Don Ghiz Offers Advice for Freeze-damaged Plants, Calls on Volunteers

Dear and esteemed members of HOS:

I hope and pray that your orchids survived the cold weather of the past two weeks. I woke up in shock seeing a few inches of snow and icy roads. If you didn’t have heat capacity to keep your plants warm, they are likely toast. Also, I didn’t hear of any power outages, but if you did lose power, my condolences.

Okay, all this about the cold weather has a point. I did lose my power during Hurricane Beryl and my generators didn’t kick on. The results were devastating in my greenhouse. I had no fans to cool and no water to hydrate plants, so everything overhead, and my best and oldest plants that were hanging above the benches, suffered the most. From that lesson, I encourage you to not throw out plants that may now look dead. Keep them warm and watered, and some will recover because the roots are still alive. Some won’t make it, but my advice is to hold off throwing them away for at least two months.

As February opens, we will begin to see beautiful blooms. When in doubt, bring them to judging. Who knows what those crazy judges might do. LOL! I encourage everyone to visit and learn. Shows will be popping up in the area—most prominently the Houston Orchid Society Annual Show and Plant Sale in early March. We need a lot of people to pull that show off. I encourage you to bring your blooming plants so the world can see them in bloom. And who knows, they might get a nice ribbon or even an award from the judges.

I plan to say this every month: Step forward to volunteer. We need young blood to take over some of the leadership roles. Orchids are a good hobby, and working socially on them and in the society can alleviate the pressure of our stressful lives.

That’s it for now.

All the best, Don Ghiz