How was Poland, you ask? Wonderful! It was so good to spend time with my
grandmother whom I love dearly, and we also spent 4 days hiking in the Tatra
mountains in Southern Poland, with a brief stay in Krakow on the way. My
husband's Polish has improved quite a bit during this stay :-) as well. All
together a very successful trip.

One thing that struck me about Poland is that even though it is now part of
the European Union, and the availability of goods is like in the West, the
prices are still for the most part still dirt cheap for us Americans (unlike
in Prague in the Czech Republic which has Western prices already). These
prices are however quite expensive for Polish people whose wages are still
very low.

Since this is an orchid group, first the prices of orchids: at a fancy
florists in Warsaw, mature Phals in double-spike were being sold for the
equivalent of $14, and at the hardware store which had really nice healthy
Phals for $7 -- ok maybe one can get that same price at some HomeDepot in
the US at a bargain table, but surely not for the same quality of healthy
plants in flower. Both of these stores had a nice variety of orchids, not
just Phals, but being predominantly a Phal person myself I mostly paid
attention to those. Among the Phals was a large number of phal equestris
species plants at the florist's.

In other prices: one can still have a good though simple two-course meal for
less than $1 at a Bar Mleczny (translated 'milk bar', which is a type of
restaurant that sells tasty though simple fair with a heavy emphasis on
dairy products). When we went grocery shopping in my grandmother's
neighborhood, we would usually spend somewhere between $10-$25 on quite a
lot of stuff. A beautiful huge bouquet of freesias, which are among the more
expensive flowers, cost us $6.25. In the Tatra mountains, one of the more
exquisite bed-and-breakfasts in the height of the tourist season cost us
$35/per night for the room and breakfasts included.

Internet Cafe in Warsaw cost 25 cents for the first 10 minutes, but only $1
for the entire hour. There was an Internet Cafe only about 5 blocks from my
grandmothers apartment, even though she lives in a very residential
non-touristy neighborhood of Warsaw.

Oh, and it was berry season in Poland. You wouldn't believe how delicious
those berries were. Both American style and European blueberries,
raspberries, wild strawberries, gooseberries, black currants, red currents,
and white currents. It was mushroom season too. We made delicious
chanterelle soup, and in the mountains we bought rydze -- a kind of mushroom
that I don't think one can get in the US at all, and which is truly
delicious. Ate lots of fresh trout in the mountains too. We also enjoyed
oscypek which is a cheese that is often smoked and made either of sheep or
goat milk. About oscypek we heard an interesting story:

Now that Poland is part of the European Union enquiries have been made about
whether or not oscypek can be sold in other parts of the EU. Apparently the
EU had no problem with this, as long as the cheese passed certain tests.
Also Poland was advised that it would be wise to get a regional patent for
oscypek before selling it in the wider market, since otherwise if the cheese
proved popular others would just reproduce it. This started the problem:
apparently there are several regions in Poland that produce oscypek, and the
cheese industry started fighting over who would get the patent. A former
mayor of Zakopane (a major mountain resort town in Poland) lost reelection
when it turned out that while in office he tried to get court approval for
his dairy company to get the oscypek patent. Also there is disagreement over
whether the cheese is actually called oscypek or oszczypek. In summary,
while the European Union was quite amenable to allowing Poland this business
opportunity without major hassle, the Polish cheese industry has made it
impossible to sell oscypek abroad, at least for now.

Happy birthday in Polish is "Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji urodzin" :-)

To end on an orchid note, the touristy mountain town of Zakopane had a
beautiful orchid prominently displayed in a florist window as well.

Best,
Joanna

"GrlIntrpted" wrote in message
. net...
Welcome back Joanna, how was Poland? I'm going to Russian toward the end
of
the year [we'll be in Lviv and will probably drive into Poland from
there],
and this Monday I'm going to Jamaica for 9 days! Many of my phals are
seedlings, I'm stressed out over this fact, as you can probably guess! I
have no one to take care of the one's at home. At the work place, i
already
trained my girls to water and care for the one's that are there (lots and
lots of them). The girls (the workers) understand how important it is to
water the orchids in the bucket full of rain water, they know that they'll
die a slow and painful death if they don't return the orchids into the
exact
same spot as they were before !!!! . But the one's at home are all the
species, many seedlings, and moving them to work will be a disaster! So
I'm
thinking of cranking up 4 humidifiers, a fan and a nice thorough
soaking/watering prior to my departure.....hopefully they'll survive!

Happy belated birthday , [how do you say it in Polish?]
Mariana

"J Fortuna" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I am back from a two week vacation spent with family in Poland. Had a
marvelous time, among other things bought another Phal for my 92-year
old
grandmother, whose first Phal is in spike for the second time this year.
Yes, I am an addict, and all or most of my family are getting into it
now,
too (father and stepmother, mothers-in-law, sister-in-law, grandmother,
my
mother, and her mother-in-law all either now have or have had orchid
plants
already, so orchids make a nice topic of conversation when calling
family
members -- how are you, and how are your orchids :-)

When we got back home, I discovered that a lot of exciting activity
happened
while I was gone. Half of all my orchid plants (10 out of 20) are in
spike,
bud, or flower, and that seems unusually good for me in the middle of
summer, especially since only a few of them are summer bloomers, and
several
of them are in spike after only half a year or less. My birthday
happened
while we were in Europe, and I have not gotten anything from my husband
yet,
since I told him that what I want is more orchids once we get home
grin.

For anyone other than me who could possibly care about the details,
which
are truly fascinating tome, but I realize may be completely irrelevant
to
anyone else:

-- A spike or root that had just started when I left, definitely turned
out
to be a spike. And I am quite excited about this one, since I bought it
as
a
seedling from Al's and this will be its debut blooming -- I know what
one
of
its parents looked like, but other than that it will be a surprise.
-- Two of my Phals with old green spikes have had new growth on these
pre-existing spikes.
-- Three spikes that where medium sized when I left are now fairly long
and
in bud.
-- Also my Paph Deception II is in bud again. This is my very first
Paph,
which I got in bloom in January, and now that it has proven that Paphs
can
and will reflower for me, so I guess I will have to buy more Paphs soon,
too.
-- My phal equestris has opened two blooms in the meantime, and it has
started two branches off its spike.
-- One of the Phals that seemed to be near the end of its blooming cycle
when I left has suddenly decided to develop the terminal bud into a
flower
after all.
-- My cochleanthes amazonica spiked, budded, and bud-blasted in the
meantime, while being care for by a friend, in humid DC. I again wonder
whether this plant is worth all the trouble that it has been giving me,
sign.
-- Several new leaves on several of the plants.
-- Not an orchid, but the bay leaf tree in our kitchen, seems to have
thrived, despite not being watered and having less light with the grow
lamps
off. It's definitely taller than us now, and getting entangled with the
blinds of the kitchen window.

A very happy and excited
Joanna