Some More Booming Orchids

Lets start with the mini Phalaenopsis.

Dtps. Sogo Vivien variegated. The plastic pot broke, probably due to the heat and sun of growing it outdoors, so it needs repotting so bad it isn't funny.

Dtps. Sogo Vieker 'Taida Little Monkey', flowers got a bit bunched up and wacky. Unfortunately had to move it in from outdoors when the temps started to get too low at night, after it had already started blooming so now it looks a mess.

Dtps. Sogo Yenlin 'Coffee' variegated. As you can see, moving the plant after it already started blooming kind of messed up the flowers and shapeliness of the spike this year too. (P.S. I also still have a few of these left for sale.)

NoID mini Phal. Same problem, oh well.

On to the Cattleyas!

Cattleya lawrenceana 'El Hatillo' x 'Manantial' decided to push out some more flowers. Also that's definitely not an old store display rack I use to grow some of my orchids on.

Cattleya Caribbean x lawrenceana. I've been patiently waiting on this one to bloom since I bought it in 2014. It's an H&R cross according to an older sales list. This also may be the 1st photo on the internet of the bloom as I can't find a single other.

Cattleya nobilior var. amaliae 'Miss Blue' x 'Select'

Last but certainly not least, Dendrobium.

Dendobium moniliforme 'Himeginsetsu'. This one's been blooming since fall, same as last year, what a great mini.

Lots more in spike, including my one of my favorite Cattleya species, so it should be a good year for orchid blooms!

A Few Orchids That Bloomed Last Year

I hadn't gotten around to posting all the orchids that bloomed late summer through December 2015, so here are some that I remembered to photograph now!

This nice species Oncidium ampliatum decided to bloom, rather largely for being a 2 pseudobulb plant at the time.

Maxillaria tenuifolia had it's best bloom year ever.

Then  in December, this Cattleya lawrenceana I've had for 2 years finally bloomed. (Species cross with color forms 'El Hatillo' x 'Manantial') Hey, you think this one needs a repot yet?  ;)

There were so many that bloomed that I forgot to photo or was too busy to notice until they were fading. That was disappointing, but sometimes life gets gets in the way and I'll have to remind myself this year to stop and smell the orchids, or roses, or whatever.

Better-Gro Bagged Orchids No Longer Sold At Lowes :(

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Florida? Seriously, it is the best for finding cool things in at regular, seemingly run of the mill garden centers. Many of this year's hauls came from Lowe's or The Home Depot. Unfortunately, I just read on Better-Gro's Facebook page, that Lowe's went with a different supplier for orchids and they won't be carrying Better-Gro bagged orchids anymore.

Although Better-Gro says they are working on "expanding their relationship" with Home Depot instead, I have only seen them show up in one store here that I haven't seen these orchids carried in the past. I'm kind of more upset than I thought I'd be about this. We went from an abundant supply of cool orchids all the time, to 2 Home Depots in the area carrying them. Sucks big time, and that's the nicest way I'll put that.

Cat inspection of a Lowe's haul at the old apartment

The following are Better-Gro orchids purchased this year only, well below average of my typical year's purchases of these orchids as I think the hiatus I took was the entire summer through fall, about 6 months? I'll apologize in advance, as the photos on this post have no theme, and some of them just aren't any good. I didn't take pictures specifically with this post in mind at the time so some are also iPhone photos. I just wanted to show you why I'm disappointed these won't be available at Lowe's anymore.

This "Bag Baby" orchid is C. Caribbean x lawrenceana. I couldn't find a single picture of the bloom on the internet, but it sounds like it might be a cool flower. It is an H&R cross, so maybe I'll email them for a picture to see if this is something I'm willing to grow out. I'm hoping the flower has that lawrenceana shape to it, but if nothing else we'll be surprised.

C. Caribbean x lawrenceana bagged Better-Gro orchid

This year I also picked up Myrmecophila tibicinis. Please excuse the Monster can. The photo was taken with something a friend would recognize for scale (LOL.) An entirely different purpose than showing it off here.

Myrmecophila (Schomburgkia) tibicinis

I'm also trying to rescue this Oncidium ampliatum. It looks like it had been sitting around a while, it's dehydrated. New roots are starting and it should recover nicely. I'll have a better picture of it in 2015.

Oncidium ampliatum

Encyclia steinbachii below (mislabeled steinbachiana, because it probably originally came from H&R and that's what they mislabel it as?) was in bad shape too, but it's turning around quick. Look at all them roots!

Encyclia steinbachii

Encyclia guadalupeae, in new-shipment-great-shape. Got this one 2 days ago at The Home Depot that just started carrying Better-Gro bagged orchids. HOORAY for this Home Depot!

Encyclia guadalupeae

I especially couldn't resist these species orchids for so cheap. These are all really great species, purchased for about $12.98 depending on the tax in the area I bought them.

Lately we've been making many, many, trips to Lowe's. There's one fairly close to to our new home, and we're re-painting, re-landscaping, and re-whatever-else needs-work here. People tell me that never stops when you own a home, so I guess Lowe's will be losing out on my money this coming year. I tend to agree to run errands to pick stuff up for the house under the guise of being helpful, but in reality I don't pass up an excuse to go see if they have any new bagged orchids. Oh well.

And yes, I realize with the internet and all of Florida's orchid shows, there is almost any orchid I want ever, shipped to my door, pretty much whenever. It just isn't the same as digging through the bags in the display at a local store. It's like a treasure hunt for adults, sorting through for cool species or hybrids to take home that day, in hand, for super cheap so there isn't even any guilt that I've spent too much of our money on plants again.

Edit: Update 2016. Occasionally I see these at Lowe's. With far less stock and far less frequency, so maybe it turned out to be a cut back, who knows. Still disappointed it's mostly unlabeled generic Phals, and the occasional unlabeled Vanda 90% of the time anymore :(

Some Fall Blooming Orchids & An Update

Sorry for the lack of new content guys. Thanks to everyone who emailed to check in, you all are some of my favorite people. Still alive, still have the majority of my plants. We've been busy, like buying a house and moving again busy. That stuff I'll get to, after some flowers for those that just like the pretty pictures here.

It was a bit too warm for my Cattleya walkeriana fma. flamea 'Tokutsu-S' to bloom correctly. The flares on the petals should be much more pronounced, but apparently those that say it should be cool out for this one to bloom true, are correct. I'm sharing it anyway because I'm still happy it bloomed, maybe next year it'll wait for cooler temps. The scent it puts off stinks like that one lady who put on too much perfume then got into an elevator with you in the morning.

Cattleya walkeriana fma. flamea 'Tokutsu-S', close up of one flower

Cattleya walkeriana fma. flamea 'Tokutsu-S'

Another bloomer is Dendrobium moniliforme 'Himeginsetsu', a cute little variegated Dendrobium.

Dendrobium moniliforme 'Himeginsetsu'

Dendrobium moniliforme 'Himeginsetsu' flower close up

Well, the good news is we now own a house, with a nice sized backyard. I got my 150 gal. terrarium back out of storage, have the grow tent, and our house has a "Florida Room" with removable windows, so it turns into a screen room when we want it to. This gives me more options to grow things than most people have, so I'm pretty excited about the possibilities and extra space for more plants! The bad news is I had left many plants in my grow tent for a week while we were moving. It was during this week that my husband upped the temp in the apartment, not wanting to pay extra for AC we weren't using, and the exhaust fan in the tent stopped working. This turned out to be the perfect combination to bake the plants in the tent. As a result I lost a lot of Nepenthes and a few Orchids. I was down about that for months maybe, didn't feel like updating this blog or frequenting any forums you'll typically find me on. I'm somewhat over it now, and in the rebuilding process. At some point here, I'll update the grow list for those that like to trade with me. More updates to come as new and old plants settle into their new home.

I love Cattleya walkeriana

I picked up this Cattleya walkeriana semi-alba 'Carmela' as a bag baby at a local Lowe's. Yeah, there are gems to be found in those prepackaged orchids.

I know there's always a lot of discussion on forums about whether it's good or bad to buy orchids from grocery stores and home improvement centers. Every time it gets brought up people tend to fall on the side of them being great, or some turn up their noses because they're from a large scale production company. Sun-Bulb/Better-Gro is actually a very reputable company if you've read anything from or about the growers, or their operation. I watched this exact clone go for $50 on eBay a few weeks ago, there's another one on there now, $65. I got this one for $13 and change, blooming sized, straight off the truck, (no chance for the Lowe's employees to kill it or sit around long enough to acquire a scale infestation.) So go ahead and turn up your noses at this, I'll still go through the bag babies to see if there's anything good when I'm at Lowe's.

