New Addition, Greenhouse, and Repotting

New Additions
We have a couple of new additions. One is called Potnaria Frank Gilmore "Mendenhall" x BLC. George King "Serendipity". I think it is orangey peachy colored looking it up online, which is exciting because I've been hankering after a cattleya of that color. We got it from the potting party for the orchid club. The Club has a bench at the Orchid Trail with donated plants. They use the donated plants for raffle prizes, and many were in serious need of repotting. We made 7 divisions of that cattleya and were allowed to take one home!! It is planted in a 5" clay orchid pot with standard bark mix. We used dry bark for potting this time instead of wet bark. We decided to try that as an experiment to see if they root better. We didn't water for an entire week. We normally would wait 2 weeks, but it is just so hot in the greenhouse that we didn't want to risk it. It is already starting to make new roots from the new growths which is great!!

The other new addition is Dendrobium "Banana Royal". Someone at the Orchid Trail was repotting their's and gave us the old back bulbs. We potted it in a little 2-4" pot with bark mix. We will see if anything happens. It has yellow flowers. I really like some of our Dendrobiums, but I'm not feeling fully committed to them being awesome in general like I do for some of the genera. Like Bulbophyllums: They all look cool and interesting.

Greenhouse

We have two box fans going in the greenhouse right now, which seems to be helping keep the temperature down and the plants from looking sad. I think the tons of air movement is making them be okay with the high temps. It has gotten up to 106 degrees in there even with one fan on. In order to try and reduce the temperature we also got some gravel on craigslist for the floor. We pulled up most of the cardboard we had on the floor, except for one layer, and covered that with gravel. My theory is that the rocks are naturally cooler than cardboard and will help wick the cool from the dirt underneath  up into the greenhouse. We can also water the rocks when it's going to be hot for evaporative cooling. It seems like it might be working so far, but it's hard to tell. 

Repotting

I repotted the Love Orchid. It still has a couple of flowers on it, but they are coming to a close. I was reporting Phals from work and had been planning to do the Love Orchid too. I just wanted to see what was going on inside it's pot. It hadn't been repotted for at least a year and I wanted to make sure the moss was still ok in there. I think the moss was actually still ok for a while longer yet. Since I had already pulled it out, Steven thought I might as well just go ahead and give it new moss. He said the moss smelled fungusy. So it's potted back in to it's same pot with new moss. It hasn't dropped it's flowers yet either. 

We repotted the Phragmipedium bessae hybrid a couple weekends ago. We wanted to put it in a clay pot, so it's root zone would be cooler. We got this idea from a talk we heard at the orchid club meeting. So we redid it in new bark in a 6" clay pot. We put moss on top  to make sure any new roots had something to grow into. The leaf tips are still browning which I still don't understand. Maybe it's a water quality problem? Maybe we need to test our water. We water the Phrags every day to make sure they are staying wet enough. Phrag bessae also still sits in a water dish. It hasn't shown much in the way of distress from being repotted. I hope it stays that way. 

BLC. Irene Finney got repotted too. It was in a tiny plastic pot with lava rock that was falling over all the time. It now has a 6" clay orchid pot with standard bark mix. It seems to be doing just fine, making new roots etc. I don't think it's big enough to flower yet. It's a slow grower with the big leaves. Some of our cattleyas just seem to be really slow moving.

I also need to repot the Octoporchid and haven't had a chance yet. It is still flowering, but starting to make a new growth, and that new growth will not fit in it's old basket. Plus the moss is old and probably really nasty.

More Flowers Have Opened

Miltassia
Miltassia Shelob "Tolkein"has also opened up its flowers perfectly. None of the buds blasted like they did last year. The flowers are also lasting really well. They are all even right side up except for one of them. They have already been on for a couple of weeks. I find it interesting how it seems to grow in the winter time. A lot of the plants grow in the summer, but this one seems to mostly grow in the winter. We'll see what it does this year.

Fred Orchids
Both of the Fred Orchids are going to flower. Gower Ramsey has a giant 4ft tall spike. It doesn't have a crazy amount of flowers, just a giant spike. I need to look up what causes huge long spikes like that.    I wonder if it is a fertilizer or a light thing... Gold Medal is also starting to make a spike. Gold Medal is not very big, so I am impressed with it's ability to make a flower spike so small. I call it my "indicator plant" because the pseudobulbs very obviously start to shrivel when it wants water then plump back up again when it's happy. It seems to be the only plant that really does that. Most of them don't plump back up.

Encyclia Cindy 

Encyclia Cindy is flowering too! It made a really nice spike this year with quite a few flowers. It made a giant fat pseudobulb at the greenhouse over the winter. It is working on making another growth, but it is sort of on hiatus while it's been flowering. The flowers are starting to drop off, so the growth will probably start growing again soon! These flowers don't last terribly long. Just a couple of weeks rather than months like some of them.

Oncidium Sharry Baby

Oncidium Sharry Baby is also flowering. It made two spikes, but only really had one at a time. The first one's flowers seemed to fall off quickly. I think that's because it was really hot in the greenhouse during that time. The second spike seems to be lasting a while. This plant would like repotting too. The newest growths are not going to fit in the pot. 

Mystery Phalaenopsis

One of the mystery Phals also flowered. It has pink blotches. I don't think it's my favorite, but it's a fun one to bring to work or otherwise loan out. It also needs repotting, but I will do that once it finishes flowering.

Gus Orchid flowers have arrived

The Gus Orchid (Laelia Amoena coerulea x Laelia Nina Bonita "Barbara") has opened up two of it's sets of flowers. It is still working on a couple of more spikes/buds.  It has never flowered this well before. It was always a struggle to get it to make one or two flowers. I wish I knew what did the trick. Was it the greenhouse and extra light over the winter? Was it the higher nitrogen fertilizer I used for a month or so during May and early June? Was it the Superthrive I mixed in with that fertilizer? Is it the more frequent water? Is it just that the plant is larger? I have no idea, but it is apparently happy. I hope it will still be looking good for the meeting in a couple of weeks.

Anticipation of Flowers

We have several more plants we are waiting to open their flowers.

The big Gus Orchid is in bud all of a sudden. That sort of came out of nowhere. I hadn't even been bloom boosting it! That plant is fussy I've decided. The same exact plant at the orchid trail has way bigger pseudobulbs and is just much more robust. Ours is a good vegetative grower, but it's hard to get it to flower usually. I've decided that a lot of our plants- especially the cattleyas and anything else that wants to dry out has been getting too dry. We are watering more often now especially with the greenhouse so hot.

The Ondicium Gower Ramsey has a huge flowering spike that is at least 2ft tall and really strong! The buds are only just starting to form, so we have a little while on that one yet.


The Miltassia Shelob Tolkein is also budding still. They are growing bigger. We've been watering it more so the buds don't blast. That happened last year and we only got a couple of flowers.

One of the mystery Phals is about to pop open! It looks like it will be pink or purple. We will see in a couple of days and I will add more pictures.

Encyclia tampensis

Encyclia tampensis is flowering right now. It has 3 flower spikes! I think one of the spikes is even from one of the original plant parts that was so puny. There's only one bud on that spike. We brought it to the Orchid Society meeting yesterday and it didn't win any prizes but it looked cute. We were warned not to water it too much, but I think it has actually started looking better since we started watering it more. It doesn't have much medium in it's pot and it dries out fast. We are still letting it dry out between waterings, so I think it is safe. At least I hope so....

Phragmipediums

We have been watering all three of the phrags everyday because they like to have a lot of water, and it's hot in the greenhouse. 

The phrag bessae hybrid is also still sitting in it's water dish. I wrote last month that the leaf tips were browning, and that I cut them off. This happened in the past from not getting enough water. We are watering it plenty now, and the tips are browning again. This requires some investigating. My ideas are that either 

1. there's a root problem and it's not able to take in the water. 

2. It doesn't like the water quality of the city water/too much fertilizer

3. it's too hot

I want to get it figured out because it is making a flowering spike. The buds have turned brown before with the leaves, so I want to fix the problem before that happens! 

I want to unpot it and check on the medium to see if it's rotting, and therefore rotting my roots. I also don't want to repot it right now because it is trying to flower. It's a catch-22. I think we will unpot it and check the roots and hope it flowers again. I think we might be able to do it without mangling the roots too much. I think we will also plant it in a clay pot instead of plastic to keep the roots cooler. 

If it's a water quality problem that is more annoying. We have plans to set up rain barrels but haven't had the chance yet. 

If it's a heat problem we are working on that for the sake of all the babies.

Phrag longifolium and Phrag kovachii x schlimii are both looking really good. No leaf tip browning really for them. 

Kovachii seems to finally be picking up and looking happy. I think it wanted more regular watering. We also sprayed it to get rid of any cooties it had. Hopefully it will continue to do well! I have been fertilizing!

Some of the Babies got Cooked :(

We forgot to turn the fan on in the greenhouse one day and it got way too hot in there. A couple of the orchids that were on the top shelf got cooked.

Rhyncholaelia digbyana had a few leaves burn and turn black. We have since cut off the bad parts.

The seedling Dendrobium spectabile's newest growth cooked right where the leaves attach to the pseudobulb. I had to cut those leaves off so now it's just a pseudobulb stump. The older set of leaves is still okay though.

The psychopsis I think got the worst of it. The tips of most of it's leaves cooked. It also got a few spots on it, from water sitting I guess?

We have now put the fan on a timer so it comes on automatically. It still gets hotter than we want in the greenhouse. It gets about 103 degrees Fahrenheit as the max. We are going to switch out the cardboard floor for gravel/rocks because the ground underneath will I think wick the coolness up and lower the temperature. At least I hope that will work. We are also trying to figure out some kind of mister to put in front of the fan to lower the temperature. 

We are having to water more often because it gets so warm in there. That's okay though.

State of the Union

The plants are all looking really good. I wanted to give the latest update on what's happening with all of them. Quite a few things are getting ready to flower. It is that time of year.

The Love Orchid is flowering. These are bad pictures I know. This is not it's most impressive display ever, but it didn't have ideal conditions with light and us forgetting to water a lot over the winter.

Maxillaria tenuifolia is finally flowering!!! It definitely smells like coconut. It only has three flowers, but maybe at least it did it. I think it likes more light than we were giving it before. I'm not really sure what else it would prefer to flower better. My method is usually bloom booster! haha. 

Miltassia has two flowering spikes again this year! I am going to water it more often this year because last year several of the buds blasted. My theory is that it needed more water while it was trying to flower. Many of the plants are like that, but I just get into the habit of letting them dry out, and can't seem to get out of it at flower time. The flowering spikes seem to be growing rapidly too. I swear this one is a couple inches longer since I took this picture a couple of days ago.

Encyclia tampensis also has two spikes! We are super stoked about this one. We just don't seem to be able to make a happy looking plant out of this one. It always seems to look a bit sad- too dry or something. 

Enyclia Cindy also has a flowering spike on it's honking huge growth that it made in the greenhouse over the winter. I like this plant. It is not too picky. And the flowers smell good.

The octoporchid is going to town again flowering. This year it is making a vertical flowering spike. The last two years we've had it flowering it made drooping spikes. I think it might be that it likes the higher light it was getting at the greenhouse. The air movement there is also fairly strong. Probably a combo. We will try to keep it at higher light levels since it seemed to like it just fine. We are also planning to repot this plant this year because the moss is old and yucky.

Sharry Baby is putting on two flowering spikes. One will be popping out really soon and the other a little further behind. It just can't help itself. It puts on a spike before the pseudobulb it's coming from is even mature yet. This is definitely a reliable plant.

The red Epi got repotted a month or two ago and one of the kikis is flowering already. This is the buds. I have started bloom boosting it to see if we can get some more flowers! Last year we only got two flowers from this plant because the spike got busted when we moved the first time and then busted again!

We only got 2 flowers again. It just didn't make any more buds. Probably because it was a small growth and had just been repotted. It was lovely though. 

The yellow and maroon cattleya is also blooming although the flower is a little mangled because it seems to have been stuck underneath the leaves. Still lovely though! It has a couple of other flower sheaths, so we will see what that brings us.

Ascocentrum ampullaceum is starting a flower spike too. I am praying it does well this year. Last year it made two flower spikes but the tip of the spikes died from the heat/dryness I think. So we only got a couple of flowers. I have been misting it every day. It has more moss and stuff in the basket with it now because it wasn't getting daily water at the greenhouse over the winter. I have left that in there for now to keep up the humidity. I've been using bloom booster on it every day too. I am determined that it will bloom well this year.

Sacolia lanceolata has three flower spikes. Only one is big though. It is way behind where it was last year (all the plants are behind really) because of the weather and different climate. It seems like it will do well. I want to leave it outside more in the fall to get as much sun as possible.

Catasetum is doing alright I think. It is growing. I nitrogen boosted it with the others. I think I wasn't watering it enough because it was making a somewhat wrinkled leaf. It still has all summer though we we'll see if it picks up the pace. It seems to be doing well from the repotting. The new roots have gone down into the medium.

Phragmipedium bessae hybrid is growing great. It has browning of the leaf tips most likely from not enough water all the time. We have been watering it more and keeping the water dish for it full. I think once I cut the brown off that it will be fine going forward. The new growths look really happy and they made nice new roots.

Spathoglottis got repotted after I seriously over sunned it. I thought I put it in a shady place because it's shady before and after work, but then I realized it was getting quite a bit of sun during mid-day. It got sad. We put it in a much larger 3 gallon pot. I'm not sure the dirt we used it very good though. We might have to redo it. We are now keeping it on the porch where it is mostly in the dark just like it prefers. I also am fertilizing it to get it going.

The Babies are Home!

We have finally set up the greenhouse in the yard and brought the babies home from the other greenhouse! It still looks like a gypsy tent.

We have run an extension cord out the window onto the covered front porch to plug in the fan. The fan is on the porch blowing through the greenhouse door. We are keeping one of the door curtains up so the fan can blow the air in properly. It has been really hot here a couple of days already also, and there hasn't been any sunburn or issues so far. We still have not been home during the day to see how much light is really coming in. This weekend we will see how the light is and decide it we have enough shading or too much etc. 

We couldn't believe the plants all fit on this one rack. And there's extra space! Only on the top shelves though where I'm too nervous to put most of the plants. I'm afraid they will cook up there. I have not moved the Phals outside. I want to see what the light is like all day before I do that. I really don't want them to burn when they have been doing so well. 

The plants seemed quite happy in the professional greenhouse, although I think they were getting a little too much light with not enough water. Quite a few of them are looking a bit yellow. 

I'm not hugely concerned about it. It's mostly the older leaves and pseudobulbs. The yellow leaves will eventually get bad and I will cut them off. The rest of the plant will be fine.

 We treated all the plants with Physan when we brought them home to make sure they don't have any cooties. Physan is a bactericide, fungicide, viruscide, and algaecide. It's supposed to be really good. We didn't notice any real signs of issues, but just in case. It has been warm, so not really good fungus conditions. 

We are on a mission to make them grow really well this year to make up for last year. A lot of them have been growing over the winter in the greenhouse which is awesome because they didn't grow very well last growing season. We are trying to do the nitrogen boost method to get good growth. We got Miracle Gro in low concentration and SuperThrive together that we are going to use for a few weeks. We will then switch back to our regular Dyna Gro- Grow formula. I have NOT used the high nitrogen on the plants that are spiking. I used our regular Dyna Gro-Bloom on those.