Sick babies and updates

the plants are looking really good and happy at the greenhouse. We have been to visit and check on them a few times. Several things seem to be starting to grow again. I think that's because they weren't getting enough light at the end of the summer to complete their growth and it had just sort of stalled out. Now they are trying to finish off the new growths from this year.

I'm a little worried the vandas aren't getting enough water, but I really don't see any better solution for that. They really need the light in the greenhouse. We finally have the things that are still at home well situated with enough light etc.

The diseased things:
- Sharry Baby had weird spotting on it that seems like it got paler after spraying it with the liquid copper. It hasn't gotten any worse after its two treatments, so we are just watching and waiting to see what happens. The same thing for zygopetalum.
- SLC Bright angel, the mini cattleya that's red with a yellow center on the other hand actually has a virus I think. The strange looking brown patterns on the bottoms of the leaves looks like tobacco mosaic virus based on the pictures I saw online.

This is what ours looks like. We cut off a several leaves that had it the worst. I think that plant may have had this virus all along and it just gets an outbreak in the fall. It had this strange patterned browning on the leaves last year too. I read online that some plants can withstand the virus and others can't. I'm hoping that ours can and we will just live with it. We sprayed it twice with the copper before I realized it was probably the tobacco mosaic virus, so that should take care of any possible secondary infections. It is living separately from the others in our bedroom in a nice sunny spot. It seems to like the better light. It was always used to lots of sun before. Also, I figure the happier and healthier the plant is due to its growing conditions the better it will be able to fend off or deal with the virus.

We have been watering once per week. They dry out fairly quickly in the house. I think I'm going to put nutricote on the plants that are still growing that are here in the house because making up liquid fertilizer buckets is kind of a pain for just a few plants.

The Phal amabalis is flowering. It's kinda runty though only 4-5 flowers. I did bloom boost it but probably not enough or it wasn't getting enough light or something. It has been tough to get the right growing conditions for everyone this year. We had to sacrifice on a few to get some others extra light. I should kick myself for being so picky! It is still lovely

Dendrobium spectabile is going to FLOWER!

Dendrobium spectabile is putting on flowering spikes! Several of them! So exciting. I think it really likes the greenhouse, although it wouldn't have decided to flower if what we had been doing lately hadn't been good for it too.

This was a couple of weeks ago so they are longer now and there's more of them. I really want to take it to the orchid society meeting and show it off. I'm praying that works out. How depressing would it be to miss that. The plant is flowering on the older canes unlike most plants.


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Babysitting

Our babies are being babysat over the winter. They went to the greenhouse this last week because it has gotten too cold to keep them outside. We rent partial bench space monthly and they do the care. We are excited to go and visit them this weekend so see how they liked their first week! We didn't bring them all because I don't think they would all fit. We kept the low light things like the Phals and Paphs at home and also the little tiny things. I hope they will do well there. I think they will be happier to be getting much better light. I really want the Dendrobium spectabile to flower this winter.

A couple of them seem to have gotten a fungus or something. We didn't water for about 3 weeks because it was chilly and had hoped that would stop the fungus, but no luck. The Mini cattleya bright angel ... red with yellow center has it. Whatever the fungus is it makes weird brown patterns on the backs of the leaves. The zygopetalum also has little spots that spread on the leaves then turn yellow and fall off. We have cut off all its leaves except the new growth. I'm especially worried about it. Sherry baby apparently has it too more than its usual spots. We got some copper fungicide to spray them with. Steven has sprayed the Sherry baby but not the others yet. I am crossing my fingers and hoping it works. Once they are cured- if they are cured- they can go to the greenhouse too. I will try and take some pictures.

Mystery solved- Liparis condylobulbon.



 





Our little mystery orchid started putting on a flowering spike probably about a month ago now. So of course I bloom booster it and here we are! We still had no idea what it was, so we brought it to the Orchid Society meeting to see if anyone there had a clue what it was. The suggestion was Liparis condylobulbon which I think is pretty spot on. It's officially not a mystery anymore. It's flowering away. Little white flowers- it's cute. It's still living at home with us. I couldn't get the camera to focus on the individual flowers close up.

 

 

New Babies!!! Dendrobium bracteosum and LC. Irene Finney

We, of course, had to go to the orchid auction that is the fundraiser for our Orchid Club. They sent out a list of plants that would be available ahead of time, and there were only a couple that we were really interested in. We have decided not to get more because we don't have the space or proper light, and we don't know yet what to do with them over the winter. But we couldn't resist these two for the price. We bid on a few others, but didn't want to pay too much money for them as we are on a very tight budget at the moment.

Dendrobium bracteosum is in a 4" plastic pot in bark. It's flowering now looking adorable. It has two new growths right now. We probably won't repot it until next year since there is still room in the pot. It's presently in quarantine to make sure it doesn't have any cooties. This is a dendrobium that wants what seems to be Oncidium light levels- in between Phal and cattleya. It wants to dry out between waterings, and it does not have a winter rest.

The cattleya isn't flowering, might be ready next year. The pictures they had of the flower though are really lovely- big and gaudy (I'm in a mood for that lately). It's planted in a 4" plastic pot also with a lot of nice roots on the new growth. Some of them are out of the pot, so we may try to repot it, but not sure yet. It's planted in rocks.

Catasetum is flowering!!

It's more opened up now. The flowers take a few days to fully open and become a little more upright. They also seem to be getting more golden yellow as time goes on. They are interesting with the speckles. The leaves are all gone now. We haven't been watering it at all anymore. I will probably mist it occasionally to keep the roots from dying. I wonder if there are other colors of these plants...

Ascocentrum ampullaceum

I just realized as I was trying to link to this post from the Updates post, that I never made a post about this plant! Oops! We got this at the Redland Orchid Festival last year in May 2012. It was flowering when we bought it. It was wired into a little maybe 3" clay pot with the roots just loose and hanging down. We sprayed it every morning, but the leaves started to shrivel pretty badly. Along with the other vanda, we started to spray it twice a day to see if it was just a moisture problem. The leaves plumped right back up. We decided to repot it into a 6" wooden basket and wrap the roots around inside the basket. We then put some large bark chunks, wine corks and a bit of moss in there to keep the humidity up more. Then it did just fine with once a day spraying. The plant has done pretty well. It started growing a lot more after I started using fertilizer water to spray it instead of plain water.

I started bloom boosting it in April because I knew it would flower in May. It did flower, but the spikes got sunburnt or too dried out at the tips and they didn't really elongate much. There were only a few flowers on each spike. That was pretty disappointing, but at least we knew we could make it happen. Next year we will try to cover the spikes a little or something maybe.

Lately the plant has been making roots, but the growing tips on them keep dying. We thought they might be getting too much sun, so we put a bit of loose coconut husk over them to provide a little shade. The coconut husk doesn't really retain much moisture, so I'm not worried about it staying too wet. We are keeping both the vandas outside the porch now because they get the best light there. Even if it rains on them a lot I'm not very concerned about the roots staying too wet and rotting because there's so little medium. If it rains for many days in a row we can always bring them on the porch.

Apparently we never took a picture of it either! The flowers are pink, and the leaves are supposed to get dark purple sun freckles. It is getting more of them now that it is in more sun again.

We're Slowing Down

It seems like the plants are overall slowing down for the winter. They seem to be finishing developing their existing new growths, and only a few appear to be planning any more new growths. Last winter some kept growing over the winter, but most didn't. I was a little disappointed with the amount of growth we had this year, but I decided to blame that on the double move. They didn't get the light or water or fertilizer they needed consistently because of the moving. Oh well, there's always next year.

I'm a little sad because I don't know if cattleya cernua will flower this year. Last year it flowered in September, and there are no signs of flowering- only growing. Maybe the new growths it's making now will make flowers, and it is just behind this year. I'm crossing my fingers.

It's a little sad to see them go into winter mode when I wish they had grown more this growing season. We still don't know what we will do with them over the winter. We have them on a screen porch right now that will be okay for another month or two, but not longer than that. There's very little room for them inside the house, except for a few lower light ones. There's a greenhouse place that grows and sells orchids in this area that also rents bench space in their greenhouse. We are considering doing that because it's not too expensive. We are really worried about cooties though. Greenhouses always seem to have bugs and fungus etc. that none of very few of our plants have had a problem with in the past. I don't want to get into having to treat them regularly if I don't have to.

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.

Maybe the Catasetum isn't dying after all

After all my concern, I think it is just doing what it's supposed to do. I was so worried because the leaves were turning yellow then brown and falling off. I wondered if it was the nature deciduousness of the leaves preparing for the dormant season, but it seemed too early in the year. I still don't know if it's too early in the year, but I think the leaves were falling off naturally. Now there are two buds for flowering spikes!!! So of course I have started Bloom boosting it with Dyna Gro- Bloom when I water. I wonder still if the plant is just going according to its natural schedule, or if all the moving and strange water and light regimes haven't disturbed its normal schedule. Maybe my problem is that I can't believe it's nearing the end of August and therefore is almost fall! I am super excited to see what the flowers on this thing are going to look like. I'm assuming they're going to be yellow, based on the name of it.

 

 

Steven and I talked about how we were going to deal with it over the winter and next year. It will need to go in a bigger pot because next years new growth will be over the edge of the current pot. I think we will take it out of its current plastic pot when we first stop watering it to let it dry out. Then we will just rest it in a 4-6" clay pot loosely and dampen the moss/potting medium occasionally so the roots don't dry out too much. I did a bunch of research online, and several sources said it's important not to let the roots dry out too much otherwise they will die and you'll have a weaker plant next year. We will reduce watering a little- to probably just once a week, until it's done flowering and even more until all the leaves are off. Once all the leaves fall off, or mid-November arrives it won't get any more water- whichever comes first.  

Exciting Happenings

Red Epi is flowering. It tried to make one flowering spike and something bit it off. It made a second one and most of it fell off in the second move to North Carolina. Only two flowers were left on. It's making kiki's more something also from the stems.

The Gus Orchid is going to flower if nothing goes wrong. It's made lots of sheaths and I'm bloom boosting is ALOT to try and get it to make lots of flowers. I've been watering it with bloom fertilizer and misting the leaves with bloom fertilizer every day. It seems to be working.

Cattleya cernua is growing a bunch of new growths again after resting for a couple of months. Maybe all of them will make flowers this fall!!

Dendrobium spectabile is making four news growths despite its somewhat unfortunate repotting experience a month or so ago.

Steve Stevenson might be making a flowering sheath! not sure yet though

Yellow and maroon cattleya popped out a flower just yesterday. We weren't expecting a flower this year because it had such a sad looking winter, but I think it is back on it's feet and growing well again.

Bulbophyllum makoyanum is busting out with flowers all over the place. It has 7 spikes right now, but only one is open at the moment.

Oncidium Gold Medal is making a flowering spike. It normally blooms in November so it seems kind of early, but I'm just excited it's going to flower! It's about six inches longer than in this picture by now.

Phalaenopsis amabalis is also making a flowering spike. The grower said they could be in flower nearly continuously, but this is impressive. It only finished a few months ago.

Charlie Brown's new growths are looking really good which is great after it experienced such a downslide this winter.

Migrated again....

The orchids migrated again after about a month in Chicago. Now we are in North Carolina on a screened in back porch. They don't get as much light, but we are doing our best. I'm hoping it will be enough. They certainly like the humidity. We are also no longer fearful of sunburn or overheating which is kind of nice. Not sure what we'll do in the winter- TBD.

FLOWERS!!! on Phrag bessae

A bunch of stuff is flowering. The most exciting of which is our Phrag bessae hybrid!!!! We have been waiting for this what seems like FOREVER. It is really lovely. We have finally succeeded in figuring out what it wants! It's also making two really nice new growths for next year.

The first flower even survived the drive from Chicago to North Carolina. It's made a second one, and it might make a third. We still have no idea what it's hybridized with- maybe caudatum? since it has the longer sepals that are slightly curled.

Psychopsis mendenhall part 2

Our psychopsis is doing well. It's planted in a 4" square plastic pot that is rather deep with a coconut chips medium. It stays wet for a long time. When we asked the vendor we bought it from about our growing conditions she said we may need to repot it so it would dry out fast enough. We are really reluctant to repot it because we killed the last psychopsis we had after repotting it. Instead we cut two long slits in all four sides of the pot to increase air flow and help it dry out faster. It seems to be working so far. It had two new growths when we bought it, and they are still with us. One is completely mature. I'm not even sure which one it was. The other is forming the pseudobulb right now and still doing well. I'm still very careful when I water not to get any water down in the cracks. The sheaths that cover the pseudobulbs on the new growths always seem to turn yellow and start rotting. We keep a vigilant eye out and pull them off when this starts to happen just incase it might spread. I don't know if this is really necessary or even a good idea, but it seems reasonable. We'll see how it goes. The grower told us to grow it exactly like any other oncidium. That is what we had tried to do before, but we had it growing in the wrong medium then. Hopefully this medium and setup will be alright until it outgrows the pot. Now that we've cut slits in the side some of the roots are visible and they look really good. I'm trying to keep them that way

Dendrochilum wenzellii- red

From Redland Orchid Festival 2013. Steven had been wishing for one of these after seeing a huge one at a show over the winter. We looked all over for an affordable red one at the show. The vendor told us to grow it like a cattleya. That's what we have been trying to do, but it is having issues with the leaf tips. They turned brown and yellow. I'm not sure if that's from too much sun or not enough water. I tried looking it up today and it might be both. It is growing in a little tiny 1" plastic basket with sphagnum moss. We are going to leave it alone in that until it starts making too many roots or growing over it. It hasn't grown at all since we've had it. I'm a little worried about it, but don't know what else to do. I will try and pay better attention to it drying out. Because it's so small it dries out faster than our other plants that I only water weekly. It may have also gotten too much sun while it lived in the greenhouse. I don't think it will be getting too much sun anymore here in North Carolina because we have less sun available on the porch here.

Paphiopetalum bellatulum "Dai" x "Nobu"

From Redland Orchid Festival 2013. We had seen a Paph bellatulum at a show over the winter, and put it on our list of things to look for because the flowers were just so fun looking. They are big and white and prostrate. We looked all over the Festival for one and finally found a vendor selling them. It's not exactly the same hybrid we had seen at the show, but it is still really cool looking. I can't remember what it came in when we bought it. We repotted it in a little 3-4" clay orchid pot in sphagnum moss. One of the lower leaves was kind of yellow when we bought it. It's still yellow, but doesn't  seem to be spreading at all. The plant has also since made two nice new leaves. We water it when the moss is mostly but not completely dried out and fertilize weekly with Dyna Gro- Grow. It seems healthy and happy. We are excited about it because it's our first Paph.

Rhyncholaelia digbyana

Also from Redland Orchid Festival 2013. This is one of the white cattleya looking plants with a fringed lip. We got this bare root. It was the only plant at that vendor that seemed like it might have any live roots. We got it because I have been wanting one since they are so interesting looking. We potted it in a 4" clay orchid pot with standard bark mix. We had to use one of those metal clips to hold it in place so it wouldn't wobble and kill any new roots. After we bought it, we looked it up and found out it can sulk about repotting. We were nervous because of that, that it wouldn't root and start making new growths, especially since it was bare roots. But it is !!! It seems like the roots that looked alive when we bought it have lived, and it is starting to make a new growth! We are growing it just like our cattleyas with a good amount of light and letting it dry out completely between waterings. We mist the top sometimes to keep up humidity near the new roots and growths.

Phragmipedium longifolium

Also from the Redland Orchid Festival 2013, this was in bud when we bought it. We got it because we are into Phrags and wanted to get more. Plus it was a good deal with Bulbo micranthum. It came in a 4" plastic pot with rocks and dirt. We haven't repotted it since we got it. There's one mature growth that's flowering and one new growth happening. It doesn't really seem to need repotting except that the cat has tipped it over a couple of times and made a bunch of the dirt fall out. The guy told us it wants lots of water, but it doesn't want to sit in water. We have been watering it a bit everyday from the watering can. It runs through, but not it's not as much water as when I water everything once a week. So far it has been doing well. We are really pleased. It has made 3 flowers so far with another bud developing. I think this next one will be the last though. I think it's getting tired. We have nutricote on it for fertilizer, and I have been supplementing with liquid fertilizer occasionally, but with fewer scoops than I would normally use for a similar sized plant/pot (just a couple).

Bulbophyllum micranthum

We also got this plant at the Redland Orchid Festival 2013 from the same vendor as Phrag longifolium. We had seen one at a show and liked it because it has a yellow flower, so we put it on our list of things we would like to have. We saw it there and got it because it was a really good deal in combo with longifolium. It had a few really old shriveled growths at the back and a nice new growth started. It was potted in a little 4" plastic pot that it had completely grown over the side by multiple pseudobulbs. We didn't have any flat/shallow wooden baskets because we forgot to buy one at the supply place at the show, so we put it in a round take out container in sphagnum moss. We drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom for drainage, and it's only about an inch or so deep so it dries out fairly quickly. I cut off the old shriveled backbulbs when I repotted. A couple of the leaves had some yellow and spots on them when we bought it, but we thought that was because of a broken leaf. Also, so many plants have leaf issues and discoloring that we'd never be able to buy anything if it had to be perfect. A couple of the leaves turned yellow and popped off the pseudobulb which was a little worrisome, but it seems to have stopped. The new growth is doing well, and looks to have some sun spots. At first I got worried about the new growth because where the rhizome forms it got kind of slimy and gross. This had happened on our other Bulbophyllum baileyii. I just cleared more of the moss away, and it improved. Seems to be doing alright now. Once it gets more roots established we will see how it does. I fertilize it when I water with Grow.

When we went to look up the plant after we bought it, turns out there's a macranthum and micranthum, and people are often not so good with the labeling. So we will see what it turns out as!! Oh well, we like bulbophyllums anyways because they are interesting and easy.

Phragmipedium kovachii x schlimii

This is possibly the most exciting purchase ever!!! Steven has been hankering after a kovachii ever since it was discovered. We never thought we would be able to afford one though. (Granted we didn't get the species). We got it from Peruflora at the Redland Orchid Festival 2013. The guy had a couple of different hybrids and a species for sale. We talked to him for a little bit about the price and how to care for them. He ended up giving it to us for only $25!!!! We thought about getting the species, but decided we should practice on a hybrid first just in case. He told us they want to be wet, but maybe not quite as wet as our Phrag bessae hybrid. It is a substantially sized plant with several new growths. We planted it in a standard bark mix that we added some coconut chips to for moisture retention. It's planted in a 6" clay orchid pot. I think it would be happy if we watered it every day, but that is awfully high maintenance so we put a small tray of water for it to sit in and water it every couple of days. We put 10-10-10 Nutricote on it like we did with our Phrag bessae. We read online that it likes more basic soils, so we are thinking of getting some crushed shells for it, but haven't done anything yet. It had some slight yellowing issues at first that was a little concerning, but it seems to have quit doing that. I think it was probably just repotting stress. Plus, when we bought it it was wrapped in a bit of sphagnum in a plastic baggie for who knows how long. It seems to be growing ok. Some of its new growths have elongated nicely and are doing well, it also has some little tiny new growths that don't seem to be growing. This happened before with our Phrag bessae. It started to grow then they got stunted for one reason or another and never kept going. Eventually the stunted growth on Phrag bessae rotted and we cut it off, but that took over a year. I wonder if the little growths on kovachii will stay stunted... I don't have much to say about how to grow this yet, because we only just got it!

Mini Cattleyas: Cattleya lueddemanniana v. coerulea and Cattleya petite doll

These came from the Redland Orchid Festival in May 2013. We got them because we like miniatures, the pictures of their flowers were really cute, and they were a good price. They were basically bare root tucked into little plastic pots and taped into the pots so they didn't fall out. When we got them home we had to make a huge assessment about what plants we would put in what available pots because we had bought so many at the show. We decided to put these into little 4" wooden orchid baskets that we had sitting at home unused. It's hard to find something small enough for that size basket. But these miniatures will be just the thing we hope. We tucked them in with our standard bark mix. We didn't use Styrofoam for these because the baskets are so small they should dry out fast enough. One of them is doing better than the other.

Cattleya lueddmanniana got tipped over in our initial move to Chicago, and has been a bit slow to recover. It hasn't put on any new growths or roots. The existing plant doesn't seem to be declining, but it's not thriving either. Hopefully it will start putting on new growth and get going.

Cattleya petite doll on the other hand seems to be doing really well. It didn't have any moving mishaps, so it has been putting on new growths.

 

We are growing them in good light like all the cattleyas, letting them dry out completely between waterings, and fertilizing every time we water while they are in active growth with Dyna Gro- Grow.

 

I have no idea how big these need to be in order to flower. I'm assuming it will be similar to our Cattleya cernua when it's big enough to flower. If they continue to do well, especially petite doll maybe they will flower next year. Another nice thing about miniatures is that you can have lots of plants, and they still don't take up that much space! We have been really excited about trying to grow huge specimen sized miniatures (well all the plants really) but especially the miniatures. We've seen some at shows and they just look so cool huge (well, huge for a miniature).

The Redland Orchid Festival 2013

Being obsessed people, it was clearly critical that we go to the Redland Orchid Festival and buy a bunch of new orchids even though we were moving to Chicago in a week. We decided to go because we hadn't taken proper advantage of the show last year being newer to orchid growing and overwhelmed by the quantity of orchids there. Also, they have a lot of really good deals, and we thought we may not have an opportunity to buy at good prices any time soon. So we went. We went Sunday kind of as a strategy because Fred told us sometimes the vendors that come from overseas are trying to get rid of their stuff for really cheap because they don't want to take it back home with them. We went with a list of things we had been hankering for; things we had seen at other shows that looked really cool etc. We told ourselves we were only getting things from the list, and we did mostly stick to that. I'm including separate posts for all the things we bought there, not to worry! Now that we don't live in Florida anymore, we are still thinking about going to it every year.

Brassia rex x Brassia longisima: the sickies

We got this plant bare root, for what we thought was a good deal, from the local guy who grows tons of orchids and has a sale at his home greenhouses every year. We were really excited about it because a Brassia rex had been on our list of things we would like to have. It was three divisions with some good new growths. We potted them all into the same large clay azalea pot with a lot of Styrofoam in the bottom and our standard bark mix. We watered once per week, and sprayed the top when it started to look dry to encourage any new roots. There had been some spots on the some of the leaves when we got it, but the leaves fairly rapidly turned yellow and fell off. Basically it had a fungus or something and most of the plant died. The pseudobulbs started to rot and get all mushy. This all happened over the course of about a month. We only have a little bit of the plant left. The same thing happened to a friend who had also bought one of these at the same sale. We repotted it into a large rehab chamber- a 6" plastic pot with lots of holes in it filled with Styrofoam peanuts in the bottom and sphagnum moss. There's only two pseudobulbs left of the original 8 or so, and 2 growths to go with them. So far it seems as if these sections might make it, but time will tell. We haven't ever treated for fungus or bacterial infections before, so we didn't know what types of products to use or where to get the right things for orchids. We had never had this kind of disease problem before and were kind of mad that we had been sold bum plants. Oh well, hopefully these pieces that are left will make it because we were really excited about having that plant.

Phalaenopsis gigantea

We got this plant a little bit as a consolation prize, but have since grown to love it. We had really wanted one of those huge Bulbophyllums like Bulbo phalenopsis that make leaves 6ft long. However, they were more than a little out of our price range at $150! Even seedlings are like $50! There was a local man in our area in Florida that specializes in Bulbophyllums, but also grows just about everything. He has a sale at his home once per year. We attended that and saw a larger version of the Phal gigantea and thought it would make a nice giant bulbophyllum substitute. It was also more within our price range at $35. It also has pretty flowers that don't smell like dead rotting things.  It had three nice leaves when we bought it, and it's planted sideways in a shallow 2-3" orchid basket that is 8". It is growing in moss over Styrofoam peanuts for air circulation. We added a little more moss to the top part because that's where most of the roots were and they were looking a little exposed. After their life in a greenhouse, we were worried they would find their new life a bit drier. We keep it moist just like our other Phals, watering when the medium is mostly but not completely dry. We have been fertilizing it along with all the others every time we water. It has made a nice big new leaf for us. It seems to be quite happy. We are also really happy with our purchase.

Miltassia Shelob "Tolkein"

We also got this at the Highlands County Orchid Show in March 2013. We bought it bare root because it seemed cool looking in the pictures they had of it, and it was inexpensive. We looked it up and found out that it should be grown pretty much exactly like an Oncidium. It wants medium light levels between a cattleya and a Phal and to dry out completely between waterings. We potted it in a 6" clay pot with the standard orchid bark mix. We put a little bit of moss at the bases of the new growths to keep any new roots moist until they got further down into the medium. It had two mostly mature new growths when we bought it that hadn't made any roots yet. It started making roots fairly quickly so that was really encouraging. We are always holding our breath whenever we change and repot things to see how they will do. Until it starts showing signs of good success we are nervous. Then a couple of months later, to our amazement, it started putting out two flowering spikes!! We were not expecting that at all, especially since it had just been potted. Once it started making spikes I of course started Bloom boosting it! The spikes survived the moves for the most part. I think we may not have watered it enough when the spikes were growing and forming buds because a few of the buds turned yellow and fell off. Three flowers did form and open though, and they are really cool looking.

Zygopetalum "Jumping Jack"

We got this plant bare root from the Highlands County Orchid Show in March 2013. We picked it out because there was a large specimen sample and it smelled lovely, it had neat different colors and it was spotted. We didn't know much about this type, so we had to look it up online. We learned it wants Oncidium light levels (between a cattleya and a Phal) and it wants to be evenly moist. We at first decided to pot it in a 4" clay pot with our usual bark mix. It became clear pretty quickly though that the bark mix just would not stay wet enough. We switched it into moss in the same clay pot. It seemed to perk up after that. It was in bud when we got it, so it flowered right away. The flower actually lasted surprisingly well considering the repotting trauma. We water it when it gets most of the way dry, often about once per week, but sometimes up to two weeks. We fertilize it every time we water with the Dyna Gro- Grow. It has only just recently started to put on any new growth at all in June. We have been anxiously awaiting it to do this because that's how you know the repotting is going to take and be alright.

The One and Only Catasetum: Cycnodes Golden Shower "King" x Mormodes revoluta "Yellow"

We got this plant from the nursery we popped into on a trip to St. Pete FL along with the Maxillaria tenuifolia because it was so interesting looking. I had never noticed an orchid like this before, and had no idea how to take care of it. We did some research and found out that it is an orchid that needs resting. Tons of water and fertilizer during the growing season and basically completely dry during the winter. The plant makes a lot of sugary sap droplets all over the leaves for some reason. When we got it this years growth was about 6-8" tall and the roots for it were sort of gnarled looking not going the inch down into the medium. The plant has never really looked good. We don't really know what it's problem is. The leaves look a little water stressed, and recently a couple of them started turning yellow. We are also always paranoid that it has bugs or something. I'm not sure if it's problem is that most of the roots for the currently growing part never made it down into the medium so it is struggling. It's in a 4" plastic pot that we purchased it in still potted in sphagnum because it seemed to be fitting in there just fine. The roots from the older growths all look great. We don't really know what to do with it, so we just keep watering it and hoping it will get over whatever it's problem is, or at least make it to the resting season. The leaves are supposed to all fall off during the dormant season anyways. The plant is also kind of top heavy and it sort of wiggles around a bit, so maybe the roots tips got damaged before they could get into the moss. We maybe should have put a wad of moss around the base of it where the new roots were hanging out like we do for the other orchids. Maybe we were just idiots on this one! :) Well maybe if the current live growth dies, the old ones might still be able to make a new one next year.  This was really kind of disappointing because we were excited about the resting orchids, because they require basically no work for a few months out of the year. We thought maybe catasetums would be our new thing. Maybe not.

Maxillaria tenuifolia or Coconut Orchid

We got this and the Catasetum I will write about next at an Orchid nursery we just decided to pop into during a trip to St. Petersburg, FL. The place mostly had stuff we weren't really looking for, but we hadn't really seen anything like this before. They divided a large maxillaria for us and we got half of it bare root. It was growing in moss in a plastic pot at the place, but we planted it into a clay pot in moss. We have mostly been growing it with our Phals and Oncidiums wherever it fits on the table. I think it might like a tiny bit more light though because once it started getting more light recently all the new growths that had been sort of suspended and waiting started to go. I'm not sure about that- it's just a theory. There are lots of new growths elongating now. This plant has a very interesting growth habit. We water it when it gets mostly but not completely dried out as tested by sticking my finger down into the moss. We often water it once per week, but sometimes it goes longer up to two weeks. We saw some of these blooming at the Redland Orchid Festival this May, but ours hasn't bloomed yet.

Pleione formosana and their unfortunate demise

We also got these at the Venice Orchid Show in February 2013, but they didn't survive. We got three "nuggets" as I was calling them. We had read about them in an old issue of the AOS magazine, and thought they were really cool and lovely. We were so excited to find them. We planted them in a 1" deep maybe 5" round saucer like pot with holes in the bottom. We filled it with sphagnum and tucked the nuggets about half way into the moss. We kept the moss evenly moist. The nuggets started growing right away. Two of them made growths out the side that turned into flowering spikes, and one of them made leaves out the top center of the nugget and didn't flower. The flowers were beautiful and lasted a week or two. The nuggets then started making leaves out the sides like they were making a new pseudobulb, and the other one made leaves and roots from the top of the nugget. The leaves seemed to be doing well at first, but then they started to look a little shrively. We read about them some more that they grow on rocks with humus like leaf litter in cool temperate forests. We tried to take the nuggets out and mix perlite in with the moss to give more drainage. We didn't realize there were so many roots in the medium, so that really disturbed them and they did not like that at all. That, I think, pretty much spelled their doom. The nuggets were kind of rotting and it just got worse and worse until the leaves were totally shriveled and the nuggets were totally rotten. We had to throw it all away by the end of May when we moved to Chicago. We still aren't really sure what exactly went wrong. We think it just needed more drainage. We think if we ever plant them again we will do a similar pot with some stones and try to get some leaf litter humus from the woods to put around the rocks.

Leptotes bicolor

So we are kind of into miniatures. It's sort of like baby shoes being the cutest thing on earth because they are so tiny even if you aren't that into babies. Leptotes is a miniature that we got at the Venice Orchid Show in February 2013. It wasn't in flower then, and hasn't flowered since. It was and still is planted in a 1" clay pot in sphagnum because it's so small it still dries out quickly. The plant has put on a lot of new growths, although you can hardly tell because the whole thing is so small! I often water it by spraying it because it's so tiny it's hard for water to soak in quickly. If it dries out too much I sometimes have to soak it to get it to absorb water again. I think we will have to repot it soon, because it is starting to grow over the edge on one side of it's pot. The guy who sold it to us said to grow it just like a cattleya, so that's what we have been doing. It gets good light and dries out between waterings.

Cattleya aurantiaca

We bought this lovely species orchid at the Venice Orchid Show in February 2013. We got it because it was a species and because we didn't have anything orange. It was flowering when we got it, and another spike opened up on another growth shortly thereafter as well. It came to us in a 4" square plastic pot. It's not growing out of the pot at all, so we haven't repotted it. It has made a lot of nice new roots, and is presently making 2 nice new growths. It's potted in standard bark mix, and it gets watered when it dries out all the way. Normally that is once a week. When it's really hot and it has been a couple of days since I last watered, I often spray the top a bit to keep the new roots happy. Normally the misting dries up within a few hours. We do this to most of the plants when it's hot and they aren't ready to be watered yet. We use spray with Grow or Bloom booster depending on what the plant is up to. It gets a good amount of light, but not quite as much as the single leaved cattleyas. THe double leaved types seem to prefer slightly less sun. It probably gets a couple of hours of direct sun and at least a couple hours of indirect light. When we got it the oldest two pseudobulbs had a little bit of brown spotting on them and the leaves were slightly yellowish. It seemed to stay the same for a long time, so we left them alone. A few weeks ago though the leaves started to get more yellow, so we cut off those two pseudobulbs at their base. Probably we will be looking at repotting the aurantiaca next year due to size and also because the plastic pot tips over all the time and is annoying. It appears that there may be a flower sheath in one of the new growths! Hopefully we can re-bloom it. That is always the challenge!

Phalaenopsis amabalis

We bought this species orchid from the Venice Orchid Show in February 2013. We got it because we think species orchids are interesting, the seller said it was a really prolific flowerer, it makes kikis which is just cool, and we only had one Phal. It was in flower when we bought it, and they lasted a really long time. It was potted in moss in a 4" clear plastic pot. We left it alone until it finished flowering. I sprayed the roots that were hanging all out of the pot everyday so they didn't shrivel up and die. The leaves and roots just seemed to be looking slightly starved for water. Once we repotted it into a 6" clay pot with moss, tucking all the roots into the pot, it really started to plump back up and look good. It is making two new leaves and looks really good. When we got it the bottom two leaves were in the process of turning yellow and falling off, which is still underway, but is otherwise really healthy looking. We water it when the moss is almost all the way dried out, and fertilize every time we water with either Dyna Gro- Grow or Dyna Gro-Bloom when it's in spike or flower. So far this plant has been like other Phals- pretty easy. We haven't had it very long so it hasn't tried to flower again. I like that it's lovely in a simple way. We don't actually keep it in the bathroom, but on the porch with the other babies. It was in there during the winter when it had to come inside for a few days. It now lives in the mini greenhouse with the others.

