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Advice WantedOrchids that need 80% humidity
I love orchids, but the only ones I have had some success with were those hybrid Phalaenopsis you get at every supermarket.
While I am not sure why the others tend to die, I suspect it's the humidity. I only have 40 to 50% at the moment.
From my research, the easiest fix would be to put them in a terrarium, but I also heard from people that they have them on the windowsill and it works. (One orchid that died I bought from a woman who told me she didn't do anything special for the mother plant and it thrived .... so it might be something you can do accidentally, like having lots of other plants around.)
Does anyone have experience with orchids? What's your secret?
(One orchid I'd love to get but am worried about not being able to keep alive is Macodes petola, the jewel orchid.)
Not a book but a useful resource: Spinning Babies. I have no idea about their gender inclusivity or otherwise, I only know I wish I'd known about them earlier than 41+6, because doing inversions off the bed at basically 42w was pretty challenging. But I am sure those exercises saved us a hospital induction, so. Good luck.
Expecting Better, by Emily Oster. It came out at the end of my last pregnancy so I did not buy it, but I read a lot of the reviews and criticisms and came to the conclusion that she was right about most things. I had one of the best OBs who was really evidence based and didn't act like I was going to damage my baby with every bite of food or sip of drink I took. Her conclusions lined up with a lot of the guidance he gave me. He helped me understand why something could pose a risk and how to balance the risk/benefit, where a lot of the time women are just told to avoid things without adequate explanation.
I wanted to like that book, but Emily's comments on alcohol were so irresponsible. Alcohol is a teratogen-- there is no safe amount-- and she was basically saying it's okay to have a glass of wine a day at certain points of pregnancy. Our society has a serious drinking problem if we are going to prioritize blending in socially over protecting a child. I couldn't trust anything she said after that section to be honest. The whole thing read as if she was trying really hard to cherry-pick studies to support her own drinking decisions.
Milli Hill's books
I just looked her up but it doesn't seem she's a scientist or has any medical training?
oops I totally skipped over the science part, sorry about that!