Phal. Dragon Tree Eagle x Sogo Hollywood

I got the seedling of the cross of Phal Dragon Tree Eagle and Sogo Hollywood from Kingfisher Orchids as a free plant. I like  the coloration of DTE, and curious what would  the cross with Sogo Hollywood look like.




There are some good roots on the seedling. I am a bit worried about three strange bleached dots on one of the leaves. Hope it doesn't have any insects.

Phalaenopsis violacea II

Here is one more Phal.violacea I got for a while, just didn't have time to enter it here yet.
I am not sure if it is a seedling or blooming size. The pot is 2 1/2 inch and there are three mature leaves.

Pictures from the park

These were taken yesterday evening. There was no sun.
Pretty pink/purple wild flowers:



Lighthouse on the Ottawa river:



Geese in flight:

Paphiopedilum Delrosi 'Murray'

Paphiopedilum Delrosi is  a cross between Paph rothschildianum and delenatii.
My plant is a division of  this particular plant and there is a story of the name 'Murray'.



It is nice, that I can see what the blooms will look like, but of course it is many years before I might get it.

Various problems with various orchids

Here is what I noticed recently and I don't like it:

1. White spots on several paphiopedilums leaves.
Micranthum:

Malipoense:

Jackii(really close up):


2. Something (or someone) eats the leaves on my Masd. decumana. It originally came with one hole in the leaf, but now there are more holes:


Back view:


3. Masdevallia constricta has lots of small round black dots on the leaves:



All these orchids have two things in common:
a) they all live in the basement - a bit cooler environment, some sun very early in the morning;
b) they all were sprayed with Safers Endall miticide twice little while ago.
But there are over 10 more paphs and at least 3 more masdies with same two things that are perfectly fine.

Any idea?

Masdevallia buds progress

This is just to document the progress of the buds on Masdevallia Peppermint Rock x ignea.



The larger one now looks like a creepy claw:



I wonder what would be the color of the blooms. For some reason the word Peppermint makes me think they would be green(?).

Phal. Buena Jewel x equestris alba

Phalaenopsis Buena Jewel x equestris alba can have absolutely unexpected blooms, at least according to this thread on Orchid board.



My plant arrived with an old spike that had browning end. Since there was not much roots too, I thought, I should cut the spike off, so plant could concentrate on getting stronger.
After all I forgot to cut it, but after couple of weeks I noticed that one of the nodes on that old spike activated and now there is this:



I think it could be either a new branch on the spike or just a flower.
I am very curious what my flower would look like. This is a relatively new hybrid, it was actually registered in 2009 and has a name - Lyndon Equator Jewel. Although I didn't find much references to this name on the web, I will log it under Phal. Lyndon Equator Jewel, because, well, it is the plants real name.

Dracula chimaera

Dracula chimaera is the second dracula species that I bought to try out:



I already have Dracula lotax(considered as warmth tolerant) since last October and it is doing fine. I mean it didn't bloom or anything, but it is still alive and growing some new shots. I got Dracula chimaera in March from Ecuagenera too, but this one is marked as a cool grower, so I expected it to die, so I would know to stay away from all the cool growers.
Well, it didn't. As a matter of fact it started to grow a new shot too:



Probably the fact that basement where it lives doesn't go above 18C creates environment cool enough for Dracula chimaera. We'll see if it ever blooms.

Dtps. Jim x Phal. tetraspis x Phal. Grosbeak

This phalaenopsis hybrid has quite a long name. I am not sure if there is a shorter one, need to do a bit of research at some point. Would that be something that you'd call a complex hybrid? Have no idea how the blooms will look like, but expect something in reddish hue judging by the pictures of parents.



Plant itself is not in ideal conditions. There were some rotted and dried roots. Hope it will improve.

Phal. cornu-cervi 'red' with many flowers

Cornu-cervi 'red' came with four buds and I was worried that they will blast. They didin't. Not only they flowered, but plant grew more buds ant still continues. There are now 6 opened flowers and 4 buds. I am starting to worry that plant will bloom itself to death. Although it grows a new leaf and there is tiny new spike start too. Oh, and the blooms are long lasting too. This turns out to be my best orchid purchase.

