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We hope that you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was wonderful at our home. Our daughter got home on Tuesday from college. It was sure great to have her home with us.

Like other college students she made the rounds visiting her friends. It was hard to see her off last Sunday. But, she'll be back in another 3 weeks. We will see our other children at Christmas - can't wait.

I'm sure that you are wondering what is this "farewell". I know it is late but I needed to do some reflection. Unfortunately, I need to close my site down. My philosophy in business and out is to treat people well and have integrity.

Over the past month or so I have been experiencing less than perfect responses from our grower. There have been times when shipments didn't get out on time and other things. And this has gotten worse over past several weeks and the excuses don't add up. The integrity that I expect is not there.

I have not been able to find orchid growers who can take their place. I have looked over the past 9 months for a back-up and talked to many. It is an aspect of business they don't want to start.

I have met some fantastic people doing this. It's been a blast. And I wnat to say, THANK YOU to each and every one of you. What a business to do in retirement.

As of Wednesday the entire site will close. As I continue to look around I will let you know if I find another.

I have had another Web site as well as Orchids Plus More. This one is entirely different, it is: http://www.more-spending-money.com It deals with folks starting their own internet business.

I leave with you several tips.

Once again, thank you for your business Any questions please let me know at bob@orchids-plus-more.com

Bob Roy

Entertaining For The Holidays

I have been to many parties and we all seem to gather around the kitchen area and the living room / great room. I have noticed that at parties with is a centerpiece people tend to gather. And entertaining with orchids is an easy way to do it.

Imagine a cocktails table set with orchids that are white with pink and red highlights. Add to that table three clear glass balls of varying shapes and a few pictures of your family during that last vacation.

Using orchids to as a centerpiece in your home when you entertain will always become a topic of conversation. Entertaining with orchids is being used more and more as centerpieces. Why not orchid plants are the second most popular plant in the U.S

Tip of the Month

Winterizing Your Orchids

Written by Bob Roy at Orchids Plus More Depending on where you are located this article may relate to you. The winter care of orchid plants is aimed primarily for growers in the Northern and Middle U.S. Most Southern areas do not need to take special precautions for winter care of orchid except when a frost alert is in place.

For the enthusiast, hobbyist or orchid lovers who grow their orchid plants outside during the warmer months this article is for you.

We are primarily going to talk about the lighting, watering and temperature changes that will affect the growing orchids. During the winter season we adults feel the effects of less light and cooler temps giving rise to feeling lethargic or lazy. Orchid plants will also be effected. Orchids need a certain amount of light and temperature to grow normally and the winter season can change that. A significant number of plants will have this as a normal period of dormancy or rest needed to get ready for the next budding period.

Light

What about the natural light for the winter care of orchid plants? The days are shorter and the nights longer so plants that need moderate to high light intensity may get short changed. This means that orchid plants like cattleya, epidendrum, dendrobium and oncidium may possibly need some artificial light. The high intensity orchids need about 12 to 14 hours of light during their growing season and less than that puts them at a disadvantage for generating buds and blooms. It is only in the extreme northern US latitudes that we don't find at least 14 hours of daylight. The intensity of the light may be diminished because the sun is lower in the atmosphere during the winter. So if your plant needs more light you may need to move them from an area of where they used to get bright diffused light to a sunnier area of the home. The use of grow lights is not out of the question either especially for those plants requiring high light intensity like oncidums and some phals. Lighting is an important aspect of winter care of orchid plants and if the plants do not get enough they will not bud.

For more information on your particular type of orchid go to Orchids Plus More.

Watering

Let's change our attention to watering. The winter care of orchid plants usually means less watering because there is a needed period of rest. Instead of watering twice a week try watering once a week or instead of watering once a week we need to do it every 10 to 14 days. Now this changes if your home has low humidity, in this case you will need to water more often. The normal humidity that orchid plants love is between 40 - 60%. Most homes have about 40 -50 % humidity. If your home does not you may need to use humidity trays. These are metal or plastic trays that are filled with pebbles and then about 1/2 with water.

Temperature

The winter care of orchid plants cannot be complete without mention of the required temperature. Since most orchids need temps between 55 - 80 degrees F, the plants in the middle and northern US need to come indoors. There are certain things we need to bear in mind. Normal home temps are usually good for orchid plants but we need to consider that if we keep our home temps low due to the high heating bills we may need to add some warmth during the day to the plants. It is not good to keep them at a constant 60 -65 degrees, they do need times with temps higher.

Be careful of the setting as well, a window sill in the day time may be wonderful for the plants but at night it may get too cool. In order to protect the plants use a curtain as a barrier to the cold. On the other hand the window sill can also burn plants if it gets too hot. By the way this damage also occurs with lack of water and over heating of the orchid plant.

The most common signs of cold injury include injury to the plant leafs which can be seen as pitting marks, large sunken areas or the eventual discoloration which can lead to a brown leaf. The amount of damage varies considerably with the cold injury.

If a plant is frozen you will notice this rather fast after thawing. The dead spots on the leaves as well as the flowers and buds is easily noticeable.

See some stunning orchids for sale at our Orchid Store

Fertilizing

Just a quick word about fertilizing, as this period is usually one of resting the need for fertilizer diminishes as well. You should stretch out the fertilizing to be twice as long as you would during the summer. For example if your routine for fertilizing was once a week in the summer than the winter care of orchid plants says that it now should be once every two to three weeks. Copyright © 2005 Orchids Plus More.com and LEB Enterprise