Flowers this Winter

The Gus orchid is flowering again. It just flowered this summer and is doing it again- this time all in a flush. It looks great. We were surprised it did it again so soon. We figured this plant would be a once a year.

Dendrobium spectabile has also gone ape shit this year. It has 5-6 spikes compared to the 2 from last year. They are still opening up, but we are super stoked about this. AND it will be good to take to the meeting. It didn't get to go to the meeting last year because it was cancelled due to weather. This year we can wow everyone!

Phragmipedium kovachii x schlimii has a spike and a bud!!! We were not expecting this and are really excited about it. It started doing it about a month after we brought everything inside for the winter. We think it might like the cooler temperatures. I am paranoid that it has stalled in the development though. The bud is really interesting looking because it's fuzzy. It seems to have enjoyed getting watered every day, although I don't think it cared for the heat of the summer. We are wishing really hard for the flower to really happen.

Phragmipedium longifolium is STILL flowering. It has made like 7 flowers since it started in August. It shows no signs of stopping. I still water it frequently, and it is just going to town. This plant can definitely go on the top performer list.

New Plants

We have gotten a few new plants in the last few months.

We got a Bulbophyllum frostii. The flowers look like little shoes!! It wasn't in flower when we got it, so we'll see if we can make it flower this summer.

From the Orchid Society fall auction we got a Laelia purpurata var. carnea and a Dendrobium Hibiki "Tiny Bubbles". We got the Laelia because I just really like the flowers and the plant is very well behaved. We got Tiny Bubbles because it is just so cute, and we have really enjoyed our Dendrobium bracteosum which is similar. Well, really we got it because Steven was trying to drive up the bidding price with another lady from the Orchid Society that was buying tons of plants...and then she backed out haha. We are happy we have it though. Tiny Bubbles is still flowering since September.

I convinced Steven to give me a BLC. George King "Serendipity" for Christmas. I have been hankering after one for a while now and I finally got it. Our bad kitties decided they really liked chewing on flowers though so the flowers fell off prematurely. That was really annoying. I just can't watch them all the time, and they can get just about everywhere I could think to put it, except back at the greenhouse, but then I can't enjoy it. So now I have to wait for that to flower again.

The Dearly Departed and other sadness

We have had a few things die lately or they were just sickly and we threw them away.

We got a big cattleya from the Orchid Society raffle that ended up flowering soon after we got it. The flower was red/maroon with a red lip. We didn't care for it. The flower also had some funny colorations on it that made us think it had virus. Once it was done flowering we threw it in the compost pile. The plant part looked reasonably healthy, so we felt bad pitching it, but a local expert said the virus will often first be noticeable in the flowers then spread to the leaves.

The Paphiopedilum bellatulum  also died. I think we watered it too much because most of the roots were dead. We tried to put it in rehab but it just got worse and worse. We finally just threw it out. That was really sad because we had been so excited about this plant. We specifically searched for and bought it because we think they look so cool. When we told Paul we had killed it, he said they are one of the harder ones to grow. Maybe we will try again sometime... Maybe we will practice on some easier paphs first.

One of the bunch of Phals we had gotten from a garden center just kept looking really bad, and we learned that it probably had leaf mites. We weren't that attached to it, so we pitched it.

The Masdevallia veitchiana  that Steven got me for my birthday died too. It seemed to be doing well until May. We put it briefly in the kitchen window, and I think we cooked it's poor roots because the kitchen gets a lot of sun, and it was getting warmer and we didn't realize. The leaves got all these sunken brown spots on them and were falling off one by one. We tried to rehab it with no success. It finally totally kicked it over the summer. I think it was just too hot for it with us. I really like masdevallia's because they are so lovely, but I don't know if they are the right plants for us :(

We nearly killed our Encyclia tampensis AGAIN. But I think we have put it in rehab in time. The roots were rotting- so I guess we were not letting it dry out enough. They are twig epiphytes in the wild so they dry quickly- however they also have a lot of humidity and dew fall during the dry season. We un-potted it and let it sit bare root for a couple weeks until it started to make new roots. We mounted it this time since we can't seem to stop over watering it. We will mist it every day or every other day and see how it does. So far the little baby roots are still there. I am feeling optimistic about it. It is so interesting how much things change seasonally. In the early summer we were watering it more frequently and it seemed to respond well to that, and it flowered nicely. I guess we didn't cut down on water properly- or got too over-excited with the watering as it came into the end of the summer, because that's when it started to look a little sad.

A couple of things were in bud but didn't end up flowering

Phragmipedium bessae hybrid had buds, but we repotted it because it was stressed from being too hot. So the buds ended up rotting. That was sad, but I don't feel so bad, because I am reasonably confident we can make it happen again.

Steve Stevenson had a bud too, but it rotted from getting water in it at the greenhouse a couple weeks ago. That is more upsetting because we have never seen it before. According to google images it isn't going to look like a favorite, so this way it will get to live with us for a while longer. We are trying to make a philosophy of giving away things we don't really like. However, those are also the things that we made flower!! Tricky trade-off.

Tangerine has finally flowered!!

BLC "Sweet Treat" (BLC "Pokai Tangerine" x Cattleya "Chocolate Drop") or Tangerine as I refer to it- has finally flowered after 3 years! It only made 1 flower because it is only it's first time flowering, but it was exciting nonetheless! We didn't really know what it would look like. I think most of what made it flower this year was just size and maturity. I also moved it partway through the summer to get a bit more light and it liked that. I also misted the roots that are all outside the basket daily or every other day.

We are excited that it bloomed finally, but to be honest we are not that excited about how it looks. We are thinking about contributing it for the raffle at the Orchid Society meeting. It's hard though because I have gotten kind of attached to it, taking care of it the last 3 years. There's also the fact that we can apparently have success with it, which is more than I can say for some of our plants. We know how to grow Cattleyas, Oncidiums and Phals, but don't have much luck with some of the other things- like Paphs and vandaceous things.

Cattleya cernua

Cattleya cernua flowered really well this year after skipping last year. We gave it more sun this year, and I think that is what did it, also a bit more water since there is not a lot of medium in it's basket. It flowered in the beginning of November this year rather than in September like it did last time. I am curious to see when it flowers in the future- will it be on a November or September time schedule.

It won a little prize at the Orchid Society meeting which was really fun.

I have not seen much of any root growth on all the new growths it has made, which worries me. I am hoping it will make roots while it is living at the greenhouse this winter since the humidity is good there.

July/August Flowering Update

We have had a fair amount of flowering going on here.

The most exciting thing has been that Phragmipedium longifolium has just opened up it's first flower yesterday. Phrags are kind of high maintenance because they like to be watered every day, but at the same time that makes them sort of easy. No worrying about when to water- just water all the time. We definitely would like to get more of them.

Bulbophyllum makoyanum went nuts in a big flush this year. It had 10+ flowers on all at the same time. It is still flowering, but not quite so spectacularly as the first flush. It really put on a ton of new growth this year over the winter at the babysitting greenhouse.

The Oncidium Gold Medal is flowering away too. It doesn't have quite such a ridiculous 4ft spike as Gower Ramsey has, but it is lovely none the less.

Phragmipedium bessae hybrid has 2 spikes with buds on, but I am still anxiously awaiting them to plump up and open.

Dendrobium bracteosum has opened up a bunch of flowers which are adorable.