Well my orchid addiction seems to continue going strong:

Last month I went over to Al's Orchid Greenhouse again (a trip that I cannot
possibly make without buying at least two orchids, this time a very pretty
yellow Phal Bette's Peggy (Salu Leopard 'Nancy Mountford, AM/RHS x Brother
Fancy 'Pink Tong', AM/AOS)

and my second mini-catt (Lctna Happy Face 'H&R' (Lctna Peggy San x Lc Mari's
Song) -- purple, with a beautiful fragrance that reminds me of roses and
citrus fruit, and that amazingly enough continued to be fragrant even once
moved from greenhouse to condo environment).

And then a friend of ours had the bright idea that an orchid would make a
perfect house-warming gift for me (she was right of course). And then
yesterday I made the mistake of walking into the social Safeway.

For those of you who do not live in the Washington DC area: there is a
Safeway in Georgetown that is known to locals as the "social" Safeway,
because it used to be the place to go to see and be seen, and also to pick
up a date over the groceries -- I am not sure whether it still is an active
social spot, but many people still refer to it this way. There is also
another Safeway in DC known as the "Soviet" Safeway, because it was always
understocked and poorly lit, not sure whether that's still the case though.

Anyway, regardless of the social Safeway's current level of social activity,
just as most grocery stores in our area, they sell orchids now. And when I
ducked into this Safeway yesterday, I could not resist buying another two
Phals:

Phal Baldan's Kaleidoscope (with two long branched spikes in bloom and lots
of buds, and a third spike just starting; nine healthy leaves including one
new one, oodles of aerial roots and a large mass of roots visible inside the
transparent plastic pot; the flowers are a nice shade of orange and yellow
candy stripe -- how could I resist?)

and Phal Sogo Mandolin (a harlequin type with white background and very
artsy dark purple splotches) -- Al once told me that harlequins are best
bought in bloom, since then one can tell whether one likes the pattern. I
like this one just fine -- I was not quite decided on it yet (since most of
it's flowers are already open), but I took it into my hand just in case to
make sure that noone grabbed it off the shelf while I walked around the area
with orchids, and it sort of insisted on staying in my hand till checkout --
orchids are insistent and sneaky that way.

Isn't it scary that one can't go grocery shopping any more without being
accosted by orchids?

Joanna

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 12:35:45 GMT in BmTXe.5791$9a2.3783@trnddc04 J Fortuna wrote:
[Safeway story snipped]

Isn't it scary that one can't go grocery shopping any more without being
accosted by orchids?

My first three orchids for me (dendrobiums, I'd have to dig up the spreadsheet
to remember what they were) were from the clearance cart at a Lowes Foods.
Unfortunately, since then the woman that took care of the plants retired
and noone had sense enough to put the remaining Dens on sale after they'd
finished flowering. Now the produce department is kept busy killing
philodendrons and african violets...

--
Chris Dukes
Suspicion breeds confidence -- Brazil

J Fortuna ) wrote:
: Isn't it scary that one can't go grocery shopping any more without being
: accosted by orchids?

Some of the very first orchids I bought were at KMart in the inside section
of the gardening department on a dark shelf amongst the pots and potting
soil over 20 years ago. I bought a Rhyncostylus, a Dendrobium, and a Vanda.
I've still got the Vanda.

Most of the stuff I see today at the grocery stores, Target, Lowes, and Home
Depot are pretty uninteresting to me so I'm pretty safe. I did succumb to
a pretty green Phal in Safeway that has tiny red dots sprinkled on the lower
half of the botttom sepals a year or so ago. I had to buy the stinkin' ugly
ceramic pot that it was sitting though. It hasn't rebloomed yet either but
then again none of my phals bloomed last year for some unknown reason.

Dave

Dave,
I too am pretty safe from most such stores: the only feelings that the
orchids at our local HomeDepot inspire in me are pity, and I have not felt
the need to buy any orchid out of pity. The Whole Foods has mostly
uninteresting Phals, and while I enjoy looking at them, I never seriously
feel tempted by them. However, this social Safeway is different, maybe one
of the employees who is responsible for orchid restocking is really
knowledgeable and has great taste, or maybe they are just lucky to have a
good supplier, whatever it is, they have really beautiful and interesting
Phal hybrids in excellent health on a regular basis. Every time I go in
there, it's like. "ooh, that's a beautiful one, and I don't have one like
that yet." Very tempting.
Joanna

"Dave Sheehy" wrote in message
...
snip
Most of the stuff I see today at the grocery stores, Target, Lowes, and
Home
Depot are pretty uninteresting to me so I'm pretty safe.