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.

Ionopsis utricularioides

We got a little Ionopsis at the Redland Orchid Festival in May 2012 that was just out of the flask. We thought it was cool because it was a FL native. We tied tucked it into a teeny tiny pot with a few chips of bark in it, and hung it up with our vandas. It bloomed as soon as we got it. It was really beautiful and surprising because we didn't know it would flower so small. We had to spray it every day with the other vandas. It never really seemed to make much in the way of roots at all. It lived for almost a year at our house. It started making new growths, but they never really seemed to mature. It started making some new roots finally, but I forgot to water it for a couple of days and I think that just put it over the edge and it died. We had tried looking it up a few times to see what it wants, but were never really able to figure it out. Maybe we will try again some day.

Greenhouse converts to a Gypsy Tent!

As we suspected the greenhouse gets too much light for the orchids, so we needed to provide some shade. Apparently you can't just buy things like shade cloth when you aren't in Florida, except online. So we had to improvise. Thus ensued the trips to multiple thrift stores in search of sheer curtains. Really we should have just gone to the last one, but we didn't know that until we got there.  Now the greenhouse looks like a gypsy tent! But only on the inside, which I'm sure the neighbors are grateful for. We had to add 2 layers of curtain on the roof, and so far only one layer on the side. We are still keeping an eye on everything though to see how it goes. Several things got sunburn really bad before we got the additional layers of curtains: Cattleya cernua, Bulbophyllum baileyi, and a few others got just a little.

So We Bought a Greenhouse!!!

We wanted to make sure we could control the watering regime, so we needed a roof. We wanted to make sure there was enough ventilation, so we didn't want just a plastic greenhouse, we wanted screens. After much looking online at Home Depot and Amazon and pondering making one ourselves, we found the Spring Gardener Greenhouse on Amazon for $220.

It was easy to set up and we had a good time of it.

And the babies heaved a sigh of relief because this was way better.

Orchids on Migration

We have moved to Chicago with all the babies in tow! We filled up Steven's car with them only. I know that's kind of ridiculous. In our defense though he has a really tiny car... They did not really enjoy their travel experience all that much. It was too hot and sunny in the car for them. We tried rigging up towels and stuff to block the sun, but with only minimal success. Dendrobium spectabile got a really bad sunburn. When we arrived in Chicago at my mom's house we temporarily put them on the back porch, but it was a little crowded there...

We also didn't like being there, so we weren't as diligent about watering etc., and they definitely weren't getting proper light.

We are worried that the changes will disturb the flowering on a few of the babies, but I guess that can't be helped. The temperature and humidity is different. The light is different. Plus the shock of the transport and temporary housing situation. We have them still set up on the tables we had before, but it seems like the hose is the most efficient watering regime. However, the hose water is freezing cold, and we suspect they might not care for that so much. But heating up water to make it warmer is just way too much work. My mom wants to get rain barrels anyways, so maybe that will be a better solution for temperature as well as for having non-chlorinated water. So far everyone seems to be mostly ok.