Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Plant of the Day: Cattleya

Quick Facts

1. Orchids are not hard to grow as long as you know their specific requirements. The most important thing to know is where your orchid comes from when it occurs naturally in the wild. Cattleyas, for example, are native to South America so they need medium light and temperature. 
2. There are 9000+ orchids in the Longwood accession database, and over 3000 of them are Cattleyas. Let me tell you, watering that greenhouse takes a loooong time.
3. Only repot a Cattleya if it has outgrown its pot. This will occur about every 3-5 years. Make sure to save the pseudobulb with the new growth plus 3-5 other pseudobulbs since this is where they get most of their energy.
4. They grow sympodially through underground rhizomes.
5. They are one of the only fragrants orchids.
6. 3 petals, 3 sepals, 1 column...it's an orchid!

About a week ago, Mary approached me asking if I had ever had any mentoring experience in the past. Of course, this question came out of nowhere so I couldn't think of the year of high school I spent mentoring a freshman or the times I was a TA in college. Perfect! I shook my head slowly, and then Mary lowered the bomb. She told me that for the rest of my time here, I would be mentoring the high school students that come to Longwood from Saul High School. Oh great. High schoolers. Let's just hope this doesn't turn into a babysitting job.
To celebrate the arrival of all the summer interns, the education department held a luncheon for all of us in the Terra Cota Room below the Terrace Restaurant. We all had to stand up and introduce ourselves to the director and department heads. By this point, I'm so used to saying my name and where I'm from that I don't get nervous anymore. My favorite part of the day came after lunch when Lee (my Wednesday supervisor in the orchids) let me sit in on her Orchid Extravaganza meeting. It was so neat seeing all the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes into such a huge event. It doesn't even start until 2 weeks after the new year, but they have been planning it since last year. I'm almost glad I won't be here for it though because in that 2 week time period is when they rip out Christmas and put in OrchidEx. Crazy! All the construction and destruction is scheduled down to the minutes to make sure everything happens on time. While all of this planning is going on, I'm off in Beth Land wondering how they plan to make the orchid curtain. I didn't even know that was possible!

EPIC STORY TIME

Once upon a time, there was a lovely intern named Beth. She found herself in the Land of the North where she made loads of new friends, learned tons in the conservatory, and tried new things pretty much daily. One night, Stephen made Katie, Andrew, and Beth a champion meal of hot dogs, mac and cheese, green beans, baked beans, and chili. They were all so full afterwards that they decided to throw the softball back and forth because a run through the gardens seemed like a bad idea. This was a learning experience for Beth! As a child, her dad had tried to teach her how to throw off the correct foot and catch the ball, but Beth had never really picked up the proper techniques. "Well," Andrew told Beth, "tonight is the night you learn how to throw like a guy instead of a girl." Just what she'd always wanted. So Andrew proceeded to reiterate everything her dad had told her all those years ago, but this time something clicked in Beth's mind. Her first few throws were awkward, but she quickly got the hang of it. After awhile, Andrew tried teaching her how to catch the ball with her glove upside, which didn't end well. He threw the ball, Beth missed the ball, and Beth's upper thigh caught the ball. Despite the minor stinging sensation, they continued their game and even picked up another player. Sam and Beth were standing next to each other taking turns catching the ball. As with most things, Beth lost interest after awhile and wasn't paying close attention to what was going on around her. Andrew threw the ball one last time, and Sam reached for it. Beth took that to mean he was planning on catching it for her since it had technically been thrown in her direction. How wrong she was. The ball deflected right out of Sam's glove into Beth's left eye. A few drops of blood and tears later, she walked herself home to a sympathetic MacKenzie and Emma who got her an ice pack. Later on, Sam came over and gave Beth a hug, which helped. Who doesn't love getting attention from a cute guy? In the end, Sam was so traumatized by what had happened that he wouldn't play softball with Beth for 3 weeks. And they all lived happily ever after. The end.

This is what I awoke to the next day. The three scratch marks are where the laces hit my cheek. 

This tale was based on a true story. No character names have been changed because no one's identity needs protecting.