I had read that Cattleya walkeriana is considered a more difficult species than most to grow. Until I made a decision about how I wanted to try and grow mine, I just left it in the pot. I took the majority of decaying bark out, left the charcoal and Sponge Rock, then watered it every few days after reading that most people had lost theirs due to rot issues. It has been growing, but it wasn't until buds suddenly appeared from somewhere unexpected that I decided to look into Cattleya walkeriana a bit more.

C. walkerina buds

C. walkeriana is one of only two species of Cattleya that grows it's flower spikes from an independent growth coming from the base of a mature rhizome, not from the top of the pseudobulb. A new pseudobulb or a flower spike will start off looking exactly the same. Until either a leaf or buds grows out the top it's hard to tell which one it's going to be.

In this picture, the short/stubby growth in the middle was a previous bloom.

Here's a 2nd new growth, not sure if it will be another pseudobulb, or a flower spike yet

The whole orchid

It actually opened up it's flowers on my birthday of all days. I took it to a local orchid society meeting earlier this week and it actually placed 3rd in the Cattleya group judging. I was surprised, I almost didn't take it at all because the plant looks so beat up. Really, the group just has a great photographer who takes pictures of all the entries and I wanted a really nice photo of it on the internet. I am terrible at taking pictures. I was offered a copy of the photo, so I'll update with it, or link to the OS page because I have a hard time getting the color right on this bloom.

Once I start to see the fresh roots getting longer I'm going to try this one in a wood slat basket or maybe clay with a lot of holes and some bark, as I've had more than enough issues with rot this summer. Learning to grow in this heat and humidity has been a bit of an adjustment for me and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. If this species is rot prone in culture and instead of rotting it, I've got flowers. This is all the excuse I need to get some of the other good color variations. C. walkeriana is naturally a solid pink color, then there's the many beautiful semi-alba variations like 'Carmela', coerulea or "blue" colored flowers, perola (rose blushes on the petals or petals and sepals), aquinii (a peloric bloom, some coloration at the tips of the petals similar to the color of the lip), and flammea (petals that have coloration getting stronger/more saturated towards the edges) types as well. For more color variations and types than you can handle, check out this guy's website: C. Walkeriana

Laelia ghillanyi flamea and a few other new additions

So I've been hunting for a rupicolous Laelia to try ever since I heard Roy Tokunaga of H&R Nurseries speak at a local orchid society meeting earlier this month. Although the lecture wasn't specifically about rupicolous Laelias, seeing pictures of those tiny bright flowers and cute little plants growing in the crevasses of rock faces inspired me to try these supposedly difficult to cultivate orchids. I ended up picking this Laelia ghillanyi flamea I found on eBay, as there were none for sale at the meeting. To my luck this one came potted. Any other plant and I would've asked for it to be sent bare root, but from what I've read, these hate to be repotted. The mix appears to be charcoal, tree fern fiber, and some type of white rocks (not perlite) that I'm not familiar with.

Laelia ghillanyi flamea with my hand for size reference

While Roy Tokunaga brought an impressive variety of beautifully grown orchids to sell at the meeting, another tiny beauty was the one that needed to come home with me, Cattleya aclandiae. This is another supposedly difficult to cultivate species. C. aclandiae is a dwarf Brazilian species that grows near the ocean, receiving windy days and little rain, so it likes to be grown on the dry side. I potted this one in LECA to give the roots something to wrap around and a wood slat basket to help it dry out easier. Why can't I be drawn to easy to grow species? I'm forever picking the most difficult before I even realize what I've gotten myself into. Of course I did the research on how to take care of it after I got it home.

Cattleya aclandiae 'Richter's Best' x 'Black Hole'

I also picked up this seed grown Myrmecophila brysiana at the meeting, with three new leads. Myrmecophila is quickly becoming one of my favorite genus of orchid, but due to the expense and rarity of buying mature plants, seedlings it is. One day I'll have flowers to show off, and I just can't resist picking up another species of Myrmecophila to add to my collection.

Myrmecophila brysiana 'Orange Tart'

One of my favorite things about growing plants as a hobby is there is always a new way to challenge yourself and your skills. You can even be the best at what you're currently growing, but a new addition can send you back to beginner status and you have to learn all over again. It never gets old, boring, or too easy to me, which is probably why it's the only hobby that I've stuck with for so long.

I hope you all are having a great week, and your plants are growing well! Sorry the updates haven't been as often recently, but you know how things go, sometimes you get so busy you rarely have time to sit down at all.