Daylily Surprise! And Lycaste Horrors!

Earlier this year, Ernest DeMarie, who has a blog of his own, decided to let me have a good portion of his daylilies!. After growing them all spring, they have started to flower!

The first one to flower was the Malaysian Monarch! The first flower to open up did so on June 16th, 2010. And the next one to open was on June 22nd. Both flowers were from different plants, so I know that at least two of them are the same. I tried to self pollinate the second flower that came up. We will have to wait a while to see what comes of this, but I hope it's seedlings are as beautiful as the parent. Here are some pictures:

The plants themselves have had a rough year, as you can probably notice by the leaves. After being dug out of Ernies garden, I left them outside for a night before putting them in the ground (I came back too late to put them in). I think many of the roots dried out considerably during this time, and once they were put into the ground, my constant watering has helping them recover. Many of my lilies have had leaves which were turning yellow, or which were extremely dry, starting from the tips and running down the leaves. However, they all are alive, and seem to be doing better.

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the Lycaste from my last post. While it is a beautiful plant, I decided that putting it outside will help it get more light. I put it in a shaded area, near a bush. However this was a horrible idea. The leaves started turning brown from the tips, and even worse, the leaves started flopping! This is never good for any plant, much less an orchid. I have since brought the plant indoors in an attempt to recover it. One leaf is not almost completely brown and the other is turning brown slowly from the tip. Any Lycaste growers with experience who might be able to help me, please comment below!

And here is a picture of the poor Lycaste aromatica:

In both pictures you can clearly see that the damage is both severe and intense. Now I know better. Many people online says the thing grows fine at home, so i am keeping it indoors until further notice.

In the second picture a keen eye might be able to make out an oncidium about to flower. I will definitely blog about this, if the event comes to pass!

Lycaste aromatica

This past weekend my girlfriend, Donna, stayed over my place, and we had one of the best weekends ever. We had gone to six flags and we took many photos.

One of the better parts of the trip was heading out to see Ernie. He has given me so many plants this year, it is hard to thank him enough. Perhaps posting a link to his blog will help. Click here.

While walking through his collection I was able to witness awesome orchid blooming outside his house. I saw how he resurrected a near dead spring cactus. I also witnessed a Cattleya with a beautiful scent by the window. A flowering Pinguicula was also nice. However the most awesome part was when he gave me one of his Lycaste aromatica!

Donna was kind enough to hold the plant for me while I took pictures. I didn't know the flower wouldn't last long. It is now turning a dark brown color :(. To be fair the flower did last from Friday throughout the weekend until Monday, when it started to loose all of its fragrance.

I have wanted a Lycaste aromatica ever since I was in high school. Now I have one! I hope it flowers more next year. According to the pictures online, the plant has the potential to flower profusely (10 or more flowers), in any given year. Too bad I have to wait a year to see what it does.

On another note, the wiki page for this orchid is a stub. Click here to see it. There is no information on where the plant occurs, what kind of hybrids can be made with it, what the scent of the flower is like (cinnamon), nor how common the plant is. I know I am not very popular in the blogosphere, but if anyone cares to make this worthless stub of a wiki page actually worth looking up, feel free to edit it!

On one last final note, my Oncidium is about to flower. More on that later!

Oncidioda charlesworthii 'Mishima'

I got a new orchid in my collection!. It is Oncidioda charlesworthii 'Mishima'.

I was so happy I decided to make a video. It is here on my blog now!

The Nine Inch Nails Fiasco

I work the front desk here at L Hostels, and few guest recommendations are difficult to fulfill. Usually a guest wants a towel, or to reactivate their key card. Something that is easy to accomplish with little or no effort, and is of no stress to me. I am glad to put a smile on a guests face.

So I came in to work on Saturday night. I was set to work the night shift, from 12 a.m. until 8 in the morning. On the way to work I was listening to the Rachel Maddow Show from the night before. I had downloaded the podcast on my iPod Nano, which was given to me from my job when I was employee of the month. Many months have passed by, and to my knowledge, there has not been another employee of the month for a long time. Something I think they lost sight of, but anyway...

