MyTinyBalcony

Well Hello Plant Friends
Firstly, I have an apology to make, as I missed uploading a video on Friday 15 May.
This was for a couple of reasons. I was working as the Assistant Show Marshal at the Orchids Out West show, that was running over the weekend, and 2, I had a migraine that took a number of days to resolve. I am on the up and up now.
Happily, I got the video edited and uploaded for the 22 May instead. Thank you for hanging in there.

This week has been all about catching up on things that got put aside for the show, and simply functioning.

I want to now talk about Orchid Societies and their purpose. At the core, they are a group of like minded people, who have a passion or obsession with orchids, and want to share the love on how to grow them. Like many other incorporated clubs, there is a structure that must be adhered to, which is the executive officers, in the form of a President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasure, with a committee of 6 to run the show. Over the last few years, world-wide, there has been a decline in volunteers overall, and it seems to have gotten worse during Covid. Without volunteers taking on roles, organisations and societies fall over.

Now, there are a number of reasons that I was not able to volunteer for this club.
1. This year for work, I am going to be stretched professionally, and my hobbies are going to suffer as a consequence.
2. I can almost never make it to the hall in question in time to help set up as a committee member.
3. Paphiopedilums are not my thing, and this is a society that I turn up to, because I go with Craig, who is a committee member.
4. I don't grow paphs as a serious grower as they are not my passion. I own 5 and that is 4 too many.

But in saying that, I do attend for another reason. To learn about these plants, and to try and become a better judge through exposure to them in general. As I said last night, I don't care what I look at, Hybrids or Species, they all look the same to me, and I cannot yet tell the difference between them, like I can with the other genera. I am learning, but it is a slow process when you are not interested in the genera to start with.

I guess this post is coming across as justification of why I didn't volunteer. In reality, last night's meeting highlighted to me out of the 100 or so people in the room, that only 2 of the members volunteered for an executive position, of which there was no President or Secretary elected, and only 3 members put their hand up to be part of the committee. 5 people is not enough to run the organisation. Whilst I cannot be a committee member of this group this year, I am happy to lend a hand with logistics where I can.

So, if you are a member of any organisation, and the AGM is coming up, please assess if you can step up to be a cog in the wheel for the organisation. It benefits you, the members, and the organisation, because without the committee as a whole, there will not be an organisation to attend.

Image tax: This is a primary hybrid - Paph Emerald Moon X Charlesworthii. It was grown by Iona, and as a first flowering seedling, it won Hybrid of the Night. She grows it cold under a pergola with min temps 6-7C, and protected. This flower is enormous @ 13cm diameter.

Kind regards
Alonya

2 days ago | [YT] | 4

MyTinyBalcony

Hello Plant Friends
A couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with a gentleman who I have mentioned a couple of times in my more recent videos, Dr Seong Tay. He is a wonderful grower, and very kind man, who is the current president of the S.P.E.C.I.E.S Society of NSW, which is based at West Pennant Hills in NSW. This conversation was all about failure with growing orchids.

Now, I have shared a couple of videos where I have managed to kill off supposedly 'easy' orchids. Mediocalcar decoratum, and also a Phalenopsis. He said to me, I am a decent grower who cares about her plants, but not to worry, because he has had tens-of-thousands of very expensive failures, and that is the sole reason he now knows how to grow them.

Some of the other plants that I have had failures with, but not made a video are:
-Pleiones
-Sarcochilus flask
-Cymbidium unkown
-Paphiopedilum insigne (apparently the easiest of them all)
-Bulbophyllum unknown
-Maxillaria variabilis
-Coelogyne ovalis

With his words ringing clearly in my ears, I will take each failure, learn from my mistakes and, I will continue to share my adventures both positive and negative.
I am thankful that I have had more successes than failures.

Until Next Week
Alonya

Images: My Mediocalcar decoratum that flowered and promptly died.

