Neofinetia falcata `Shojo`

Little plant of Neofinetia falcata `Shojo` survived the winter shipping and was re-potted into the net pot with sphagnum.
It is in the bright spot and I let the sphag to dry out completely before watering.



It is my first Neofinetia, will see if it will grow here...

Paphiopedilum malipoense

One leaf didn't grow into a full size yet, but another started to come out. After looking through many pictures on the web it seems that maybe my Paph. malipoense decided to bloom too?
Here is the close up:



I read that they grow enormously long spike and it takes forever. The bonus is - there might be raspberry fragrance.

I think that paphiopedilums quickly become my favorite. They require much less care than vandas in vases, look nice without blooms with mottled foliage and are much more sturdy than phals.

Paph. armeniacum II bud progress

The bud is still alive and growing:



I am trying to keep it from drying out completely which is hard as I am afraid to overwater it at the same time. Just want to keep the bud from blasting and not sure how long it is before the flower comes out.

While looking for information and pictures about paphiopedilums I came across this blog with great paph pictures:
http://fatmama-paphs.blogspot.com/

Black tips on vanda roots

This is the picture of Vanda tessellata with new roots in a vase ( reason why the picture is distortedly fuzzy).



Why there are black tips on the new roots? I didn't fertilize for a long-long while(shame), so it is not a burn from ferts.
My vandas do live on the windowsill and we got down to -30 C outside, therefore I am inclined to think that it is from cold. I moved them away from the window for now.
Are there any other possible reasons for such black tips?

Update: roots resumed their growth. I do think it is from cold air indeed.

Paph. armeniacum

Bad news and good news.
The bad one - emerging bud on Paph armeniacum is now definitely dead. It looks brown and feels too soft:




The good one - Paph. armeniacum II bud is growing well:




I am not sure what happened to the first one. They both are in the same location, same chc media, clay pots. The number II is larger , so the pot is bigger and my suspision is that maybe small pot doesn't hold enough moisture and I should have watered it more often.
The second and most likely possibility - I got water on the bud when misting the plant and it rotted. Sob...Sob...

Cymbidium Time

It must be a "Cymbidium Time" here because all the big box stores have tons of them, gorgeously blooming, of course noIded. Colors vary tremendously from lemony-yellow to dark brown, but surprisingly enough, prices vary tremendously too, I mean from store to store.
Walmart has them at $18.99, which I think is pretty good, but exactly the same plants in the same packaging are sold at $34.99 from Sobeys (our grocery store). I wonder what causes such a difference...
In any case I cannot buy them due to the space reasons, they are too huge plants for my "indoor orchid garden".

Brassavola Little Stars bloom

The flower opened fully and I didn't detect any fragrance. Is it too cold maybe? I don't know.
The bloom looks pretty though.

Phalaenopsis speciosa

Phalaenopsis speciosa has two spikes and small damage on the newest leaf. I don't know if there is a difference between speciosa and tetraspis C1, but I have both.

Phalaenopsis cornucervi

Well, I have to admit that putting my phal cornucervi on the mount didn't do much good. It lost several more roots that dried out completely:



I think the humidity drop could be the cause. There are still some live roots but I don't have the nerve to keep it on the mount.
I just took it off and potted into clay pot with sphag as most of my other phals.



The good thing is - it stll has healthy leaves and spikes are still green. If it will die in the sphag, I'll just avoid buying this phal in the future.
It might be that I will never have luck with this species, just like with phal lobbii.

B. Little Stars opening flower

I got home from work yesterday and discovered this:



Yes, silly bean pod started to open and actually looks like a flower now!



Of course it is not fully opened yet, and the lip is still curled in, and the evening lighting is pretty bad, so I had to use flash with my camera, so the pictures are not that great, but I will make more on the weekend in the daylight(would be nice if it was sunny too) and maybe the flower will open totally.

Phalaenopsis violacea indigo

The actual label reads Phalaenopsis violacea indigo X sib. Small seedling came a bit dehydrated. Hope it will survive.



I got quite a few violaceas but they are either too small or lost their spikes after transportation. I guess I should stop buying them until at least one flowers. Maybe they are not even going to bloom in my environment. So, no more violaceas until one of the existing ones blooms.

Brassavola Little Stars

I don't know what is the deal with this bud. Is it opening? Did it stop developing? Is it drying out? Seems like it looked the same a week ago. Patiently waiting...

Phalaenopsis violacea 'Malaysian Blue'

Yet one more seedling of violacea, this time it is the Malaysian blue variety. Bottom leaves seem a bit dehydrated, but there are few good roots, so it will probably perk up. Newest leaf is good and shiny.

Paphiopedilum malipoense

Paphiopedilum malipoense should have green blooms and might have raspberry fragrance. Not sure how large plant should be to bloom. Some paphs like to flower when they have several fans, so it might take couple years to see it blooming.

Equestris orange

Phalaenopsis equestris orange decided to grow a new leaf:



Frankly I was hoping it would continue to work on the spike, but obviously the leaf is more important now(rolling eyes).
I will monitor the spike, maybe plant is strong enought to grow both? Although it doesn't look like it grew since the last picture. Here it is now:

Paphiopedilum armeniacum

I have two plants of this parvisepalum specie. First one is growing a bud and has three offshots:




The number II is blooming sized too. It also has several new growths:



Both of them are potted into clay pots with coconut husk chips and seem to like it.

Oncidium repotting

Couple leaves on my Oncidium Sharry Baby turned yellow.



I sort of freaked out. It could be the normal aging when old leaves die, but what if it is not. Orchid forum members pointed out that bark pieces used for potting are too large and maybe they don't retain enough moisture. Also maybe roots are dead and rotted?

To check the roots I pulled my oncidium from the pot:


Well, they are not the best but also not all dead and have plenty of new growing points.

I was also worried about Psychopsis that is potted into same large bark, so I pulled it out too:



Psychopsis roots seem to be fine also.
So I just picked the large pieces of bark out from medium and added a handful of coconut husk chips to the mix instead:



Then I potted both plants into their clay pots with new mix. Hope it will help to retain more moisture. I am not sure if I should remove yellow leaves or just let them be and they wll dry out and fall off at some point.

Blc Udom Rattana x Blc Chia Lin

Recently I had to move some of larger catts into bigger pots to free up some tiny pots for the seedlings. I was worried that it is not really a good time to repot catts in December.



Worried for nothing. They have established quite well and grow new roots. Here is the curious root of Blc Udom Rattana x Blc Chia Lin:

New Year's bloom

I just discovered that my pink noId Phalaenopsis opened the flower during last night. I like its pretty color and flower shape. There were two buds but one blasted probably because humidity is going down now.




This phal just finished last blooming in the middle of summer and promptly started new spike in the beginning of October without proper rest period.
It probably explains why there were only two buds.

Maxillaria tenuifolia

New pseudobulbs are being born on Maxillaria tenuifolia. They come out from between the leaves on each new growth: