Ok, so maybe by the time I am done with this email no one in this group will
take me seriously anymore, but here it goes:

I admit that after 3 years of growing orchids, I have today for the first
time repotted two of them myself. You see until today I would always go to a
local plant nursery, pay them $5-7 and that would include the new pot,
potting medium, and labor of repotting. I got to watch, discuss the health
of the roots with the staff person there, browse their orchid collection for
a possible additional orchid buy, and the entire experience was very
enjoyable.

Today, my bathroom is a mess. I am a mess. My back hurts. And I am
frustrated. But hey, those two orchids have been repotted. Yay. ;-(

I think I am going to go back to the nursery the next time one of my plants
needs repotting. Sure I saved $5-7 and I got to actually do it myself, but
for me this is just not worth it. Plus, I am not even sure that I did a good
job of the repotting: What if I left some roots that needed to be cut? What
if I disturbed some roots that were better left alone? At the local nursery
I trust the staff person to know what he or she is doing -- I know these
people well enough to know that they have more experience with orchids than
I do.

I understand that someone who owns a greenhouse with a huge number of
flowers and has lots of experience is better of doing this themselves, but I
am much better at coding Active Server Pages and writing stored procedures
than at repotting. Programming is my job, repotting is theirs.

I love the daily interaction with the orchids, watering them, looking for
signs of stress, or for new spikes or new leaves. But repotting is a pain in
the back for me.

Joanna