After speaking with a woman in my garden club today, I was informed of why I did not win a ribbon for my Doritaenopsis orchid. She spoke with her friend who is a judge and she told her the reasons. The first reason is that it had too many mature flowers on it with no buds. The second reason is that it is not a recognized hybrid with the AOS. At least next year I will know to trim off some of the flowers, not force complete budding, and to pick something recognized by the AOS… Bad me.

Popularity: 5% [?]

After speaking with a woman in my garden club today, I was informed of why I did not win a ribbon for my Doritaenopsis orchid. She spoke with her friend who is a judge and she told her the reasons. The first reason is that it had too many mature flowers on it with no buds. The second reason is that it is not a recognized hybrid with the AOS. At least next year I will know to trim off some of the flowers, not force complete budding, and to pick something recognized by the AOS… Bad me.

Popularity: 4% [?]

A funny side note…

My grandmother (the crazy one) attended the flower show with me today. She also just came back from a trip to San Luis Obispo, CA. She told me that she would bring me something back from San Luis Obispo. She brings me back a cookbook that pertains to Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is over 100 miles away from San Luis Obispo… The fact that it is a cookbook on cooking seafood is even more humorous given that I am a vegetarian. She still thinks vegetarian means “person who eats meat” after all these years.

On a bad note and a more personal one, my other grandmother is dying of cancer. The cancer is spreading all over her body and right now, it is on her shoulder, lungs, and the lymph nodes in her chest. The doctor says that she has about six months to live. She is not even able to receive surgery or chemotherapy due to her current health. She can receive radiation but even that will only prolong her life for one year. She has opted not to receive treatment. She has lost a great deal of weight over the last few months. Of course, she only weighed about 98 pounds before this all started. She is down to 78 pounds and continues to lose about two pounds per week. If she continues at the rate of two pounds per week, I do not see how she could survive longer than another two months or less. This is a horrible time for my family.

Popularity: 6% [?]

A funny side note…

My grandmother (the crazy one) attended the flower show with me today. She also just came back from a trip to San Luis Obispo, CA. She told me that she would bring me something back from San Luis Obispo. She brings me back a cookbook that pertains to Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is over 100 miles away from San Luis Obispo… The fact that it is a cookbook on cooking seafood is even more humorous given that I am a vegetarian. She still thinks vegetarian means “person who eats meat” after all these years.

On a bad note and a more personal one, my other grandmother is dying of cancer. The cancer is spreading all over her body and right now, it is on her shoulder, lungs, and the lymph nodes in her chest. The doctor says that she has about six months to live. She is not even able to receive surgery or chemotherapy due to her current health. She can receive radiation but even that will only prolong her life for one year. She has opted not to receive treatment. She has lost a great deal of weight over the last few months. Of course, she only weighed about 98 pounds before this all started. She is down to 78 pounds and continues to lose about two pounds per week. If she continues at the rate of two pounds per week, I do not see how she could survive longer than another two months or less. This is a horrible time for my family.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I received an Honorable Mention ribbon at the flower show for my mass arrangement. This is the first mass arrangement I have done in a large-scale flower show so I am rather pleased with my results. I did not think I would get any ribbons for it. I received positive comments from all the judges and I am happy about my honorable mention ribbon. The orchid judging surprised everyone. The best orchids were surprisingly not the ones that were picked for ribbons. The judges seemed to favor very small plants with only one bloom on the stem. They also did not seem to mind dead leaves, diseased orchids, and orchids that were seriously under watered and malnourished. I am still baffled. Therefore, I did not get a ribbon for my orchid. At least I am in good company, all of the people that should have won ribbons did not get them either. I have decided that next year I will be doing another mass arrangement, a mailbox garden, and a larger number of horticulture specimens.

Tomorrow I will begin sowing the seeds for my vegetable garden. I cannot wait to plant them and start growing something…anything, for that matter. More news to follow later…

Popularity: 4% [?]

I received an Honorable Mention ribbon at the flower show for my mass arrangement. This is the first mass arrangement I have done in a large-scale flower show so I am rather pleased with my results. I did not think I would get any ribbons for it. I received positive comments from all the judges and I am happy about my honorable mention ribbon. The orchid judging surprised everyone. The best orchids were surprisingly not the ones that were picked for ribbons. The judges seemed to favor very small plants with only one bloom on the stem. They also did not seem to mind dead leaves, diseased orchids, and orchids that were seriously under watered and malnourished. I am still baffled. Therefore, I did not get a ribbon for my orchid. At least I am in good company, all of the people that should have won ribbons did not get them either. I have decided that next year I will be doing another mass arrangement, a mailbox garden, and a larger number of horticulture specimens.

Tomorrow I will begin sowing the seeds for my vegetable garden. I cannot wait to plant them and start growing something…anything, for that matter. More news to follow later…

Popularity: 4% [?]

I just returned home from the flower show. I am thoroughly annoyed by the lack of organization. These people have a whole year to get ready for the show and all they can do is recite the answer, “I have no idea.” Some of the people working at the flower show would just point you in a general direction and then run the other way before you could question where exactly they were pointing you. My orchid was a big hit with the volunteers. I am not sure that I will be taking home first place but I definitely think I will place in the top three. I *would* have been first place if they had not incorrectly placed my orchid in a category that it should not have been in. Now, it will be unfairly judged against orchids that are not even similar. I digress. The floral arrangement went ok. I was not exactly feeling too great by the time I actually was able to put together the arrangement. I was running a fever and was tired so I wanted to get it over with quickly. Of course having been sick this past week I did not really come up with a very good design so I just kind of threw it together as I went along. Granted, it is not the best in the show but I think I did a good job. I also was the only person that did not have fifty of their best friends helping either. I still have to go back and spritz the arrangement and other fun stuff but that is nothing that requires me to fill out 60 note cards with botanical names and my personal information. No one at the flower show knows anything and everyone just says random stuff and expects that you know what they are talking about even though they never mentioned it before and it is not printed in any of the 100 pages of rules and regulations. You would think an organization that goes to such great lengths to print up a manual with all the rules would actually be orderly and would be run with some semblance of organization. I digress.

Popularity: 2% [?]

I just returned home from the flower show. I am thoroughly annoyed by the lack of organization. These people have a whole year to get ready for the show and all they can do is recite the answer, “I have no idea.” Some of the people working at the flower show would just point you in a general direction and then run the other way before you could question where exactly they were pointing you. My orchid was a big hit with the volunteers. I am not sure that I will be taking home first place but I definitely think I will place in the top three. I *would* have been first place if they had not incorrectly placed my orchid in a category that it should not have been in. Now, it will be unfairly judged against orchids that are not even similar. I digress. The floral arrangement went ok. I was not exactly feeling too great by the time I actually was able to put together the arrangement. I was running a fever and was tired so I wanted to get it over with quickly. Of course having been sick this past week I did not really come up with a very good design so I just kind of threw it together as I went along. Granted, it is not the best in the show but I think I did a good job. I also was the only person that did not have fifty of their best friends helping either. I still have to go back and spritz the arrangement and other fun stuff but that is nothing that requires me to fill out 60 note cards with botanical names and my personal information. No one at the flower show knows anything and everyone just says random stuff and expects that you know what they are talking about even though they never mentioned it before and it is not printed in any of the 100 pages of rules and regulations. You would think an organization that goes to such great lengths to print up a manual with all the rules would actually be orderly and would be run with some semblance of organization. I digress.

Popularity: 3% [?]