Vanda spike - almost blooming

Such a long wait from discovering spike to the actual flowers. There are only five buds. I think tomorrow there might be at least one open bloom. It is so exciting!
For now - just this:

New phals repotted

Since my new phals are marked "potted 10/10" and moss looks a bit too dark to my liking, I dared to repot them. Not only repot, but repot into moss again! I put roots of each plant on and around a small packing peanut, carefully wrapped sphagnum moss around and pushed everything into pot.
Here is how they look now.
Phalaenopsis modesta had small keiki that fell off the plant so I potted it separately into tiny plastic pot. If it will survive and grow at least one new leaf - it'll become Phal modesta II and will earn it's own label.

an here is the keiki:


Phal kunstleri:


Phal sumatrana:


Now is the hardest part - keep them alive in sphagnum moss.

Cloud's orchids order

This is the batch from b-day purchases.
Bunch of phalaenopsis and vanda seedlings, again, probably years before blooming:
phalaenopsis modesta, sumatrana and kunstleri
vanda suavis and liouvillei
On the back there is cattleya forbesii which I didn't order but it was a free gift with purchase.
Also on the back is a bag with sphagnum moss to repot my phals.

Blc Udom Rattana x Chia Lin progress

Just wanted to document great growing of this cattleya hybrid with long name Blc Udom Rattana x Chia Lin.
Two new pseudobulbs and lots of new roots that started even show up above the potting media. It is potted into coconut husk chips and looks happy there.
Of course camera would not cooperate with focus and the old leaves came out fuzzy:

Phalaenopsis bellina

An ebay purchase, blooming sized phal bellina arrived from far away with some dark spots on leaves. They were nothing to worry about, but paranoyed me - cut off the areas of leaves, sprinkled with cinnamon and now it doesn't look that good. There was also an old spike, it wasn't fresh and green but kind of yellow, so I cut it off too. There is new spike coming out, hope it will survive:

Vanda pumila

This will be probably the cutest vanda display I ever had. Little wooden log with several small vandas mounted. The tag shows name vanda flavobrunnea, but I think most commonly used name of this plant is vanda pumila, so I am logging it under Vanda pumila name here.
It lives hanged on eastern window where it gets bright light with not much of direct sun.

Vanda spike progress

It actually started to show a little bit of color and the buds are forming. Can't wait for blooms! It seems so slow:

Vanda flabellata

It actually came marked as Aerides flabellata, but after some research it appears that in 1985 it became Vanda flabellata. Roots are awkwardly wide too but I was able to squeeze it into a glass vase. The foliage is not perfect either, but since this species is kind of hard to find - I will live with it:

Vanda coerulescens

Yet one more puny seedling that I moved from the vase to the plastic vanda basket with chc. It is currently growing two new cute fat roots and seems to enjoy the life. Luckily Vanda coerulescens supposed to start flowering when relatively small, so I might even see the blooms in this life :).

Ascocentrum miniatum

Tiny ascocentrum specie seedling used to be in a vase as most of my other vandaceous. It has only two roots. I decided to try it on the top of coconut husk chips in the plastic vanda basket hoping that chc will hold some moisture through the day. Plus I think it looks cuter in that basket. I water it just once a day now but it can change when winter comes. I log this under repotting because it kind of is (moving from vase to basket).

View from the other side:

Paphiopedilum emersonii

This paph came with flower, but probably because it was shipped during summer - flower didn't stay long. Now it is starting to grow new fan - small white nub on the left. Long wait for the next bloom...

Phalaenopsis flower close up

I was just playing with my camera around the currently flowering noid phal and thought that this picture came out rather interesting. The markings look just like veins, don't they? Click the picture to enlarge.

Vanda spike update

It does progress well, although twists a little bit, probably because I don't put it exactly the same way back after watering.
There is a concern - black spots on foliage. I think it is a sun damage since it is getting full sun until 2 pm. Would it affect the spike if I will move it to shade? Have no idea, but definitely wouldn't want to mess the spike.

Birthday gift ideas

Birthday is coming up and it is time to choose the gifts. Obviously more orchids.
I am thinking about:
Ascocenda Princess Mikasa 'Mood Indigo' from here:
http://www.orchidsinourtropics.com/vanda_.html

It supposed to easily bloom 2-3 times a year. That would be wonderful.

Or maybe Ascocenda Suksamran Sunlight from the same place.


Or maybe both of them plus couple phal species?

But then I found this expensive but beautiful Vanda Kultana Fragrance from here:
http://www.jsorchids.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=67

or maybe interesting cross of Vanda lamellata x Vanda Mimi Palmer
from the same place.
Oh bother... Should I just get them all?!

Great blog about phalaenopsis

Found this blog of the orchid board member. What a display! Browsing through the gorgeous phal pictures, I didn't even realize how much longer my wish list suddenly became.
Here is the link:
http://phalaenopsis.over-blog.com/
Enjoy!

Blc Tainan City

Blc. Tainan City is supposed to be red flowered. I have no idea if I ever be able to bloom catts indoors, but purchased three different hybrids to try. They seem to be easy and not too demanding, but no more buying until at least one of them blooms.

New growth on dianthum

It seems like my rootless paphiopedilum dianthum is going to stick around after all. Look, there is a new growth coming out beside the old fan:

Update Dec 25, 2011 - gone due to roots problem. Archived.

Dendrobium noid

I don't know what color the flowers are because I never saw them. Plant came from discount shelf, the blooms were long faded. It grew two new canes since then:

Vanda brunnea

It is just a seedling, came from Cloud's orchids. It lives in a glass vase. Probably many years before flowering:

Update on vanda spike

I know, it might be annoying, since there is no flowers yet and, well, spike is just a spike, but I am going to post updated picture of this spike every week.
It has grown since last picture and there is some clear sugary dew, which is not a concern and apparently supposed to be there:

Repotting paphiopedilums

Having several paph species, and looking for some info on care, medium etc., I came across a video tutorial on re-potting paphs and phrags. It looks useful and seems to make sense. Although my paphs were just recently potted into coconut husk chips, I will keep the video here for future reference, since, I am sure, they are not my last paphs...

Angraecum sesquipedale

I got this angraecum from orchid show in April. It came with mealybugs which took a while to be noticed. Plant was brutally wiped with alcohol at the base of each leaf, I had to use thin wooden skewers to get the pests out from tightly growing leaves. That involved some physical damage to new growth too. Nevertheless since then angraecum has grown new leaf and couple fat green roots. I check it regularly in fear of another mealies attack, but so far so good (knock on the wood).
Curious if it is a blooming size and when should I expect the blooms. I know it flowers at christmas time, but would it be this or next christmas?

Phal noid blooms

There are only four buds. First one just opened. Nothing special, just regular noid phalaenopsis.

Phalaenopsis violacea

Phalaenopsis violacea came with dried flower on old spike but spike was yellow, not green and fresh, so I decided to cut it off. Now I don't know if it ever will give another spike:

First homegrown vanda spike

About a month ago I moved my Vanda Roberts Delight 'Garnet Beauty' to the large window where it gets full sun from the morning until 2:00 pm and here is the reward. At first I wasn't sure, it could be just another fat root, but now it definitely looks like a spike: