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

While my research into the history of orchids is still in its early stages, the journey has already been remarkably illuminating. I recently explored the world of prehistoric botany, documenting extraordinary amber specimens containing insects dusted with orchid pollen, some dating back to the Miocene, and possibly even the Late Cretaceous. But the next stop in this long botanical timeline brings us somewhere more familiar, yet no less legendary: ancient Mesopotamia.

a depiction of King Ashurbanipal from relief carvings

Mesopotamia flourished between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, forming the northern arc of the Fertile Crescent. While the region corresponds largely to modern‑day Iraq, its cultural influence extended into parts of Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Kuwait. One of its greatest cities was Nineveh, which rose to become the capital of the Neo‑Assyrian Empire. Around 700 BCE, Nineveh was the largest city in the world — a center of art, learning, and engineering, complete with botanical gardens, sprawling parks, and even a royal zoo.

From 669 BCE until his death, the empire was ruled by King Ashurbanipal, a rare “scholar‑king.” He is often depicted holding a stylus alongside his weapons, symbolizing his mastery of literature and mathematics as much as his military power (Britannica). It was this obsession with recorded knowledge that preserved the very recipes we study today.

His most enduring legacy was the creation of the Royal Library of Nineveh, often described as the world’s first systematically organized “universal” library. It may have contained tens of thousands of texts, a collection unmatched until the rise of the Library of Alexandria (British Museum).

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://www.thepottedhistorian.com/orchid-collection

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