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 :(

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. 

A Mix of Things

I love working nights, and I love working 12 hr. shifts. It's easiest for me to do three 12's in a row, but that means I don't get to see my plants for 3-4 days, as it's pretty much work, shower, sleep, and nothing else. I miss looking at my plants, and enjoying a cup of coffee out on the deck with them when I wake up. It is nice to see what's been going on now that I've got a few days off again.

Drosera sp. South Africa is going to be blooming for the 1st time, yay! Growing these from seed has been totally worth it. Drosera species typically only take about a year to grow to maturity, this species took more like 2 years, (that may have been my fault though.) At least now I can be 100% positive it is this is D. sp. "South Africa" , I always am a bit nervous about mix-ups as seed all looks the same. This species has the unique characteristic of the flower stalk splitting in two and one of the ends only having one flower, the flowers also have six petals instead of the usual five, can't wait to see. They aren't looking too dewy at the moment, it's been a little too dry and windy lately to have kept them out on the deck.

Drosera sp. South Africa

The Oncidium my husband got me for my birthday 2 years ago, is in spike again. I was under the impression that you had to stake Oncidium spikes to get them to stay upright so the flowers would open well. I didn't stake this spike, not that I ever stake spikes because in the immortal words of Sweet Brown, "Ain't nobody got time for that." I usually don't even notice them until it's a little late to start anyway. Maybe it's this particular hybrid that grows straight up without one, or maybe it's because it's potted a little off center and had tipped over. Can't repot it now, I'll just have to suffer the embarrassment of you all judging my bad potting job on this one.

Onc. Space Race 'Coco'

I did get lucky and had the right day off to go to the St. Augustine Orchid Society meeting this month. Dr. Ruben P. Sauleda, of Ruben In Orchids, was there to talk about breeding and flasking orchids, which was massively more interesting than I thought it would be. I also got to add to my Myrmecophila collection, which I was thrilled about as I cannot figure out why they are not more popular and why there are very few nurseries that have them available. I mean, I know they get large and have ridiculously long spikes, but come on, those flowers! I cannot be the only one who loves them.

Myrmecophila christinae

Now, if only I could figure out if my other two Myrmecophila are both M. tibicinis, or one or both is a albopurpurea. They look different, even as seedlings to me, but that's a whole other post.

"Bag Baby" Orchid Rescues

Better-Gro® orchids are the ones you see all the time in the big box stores. Usually they are Cattleyas, ones that grow too large and flower too fluffy for my tastes so I pass them up. Online you'll see them referred to as "bag babies," (they're seedlings and come in a mesh net bag or a plastic sleeve bag. I like the nickname, it's a cute one.) These aren't bad purchases if you can get to them before the employees drown, dehydrate, or otherwise kill them.

Every one in a while something different shows up in one of those tiny plastic bags. For example my Rhynchostylis gigantea 'Peach.'

R. gigantea 'Peach'

I bought this one 3 years ago, with 4 leaves about 1/2 the size they are pictured. It was in decent shape and has steadily grown well for me. Patience is a virtue, but it appears to be close to blooming sized now......right?

Then over the winter someone on a forum found Myrmecophila tibicinis at his local Lowe's and was kind enough to pick one up for me. It turned out to be 2 in 1 pot. The roots were shot, so they're both spending this summer growing new ones and probably won't really take off until next summer.

#1

#2

There was also a broken tag in the bottom of the pot that said Myrmecophila albopurpurea, so there's the possibility that one or both is actually albopurpurea. It'll be a few years before we find out.

More recently was Encyclia cordigera x self. It was on sale and looked pretty bad, but for the price I figured I'd take it home and try it.

Repotted

It was dry as a bone when I unpotted it about 3 weeks ago. All the roots were dead. Only one thing to do at this point, pot it up into sphagnum moss, add a little rooting hormone, and hope for the best.

So far so good on this project. Below are two little starts I noticed. One has the beginning of roots on it.

Yay, not dying!

Looks like a new start had previously rotted out, but there's still life in it and it's growing.

I'm a sucker for cheap rescue project plants. If it's something I like and wanted to get anyway, I'll take a chance, even if it looks as bad as the Encyclia does.