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1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 9

MyTinyBalcony

Hello Plant Friends
On the weekend of 15-17 May is Orchids Out West.
orchidsocietynsw.com.au/orchids-out-west-2026/

This is a large show which is the first major show of the year for the Sydney Region.
It is on at the Philip Charley Pavilion, Hawkesbury Showground, Racecourse Road, CLARENDON NSW.
Friday 15/5 - 0900-1600
Saturday 16/5 - 0900-1600
Sunday 17/5 - 0900-1400

There will be a large orchid display with competition winners for your amazement. There will also be a vendor hall where you can get your own plants. This is the place where you might just pick up a bucket-list plant you have wanted for a while.

There is a $10 per day entry fee, and tickets can be bought here - done forget to save them to your phone wallet.
events.humanitix.com/orchids-out-west-2026

Come enjoy the hospitality of the host orchid societies, grab a coffee, be amazed by the displays, and peruse the vendors wares.

I'll be there Friday and Sunday.
Let me know below if you have your ticket?
Hope to see you there.

Kind regards
Alonya

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 2

MyTinyBalcony

Hello Plant Friends (Sorry, this got long!)

I was asked recently about how to create a shade spot on a balcony, where the Body Corporate or Strata Committee have specifically declined permission to erect even a small shade structure. Now, this is a problem that I did experience at my apartment building in Drummoyne. We had a committee that was entirely comprised of Fun Police, and we were not allowed laundry racks etc on the balcony, as we faced onto the Parramatta River, and heaven-forbid people on passing party boats see our smalls. 7 Stories Up! Anyway, I did have a tomato trellis that needed a little protection from the blazing Westerly afternoon sun , and I erected some shade cloth that was laced to the bamboo poles. Yep, you guessed it. I was told I wasn't allowed to hang laundry. I submitted photographs of the construction and asked them what part of 1.5m of shade cloth laced onto a garden stake constituted 'laundry'. I did not receive a response, and neither did they ask me to remove it.

Anyway, For the orchid grower who is as space limited as I was, and a little less Gen X intolerant of Fun Police, AND who wants to provide a space under cover, there is a way of doing it - and whilst it does take a little of your precious space, it is actually an Aussie product from ‪@aussiegardenerstore‬ called a PestFree Cover. It is a PVC construction, that you could replace of overlay the fibreglass mesh with shade cloth. Double duty! Which is even better.

I have put a few photographs below of my shade cloth construction and the PestFree Cover in place.

Depending on your space you could apply some ingenuity and construct it on a table top, and fashion a door using matching PVC pipe and corners and install it using standard PVC pipe fittings.

Whilst PestFree Covers are not cheap, they are top quality and are a bl**dy brilliant investment, and yes, I regret selling mine one off.
I also note that they are pre-order until 6 May, but if you pre-order, you get 15% off. In the course of writing this, I ordered the 2 pack. To get yours... Click on the link below***

aussiegardener.com.au/products/aussie-gardener-pes…

***This post is NOT sponsored. I really do love these covers, and I like Aussie Gardener as an online store too! I bought their hose and fittings for use in my greenhouse, and you see the apron in nearly every video. Great service, great products, and great people.

Grow well, enjoy your plants, and remember... they are always going to surprise you and it is usually when you are not looking.

Until Next Time!
Alonya

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3 weeks ago | [YT] | 6

MyTinyBalcony

Good morning and Happy Tuesday, plant friends 🌱
This is just a quick, unscheduled post.

I experienced a personal attack this morning, and as such... I felt I had to write this post.

I wanted to take a moment to set some clear expectations for this space. This channel is all about sharing orchids, learning together, and building a positive community.

Most of you already contribute to that beautifully—thank you.

To keep things that way:

1. This is a respectful space focused on orchids and learning.
2. Constructive discussion and questions are always welcome.
3. Personal or negative comments directed at me or others will be removed.
4. Repeat behaviour may result in being blocked.

I won’t be engaging with negativity, as it doesn’t reflect what this community is about.

If you ever feel uncomfortable in the comments or notice something I’ve missed, feel free to let me know.

I’ve also set up an email MyTinyBalcony21@gmail.com if you’d like to suggest content or share ideas.

