ikea greenhouse that I have in my office.  Right now, I can only fit five small orchids in it, so I'm looking at other "terrarirum" like environments to house more orchids with better humidity control.  One of the things I knew I needed to improve was air circulation inside the greenhouse.  I had a little fan inside, but despite being plugged in (can run without being plugged in), it would cut off after a certain time and that wasn't very ideal in the grand scheme of things.  Its a perfect little fan for your desk to move air (which is what I got it for back when I worked in the office).  I remembered I had a CPU style fan that plugged directly into an outlet that I had purchased back when I was aging cheddar in the wine cooler downstairs.  It took a bit to find it, since things have been in a constant state of flux downstairs with Josh's office and going through boxes of stuff and sorting/getting rid of things. Josh found the fan and I set to getting it setup in my little greenhouse.  In my Ikea greenhouse, I have 2 grow lights on the "roof" as well as a heating mat and temperature regulator probe. 

Patchouli in a Pickle Jar

 The other week, I went to our local garden center to see what they had on clearance and also to look at their house plants.  I finally found some Russian Sage and I found a few other things too that are beneficial for pollinators.  I had been wanting some Russian Sage for quite some time, but every time I went by or called they were sold out or just didn't have any in stock. 

While there, I saw some fruit trees that I would have liked to have purchased but the price point was a bit out of my range.  Ever since the persimmon tree at the farm was taken out by weather (it was really old and not producing hardly anything.  So scraggly that I was surprised it lasted as long) I have been wanting to get another one.  Persimmons were a big part of my child hood, so losing that tree was like losing a small part of myself with it.

On the clearance table, there were several things but I decided on picking up some culinary sage, some anise and patchouli. 

I Have A New Book on the Way!

Last week, I happened upon a book title that I thought would be beneficial for my research on orchids through time.  I promptly purchased the book "A History of the Orchid" by Merle A. Reinikka.  The book was first published in 1972 by the University of Miami Press and covers a general history of the discovery of orchids and their classification, cultivation and more.

I also have my eyes on a couple of other