I just shrugged it off as coincidence when the show on my iPod ended, and I found I was at my destination. Perfect timing is too cliche for it. As I turned the corner on 118th street onto Adam Clayton Powell Blvd, I noticed loud music. There was party in one of the storefronts. The last meeting the hostel had was mostly about communication, but I wasn't told about this. I was deeply disappointed that I wasn't told there was going to be a party on my shift. Perhaps this is another reason why I felt pushed to look for another position.

I entered the hostel to find Cynthia at the front desk. She was doing her job, calm cool and collected. She is short and pretty, but not my type. I noticed the radio was on. Z100. Mainstream pop. I also noticed what was playing on Paladia. A Nine Inch Nails concert. It was more my style, but I let the guests have their brainwashed pop music.

My shift started, and Lady Gaga came on. It must've been the 10 thousandth time I heard Bad Romance. An asian guest quickly came, asking to change the music to the Nine Inch Nails concert. Claiming it was his favorite band. I obliged. I like Nine Inch Nails too, but unless I had a reason to, there was really no point in changing the music. I changed it.

Not two minutes later a guest came to complain. Saying that the music was annoying her, and that she preferred to hear something mainstream. I told her, when it came to Rock, you couldn't be more mainstream than Nine Inch Nails. But anyway. I wasn't going to change it for some spanish lady who doesn't really know music. Nine Inch Nails is awesome, and a nice change from Lady Gaga.

Also the asian guys already asked me to put Nine Inch Nails on, and they were playing pool. I wasn't going to say, I can't put the volume on, but you can see the video. Also, I wanted to hear the music. So I told the lady, I wasn't going to take off Nine Inch Nails. Was I being selfish? NO!
The music hadn't even been on for two minutes. The asian guy wouldn've thought me a jerk, or a douchebag if I had changed it so early.

The female came back about 3 minutes later, and I changed it back to Z100. I hate making those types of decisions here. I should be able to listen to Nine Inch Nails at 1 a.m. at my job without being persecuted. Nine Inch Nails is mainstream, although I wouldn't call it pop. I changed it so she didn't have a bitch fit. What some guys calls a Titty Attack, but I usually call it a chick attack. It is when females for one reason or another overreact for the smallest details. They care so much for something so trivial. It makes no sense. Most woman have committed this offense at one time or another.

Anyway. This is the Nine Inch Nails Fiasco. The asian guy looked at me less than 1 minute late when Kanye West started playing. I know his pain. I hate it too.

Killing Ms. Figman

There is one guest at my job, Ms. Figman, who I would love to kill.

As I entered my shift for sunday night, Cynthia told me guests were complaining about Ms. Figman. They were complaining that she was being loud, they were complaining that she was smoking in the room, and they were complaining that she was being inconsiderate. As for what she was smoking, it wasn't cigarettes and it wasn't weed, according to the guests. Cynthia thought it might have been crack, but I had no evidence for or against anything other than heresay, so I didn't say anything.

Until about 6 a.m. Working the night shift sucks, and after a long shift, I would like nothing more than to go home and go to sleep. I don't need to make conversations with fucking crazy people. She came by to tell me the computer she was on wasn't working. She told me she swiped her credit card, and they cut off her internet. I told her she would not be charged for the time she didn't use. She then told me she put a dollar into the computer. I told her the minimum was 2 dollars and she started arguing with me! I have been working here for months, and the computers have ALWAYS been 2 dollars for 20 minutes, and now she was going to try to contradict me with her doublespeak?

But it gets worse. She asked if she could get a refund. I said no. I give refunds when the computers malfunction, not when someone doesn't know how to use them. I wanted to add the word dumbass. But the story gets better...

She then asked what was wrong with me. She said most people working here were normal, and asked if I was imitating someone.

NO I AM NOT FUCKING IMiTATING ANYONE! SOMEONE IS IRRITATING ME, and if she keeps on...

If she keeps on...