Updates

One of the Fred orchids Oncidium Gold Medal is flowering. It's not a big flowering spike, but the plant is small so we are excited anyways. It didn't flower last year due to sadness. We got it right this time!

 

The Gus Orchid/Laelia has opened two flowers.  It has another definite flowering spike growing and a couple of sheaths that I'm hoping will turn into flowering spikes. I have been bloom boosting this thing like nobody's business to get lots of flowers. I have been spraying its leaves with bloom booster nearly everyday and watering it with bloom booster. I'm going to try experimenting with putting it outside in more sun for a couple of hours a few days per week/when I think of it.

 

 

 

Catasetum is about to bust out. Tomorrow is the orchid club meeting where you can bring your plants to show them off. I'm pretty sure this will probably open a couple days late and be done my next months meeting. Oh well. Timing is a bitch.  I know it looks funny with only one leaf. We are in the process of drying it out since it now has pretty much lost all the leaves. There's no reason to water it really when there's no transpiration going on. From now until spring when it starts making new growths again we will only keep it damp enough for the roots not to dry out and die. We are super excited to see what this will look like!!

 

 

The vandas are getting more sun now, and the Ascocentrum ampullaceum has been getting its sun freckles back. That's what I was aiming for. Then I know it's getting enough light to be happy. Both the vandas are growing new roots. The orange one is making really honker thick roots. We put little scraps of the coconut husk stuff we use to line the baskets when we pot in the vanda baskets to protect the roots from the sun. The root tips kept dying, especially on ampullaceum. I hope this will give the roots enough protection to get going.

 

Dendrobium spectabile is sunburnt again. I tried to put it outside to get more sun, but the only place to put it gets strong afternoon sun. It was too much for it, and we had to cut off a few leaves again. I am trying to put it in stronger sun for only a little while at a time now to get it used to it. Then it will probably be fine where we had it. We were told it wants vanda light levels, but it can't handle that right now. I'm trying to sun it more because it flowers in winter. I'm trying to make sure it's prepped and ready. Once its new growths are mature I will start bloom boosting I think.  

 

Brassia Rex finally kicked the bucket completely. We were down to just 2 pseudobulbs and a tiny new growth in a 2" rehab pot. Then those pseudobulbs got the squishy rot, and we decided to just throw it away. We will have to get a different one some other time. We maybe should have just treated it with some kind of fungicide, but we've really never had any plants with disease like that. Next time we will know. It's kind of annoying to be sold sick plants.