If my content isn’t for you, that’s completely okay—there’s no shortage of great orchid content out there. And if you choose to stay, I’m so glad to have you along for the journey.

Until next time,
Alonya

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 6

MyTinyBalcony

Hello Plant Friends
One of the fun things I have discovered about this grow space is the interesting places wild life decides to take up residence.
We have some brown frogs. I am no frog expert, so I don't know what species they are. But they are cute, and turn up in some strange places.
Now, I do like frogs, and have even launched myself into space, when one decided to take a leap of faith, and launched itself at me. Whilst I was initially startled, I saw the funny side, after my pulse rate had returned to normal.

A couple of weeks ago, I did a short video that I had accidentally created a frog breeding pond out of the wheelbarrow, and I also knew they were around, because I had seen them in the pool, and also the one that flew at my face, and landed on my foot, when I was moving some pots around. I also have heard them, and had been told they live in the vertical pipes. I was doing some watering the other day, and I heard some croaking going on. So, I turned on my phone light and low-and-behold, there were 4, all in separate pipes. Later on, I was inspecting a Stanhopea that I discovered has three new growths, and there was one sitting in the basket guarding the plant against slugs and snails. Such a cool thing to stumble across.

Do you have any fun wildlife randomly living in your grow space?
Let me know below.

Until Next Time
Alonya

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1 month ago | [YT] | 6

MyTinyBalcony

One of my favourite things to do at the end of a long working day is to get home, get myself a drink of something tasty, and go for a walk out into the orchid collection to see what is going on. At this time of the year, many plants are entering into their growth phase. Roots are being produced prolifically, and many plants are starting to come out into bud or even into a blooming cycle. Cattleya purpuratas are shooting up sheaths, Gomesa radicans is putting out dozens of racemes, and the Aussie Native dendrobiums are already out in flower. Which is weird, as they typically come out a little closer to Spring.

In all honesty, most of the plants coming into bloom belong to my housemate. Although I have a few that are starting to produce buds for me for the first time. Many of my plants were acquired as seedlings, so have to go through a few growth cycles first, to even get to flowering size.

Join me on Friday for a peek at what is currently in bloom in the middle of Autumn.

1 month ago | [YT] | 5

MyTinyBalcony

Hello Plant Friends.
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

My mind is all over the place, and I have so many projects on the go, I feel like I am bouncing all over the place. I believe I might have ADHD or something similar, but I am not yet diagnosed. I just seem to tick a lot of those criteria. As such, I seem to always be busy, sometimes lack motivation, and definitely have way too many things to do, and not enough time to finish them, except for at the last minute. This seems to be a recurring theme.

I am loving getting back to building my channel up more, and finding new creative outlets. In my off-camera life, I do medieval reenactment, just not as much as before. I also love fibre-craft. Spinning, knitting etc. I have many unfinished projects there as well. I also have a number of videos to edit up and make for you all, but they are all still sitting on my phone.

My major struggle right now is remembering what I have done, scheduled, or where I am at. Despite having a Trello board to keep myself on track. I am still figuring out a good workflow to keep myself on-task.

If any of you have tips and tricks you use to help manage your many projects, please let me know in the comments below. I am interested in your suggestions.
The struggle is real.

I also have a wish list of plants, and today's images are Cuitlauzina egertonii. This orchid is a small-medium, cool growing epiphyte, ranging from Mexico to Columbia.
This plant is not mine which is why it is on my wish list. Enjoy!

Kind regards
Alonya

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1 month ago | [YT] | 11

MyTinyBalcony

Happy Easter Plant Friends
This week I want to cover a topic that many orchid growers won't go near, and that is growing orchids you don't personally like. I do do this, but why?
Well for me, I am a junior orchid judge, and I am learning a lot of different things about orchids. Both as a grower, and as a judge. Most of it is by trial and error. Mostly error, with some, as the late-great-painter Bob Ross would say "happy little accidents" along the way.