Brassavola nodosa

We got this orchid from the Sarasota Orchid Show. We had been on the look out for one of these because we thought it was really cool that they are moth pollinated and smell good at night. We only had a couple of orchids with any scent at all. It was in flower when we got it, and has been more or less continuously in bloom since then. It's going to be in strong contention with the little red and yellow mini catt pretty soon for most ridiculously prolific flowering. It was in a tiny little 2inch pot when we bought it with half the plant hanging over the edge of the pot. We repotted it into a 6" wooden basket after it finished flowering the first time. We had to sort of lay it on it's side to get the roots in the basket because it had been climbing vertically. We potted it into the standard bark mix with a bit of moss on top to keep new roots more moist. It has been doing really well. It made a few new growths (I think it is focusing too much on flowering rather than on growing). I mist it when it's hot and dry just to dampen the top layer a bit. We have been growing it with our large single leaved cattleyas, and it seems to like that just fine. It doesn't seem as susceptible to too much sun as much as some of the others, probably because the leaves are so narrow and thick skinned.

Possible oops on the Dendrobium spectabile repotting

We repotted this spectabile back into the same pot because we were worried that it was staying too wet because the mix was old or had too much moss in it. We had two little new growths just starting, and because the plant is so big we managed to bust off both of them. That was really upsetting. We also cut off the oldest few back bulbs and potted them separately to see if they grow. Now the leaves on all the oldest pseudobulbs are turning yellow and falling off. I am hoping this is just repotting stress, but I am freaking out a little that we f-ed it up. I really hope it doesn't keep spreading. We had to manhandle it quite a bit to get all the nasty old moss out of the root ball. I think it might have been happier if we had just left it alone.

Dendrobium spectabile

This orchid might have the most interesting method of acquisition since we got it for only $18 at the company Christmas party silent auction! I knew we got a good deal, but I didn't realize how good a deal until I saw one's smaller than ours in bud for sale at an orchid show for $100! We didn't get ours to flower this year, although it has made several nice new growths and is presently making more. It came in an 8" clay pot with bark and moss mixed up together. We asked the people at the show that were selling these for so much money about getting it to flower. They told us it wants higher light like a vanda. We put it in higher light hoping it would still flower this winter, but no luck. We are worried about the moss mixed in with the bark, because we usually don't like to do that since it seems to make the bark rot faster and just make everything stay wet for too long. We are going to undertake repotting it probably back into the same pot tomorrow. We have been trying to let it dry out between waterings, but that has been a challenge with the current potting situation- thus the repotting.

Bulbophylum baileyi X echinolabium

We got "the big bulbophyllum" (because it has bigger leaves than makoyanum) from the Tropiflora Fall Festival. It was bare root, and we felt like we should buy an orchid but nothing else was really calling to us. We first potted it in moss into a 6" basket, but as soon as it started making new growths it grew them right through the slats out of the basket. We decided to do an experiment and bought one of the slat basket things that is flat for mounting with just a tiny lip. We put a layer of coconut husk basket liner on the bottom then a layer of sphagnum about a half inch thick. We placed the plant on it then used dental floss that we don't like that you get for free from the dentist to tie it down to the basket. We tied it on over the rhizome between pseudobulbs. It seems to have worked fairly well. If I had to do it again I think I would make my own slightly taller basket about 1" deep instead. This dries out pretty quickly and the roots are out of the medium and they probably don't prefer that as much. It got sunburned pretty bad in the first couple days in the greenhouse before we turned it into a gypsy tent. We had to cut 2 leaves off. It still has plenty more, so I think it will be ok.


ps. other fun things we got at the Tropiflora Fall Festival: 2 Desert Roses (Edeniums), and a Tillandsia "fuego". Also, they have the most awesomely fat Edenium ever there.

BLC ......Hawaii

We don't know exactly what this is called except that it has Hawaii in the name. It came to us really small and bare root (no roots). We put it in a 4" basket, but we weren't able to get it stabilized and it kept tipping over inside the basket. Then any roots it did manage to make kept getting injured and dying. After a short while we put it in rehab instead. It was in a really small pot 2" with a lot of holes in it and sphagnum only. After it grew a few decent roots over a few months we potted it into a larger 4" plastic pot that we cut extra holes in for ventilation. It's potted in regular bark mix with styrofoam at the bottom like always. It seems to be doing well in it's new situation. We grow it like all the other cattleyas. It might get a little less light than the others since it's a little less of a priority because it won't be flowering any time soon.

A Slew of Seedlings

We got a bunch of little seedlings from a friend at Steven's work in the fall and winter 2012. There was a Dendrobium discolor, Cirrhopetalum sheryl kurizaki (cirr. Fascinator X bulb. Lasiochilum), Grammatophyllum scriptum 'kilani', an unknown Oncidium, a total mystery that looks sort of like a cross between a Bulbophyllum and an Encyclia, Paphiopetalum saint swithin, Potinara elaine taylor 'Krull smith', Potinara pastushin's gold 'paydirt', and Potinara waianae appeal 'aloha'. They are all in little 2 inch pots with seedling mix. We haven't repotted or really done anything with them besides water. They are sort of inconvenient because they are small and dry out faster and tip over all the time so they are possibly slightly neglected. They normally only get watered once a week even if they need it sooner. All the seedlings seem to be doing ok and putting on new growths. This whole growing from a seedling thing is nice because it is cheap but waiting for years feels like a really long time.