Rest of the new plants

Here are the plants that I got from Kingfisher's Orchids:



On the back left to right are - Phal. Vio Vio,Phal. Lea Marie Salazar 'Tying Shin' (both with spike starts) and flask of Phal. Bedford Nonpareil.
Second row - Phal speciosa C1 with two spikes and broken during shipping leaf (hope it will recover) and two freebies: Phal. equestris blue x Siam Treasure with flowers and small seedling of Phal. DTE x Sogo Hollywood.
All repotted into fresh sphagnum:



Closer look of the blooms. Aren't they pretty:



And one more:



Now here are three more new plants:



They are - Masdevallia veitchiana, Paph. Delrosi and small seedling of Laelia lobata alba. I won paph and masdie at the SlipperTalk fundraising auction, they both were donated by user John_M from OrchidsCanada.com and he included free laelia seedling as a bonus. Plants arrived nice and healthy and very well packed, so I am adding OrchidsCanada to a trusted canadian vendors list.

Flask arrival

Fedex delivered the package in time and it was in such a fancy box that I almost wanted to do the "opening box" video as one of those geeks opening new gadget and sniffing it on Youtube.
Inside were a much anticipated flask of Phal. Bedford Nonpareil (P. Penang Girl ‘Ching Ruey’ X P. Princess Kaiulani ‘Chin Yo’ AM), three phals I ordered and two free plants.
I will post about plants later, now about flask.
Ever since I saw that wonderful display of Lowland Juwels at the orchid show, I got this idea to get a flask and grow them all to the blooming size to see the variations in siblings blooms.
Now, I realize that this being my first attempt will not yeld that many of them at the blooming stage, but one should start somewhere and I will be happy if at least couple will survive.
Some pictures of the flask taken in low light, so not very good:







Last picture shows some dried root ends and it bothers me a bit. Maybe I should open it now?

Neofinetia progress

I think it finally realized that spring is here and something new should be produced. Neofinetia falcata `Shojo' came during christmas time from Tropical Gardens and grew several nice roots since then.



Now we have a new leaf and some new purple growth on the side:



It doesn't look like root, so I am guessing it is a new fan start. We shall see in some time if my guess was right.

Phalaenopsis Liu's Rainbow

Liu's Rainbow is a cross of Phal Be Glad and lindenii. I saw blooms pictures on the web and liked it.



It is a mini phalaenopsis, definitely blooming sized because there is a trace of an old spike. Plant is healthy and has decent roots.



I just need to somehow convince it to bloom for me.

Mystery masdie spiking

I got Masdevallia Peppermint Rock x ignea fromEcuagenera as freebe and could not find any picture of this cross' bloom. So it is sort of a mystery plant for me. Now the mystery might get resolved, because I think it is spiking:



Maybe here it is better to see with white background:



This is second masdie to bloom for me, I think masdevallia genera is really making its way into my collection. At least I will be looking through Ecuagenera website when October comes - time to pre-order stuff for Montreal show.

Phalaenopsis corningiana

This little phal corningiana species has nice leaves, but roots are very poor.



I was surprised to see the start of the flower spike on such a small plant.



This one should be a fragrant phalaenopsis. Hopefully it will survive.

More tulips

In the middle of the field with all white tulips there was suddenly one orange. I think squirrels digged up a bulb and moved it to the new location. Looks kind of neat:



Dark peony style tulip almost ready to open:



I used macro lens for all the previous pictures. Now, next couple shots were made with telephoto lens:

Tulips

It is tulips time in Ottawa. Lots of pictures. Some of them are past their prime time, but still are pretty.

Lovely combination of blue and orange:



Couple of orange ones:



Dark and curly. Picture is weird, but cool:



Field of pinkish tulips, too much sun:



Couple of whitish:



Field of purple:



Black and white field:



Orange field:



More to come....