Dendrobium aggregatum

Aggregatum is not going to flower this year I'm pretty sure. We had it at the greenhouse, but didn't put the do not water tag on it until December because we kept forgetting. It was still getting watered though because it would be really easy to miss the tag or accidentally spray it along with all the others around it. We brought it home so it could dry out, and the very next week I noticed it was putting on new vegetative growth. No flowers for us this year because we messed it up. We decided to just water it and fertilize it and let it grow this winter, and hope for twice as many flowers next spring. It seemed like it would be too late to get it to flower if it's already making new growths since it normally flowers before it starts growing. We should have stopped watering it when it stopped growing earlier in the fall, but it wasn't Thanksgiving yet. Goes to show we should listen to what our plants are telling us rather than arbitrary dates. I think we will need to repot it soon. It's getting crowded in there!

Dendrobium spectabile is almost there

We have been watching this plant like a hawk for months. Visiting the greenhouse regularly where our babies are being watched. This is from before Christmas. 

 

 

This is from today!!!

 

 

 

The greenhouse man, Paul, says if it gets sunny at all it should bust out soon. I think the buds still have a little developing and growing to do before its ready based on what I remember these plants in bud looking like a shows last year. I can't WAIT to be able to bring this to the orchid meeting to show it off. It also has some new growths, but they are still nub sized while it focuses on flowering. I asked Paul to call us when it starts to open so we can bring it home and admire our hard work!



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catasetum is growing again already

I was so surprised when this started growing already about a month ago.

 

 

This one is from today.

 

 

 

I haven't started watering or fertilizing. Several of the things I read say to wait until the roots are a few inches long before watering and fertilizing again. We also need to repot it. There's not enough room in the current pot for another big pseudobulb. I have been occasionally splashing the roots with water so they don't dry out so much that they die. I think this plant is just on a non-standard schedule. You would think it would start growing in the spring, but it's the middle of winter. When we bought it in March though, last year, it had a pretty substantial new growth on it already, so it probably starting growing again this time last year. I'm having to rotate the plant often because the new growth keeps bending towards the sun. If this new growth does well I might not mind having more of these plants. I would look for a solid colored one. I saw a really pretty completely yellow one at the Orchid Trail, our babysitting place. This plant has been living at home though because it doesn't want watering yet and there's no leaves to need sun either. Now I'm anxiously awaiting for it to start making roots!

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.