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