This Month we examine some of the hazards of growing orchids with this article by Sandy Ohlund, AOS Accredited Judge
Some of you may know that I grow my orchids—mostly paphs and phrags, with a number of vandas, dendrobiums, draculas, bulbos and others thrown in— both in a greenhouse attached to my walk-out basement and in the basement under lots of HID and fluorescent lights. I have tree frogs in both areas and I always look for the little cuties as I am perusing my plants in the basement, since the frogs tend to be in the same areas every night. After I water they often start calling to each other and it sounds wonderful! Night is when my seven thousand watts of lights come on since I use off-peak electricity, which is much cheaper, and it works out well for me since I am a night person anyway. The paphs and phrags don’t seem to care.
So, one night around midnight I was checking on the plants in the basement, and I decided to check the greenhouse, too. I spent perhaps ten minutes in the greenhouse looking for slugs (which I dispatched with my handy spray bottle of alcohol) and then I walked back into the basement. Before closing the door I checked for frogs on the sides and top—I don’t want to hurt any of the little fellows. I saw a frog sitting on top of the door, so I reached up to catch him and put him in a safe place. He jumped out of my hand and landed on the window of the door……when suddenly something heavy dropped onto my head and shoulder! YIKES! TWO—!2!—big snakes, each about three feet long! They fell to the floor and slithered into the base of the round kerosene heater that I keep by the greenhouse door. Apparently they were watching the frog also, and when he jumped out of my hand they lunged to catch him—but they were sitting above the door and of course they fell on me.
After I had recovered from my fright, I had to try to get the snakes out of the basement. I poked at them—they were milk snakes, blotched reddish brown and tan in broad bands going around the hefty bodies of these non-poisonous snakes. One left right away but the other one didn’t want to go in the right direction. He went up and backward and it was quite a while before I succeeded in ridding my basement of these slithery creatures.
With all my tropical foliage, orchids, birds and frogs, I love my indoor jungle—I just wasn’t quite ready for the unexpected—and unwelcome—wildlife. It really is a jungle down there!