For me personally, I do grow plants where I don't love the flower. Usually this encompasses Paphiopedilums (slippers), Cattleyas (large exhibition types). Neither of these genuses are particularly attractive to me. Yes, for those who love them, please continue to do so, because there is an orchid for everyone. One of my favourite people in the orchid world here in NSW is a master Paph grower, and his plants are beautiful, well grown and very sought after. That is Dr Seong Tay. I even have one of his beauties in my collection, and it is doing rather well. I thought the flower was delightful, and I asked if he had one, and sure enough, I was fortunate enough to acquire a flowering size plant of Paphiopedilum appletonianum. If I am going to own one and learn to grow and hopefully flower it, I guess I should at least find it something about it that I can live with, and the colour-way of this flower is just beautiful. See image #1 for a beautiful example, which is not mine, but very typical of this type.

Reasons to grow a plant you don't like:

1. Learning new skills and knowledge - growing orchids of many varieties allows you to learn new skills, try new things, and learn about plants you might not otherwise know about. Often plants from different regions of the world can grow in similar conditions, because their native habitats are similar enough. Surprise! I have cattleyas and Aussie native dendrobiums growing side by side, cold, year round, and they are all doing very well together. Cattleyas are not native to Australia, they are native to Central and South America. Who Knew?! I didn't, but now you know that too!

2. Having fun doing something different - I grow cattleyas and paphiopedilums because they are different. And they are out of my my comfort zone, and I like trying new and different things

3. They are an orchid that grows easily in your region. Not all orchids like the same conditions, and often you might find that your conditions are better suited to terrestrial types, or you find that your temperature variance is too broad and your Winter lows are not conducive to the tropical varieties.

4. You win the last plant in a Society raffle, and you take it home because you don't know what else to do with it. This is how I acquired many of my cattleyas. And whilst they are not my favourite, I won't actively work to cause their demise either. I will flower them and likely sell them on.

So, there are many different reasons to grow plants you don't like. Never say never. It might just be that the plant you don't particularly like might be the only thing available to you right now, and who knows? You might grow to be proud of your achievements. Especially when the plant is one that others struggle to flower.
So, if the mood takes you, try growing a plant you don't care for. You might surprise yourself with an unexpected success.

Happy growing everyone!
Regards
Alonya

Image 1: Paphiopedilum appletonianum
By Dalton Holland Baptista - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4957989
Image 2: Paphiopedilum appletonianum - My plant
Image 3: Paphiopedilum rothschildianum x (James Bacon x Black Knight)
Image 4: Cattleya Topaz 'Radiance'
Image 5: Cattlianthe 'maric delight'

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1 month ago | [YT] | 13

MyTinyBalcony

Hello Plant Friends
Over the last couple of weeks, I have posted about the clearing out of my greenhouse. One of the things I don't really cover in the videos is the disposal of the rubbish, or the logistics involved.
Here in the Hawkesbury, we have a rotational rubbish collection.
Weekly, is General Household rubbish, and alternating weekly is recycling and green waste. This has required some thought at planning about what I can get rid of in which order.

When I was sorting the rubbish, I was sorting it into 4 broad categories.
1. Needs disposal now - gross, rotting, stinky
2. Smaller hard rubbish that can be disposed of weekly
3. larger pieces that require additional space
4. Not rubbish but can be used elsewhere, such as old bark as mulch.

We also get one hard rubbish collection by council, for the larger and bulkier items. As we only get the one, we need to be strategic about what we include.

Enter good friends with bin space. We have a friend who lives nearby, and he has kindly taken some of our green waste and some smaller bags of general rubbish, which has helped alleviate space pressure.

So, when planning a clean out like this, please consider your rubbish disposal plan first, as this is going to potentially cause some distress by seeing so many piles for some time, whilst you spend a few weeks working on your disposal. I was prepared for this, as I do not have the money available for a skip, nor would I fill it fast enough.

Let me know in the comments if you have ever done a clean out like this, and what your rubbish disposal plan was.

Have a great week
Kind regards
Alonya

1 month ago | [YT] | 7