Grammatophyllum scriptum var. kiilani

I bought a Grammatophyllum scriptum var kiilani, a cute little miniature Grammatophyllum orchid, from someone on one of the forums I frequent. She sent it in spike, potted in semi-hydroponics. I had wanted to try and grow some orchids semi-hydroponically for a while, just to try it, but was never motivated enough to bother. So I just left this orchid potted as is, and went with it. It opened up two flowers from the spike it was sent with, so I won't claim any credit for these flowers.

The flowers have been open for 3 weeks now, and no signs of wear yet. It came with a few older looking pseudobulbs, but is happpily growing another, with another flower spike... I think I'll let the nice weather and the fact that a Grammatophyllum seems to be a perfect fit for the S/H (semi-hydroponic) growing style take credit for this. I have no idea what I'm doing, but it seems like my first try with S/H is going well so far. May switch some other orchids over here soon.

Stapelia gigantea blooms!

A really, really, huge flower.

I'll admit I'd been semi-ignoring this plant (that's one of the best parts about growing succulents...low maintenance, you can do that.) Last week I was watering when I noticed the bud. It was so heavy it was tipping the whole plant over. Or maybe it just needed to be repotted a long time ago.

More pictures to come when it gets all gross and covered in flies!

1st Wistuba Shipment Sucess

I waited a bit to take any pictures or post anything about these. They spent almost 2 weeks in the mail, from Germany, to Maryland, to Florida, in JULY. Not ideal. I didn't plan it this way, but things got delayed and that's how it worked out. These are recently out of tissue culture too, so between the heat, and then adjusting them to life out of flask, I've heard too many horror stories of plants just melting within a day or two to have high hopes. It still may be too early to tell, so far so good.

I ordered these Nepenthes from Dr. Andreas Wistuba, of The Nepenthes Nursery, located in Germany. He's set up a US distributor to deal with all the importation and CITES paperwork so without that headache I decided to try an order. I had wanted to for a while, but was hesitant to try (and spend the money on tiny TC seedlings.) However, he's the only vendor with legal Nepenthes clipeata seedlings for sale. This being my favorite Nepenthes, every year that's gone by, the pain and anguish of not having one was slowly killing me.

I only ordered one N. albomarginata red, but two came wrapped up together. They came almost rootless, but I'm not complaining. I was happy they came with any roots at all.

Nepenthes albomarginata red #1

Nepenthes albomarginata red #2

What will one day be the pride and joy of my little collection over here; Nepenthes clipeata clone 3 and clone U. Clone 3's growth point was damaged during shipping, but it looks like it will grow out fine.

Nepenthes clipeata clone 3

Nepenthes clipeata clone U

I went with the recommendation to keep them bagged at 100% humidity and slowly acclimate them from there. It's going well. As of today the bags are open at the top, and I've only had some light die off at the tips of the pitchers. The leaves are starting to get more leathery and lose that weak looking lime green color they came with.

So the "test run/desperate for N. clipeata" order appears to be successful, and now that I know I can acclimate the plants fine... I can order more plants with a little higher confidence. I'm already regretting not getting clipeata clone 2, but I guess I'll have to wait and order it next time. Overall, I'm really happy with the whole experience. I was riddled with anxiety over it at times, but from now on I'll just order in fall or winter and save myself the worry if things get delayed.