Deflasked seedlings update

It has been over a month since I logged in the status of my seedlings.
They are still alive, there were no deaths since last update. Lots of them are working on a new leaf and all grew some new roots.

Phal. Bedford Nonpareil:





Phal. Hawaii Dragon Girl:





I also noticed this little plant - it looks like it has a keiki growing on the side:



Would be awesome if it survived.

Laelia tenebrosa II

Laelia tenebrosa is the last one from the cattleya batch that I got from Clouds. I know, it can grow pretty large and I already have small tiny seedlings of this species, but it was pretty hard to pass an opportunity to get larger sized plant(it was listed as large seedling) that might flower sooner so I would be able to enjoy blooms in this life.
Since I usually try to buy mostly smallish species, I think I will be able to squeeze this large laelia in between vandas on my sunny window.



There are four pseudobulbs, bunch of nice roots, leaves are freshly green. I moved plant from plastic pot with bark mix to my preferred clay pot with chc.

Phalaenopsis bellina III

Yes, yet one more Phal. bellina. I got it in the summer with an old spike and ugly yellowing bottom leaf.
Was hoping that spike will activate and produce a bloom for me, but no.
All it did since arrival - shedded ugly yellow leaf (with my help).
No new roots, not any sign of growing, nothing.



Well, I guess it is still adjusting. Hopefully there will be some activity soon.
I now have 4 bellinas.

Cattleya kerrii

Cattleya kerrii is another one from Clouds orchids.
Supposedly the large seedling it has a sheath already. Apparently sometimes very young plants can produce sheath, but often they don't result in blooms. My case is probably an example of it.



It is a small sized cattleya too (I have to remember my space limitations), also from Brazil. Interesting that its population in the wild is very limited and according to this post C.kerrii is considered an endangered species.
Name kerrii was given in honour of english botanist Kerr who lived in the beginning of 20st century.

I like the look of the blooms, it is quite different from usual cattleya flowers.

Bulbophyllum ambrosia update

About a month ago I got my first and only bulbophyllum - Bulb. ambrosia. I potted it into smallest clay pot with sphagnum and since the pot was too narrow and pseudobulbs grew too wide - the newest pseudobulb was sort of hanging in the air at the edge of the pot.
I had no idea how it grows and where the new growth would appear.
Now this new pseudobulb activated, produced couple roots and it seems like there is also some swelling on the actual bulb:



I totally freaked out that these new roots are exposed to my dry indoor air and new growth would have nowhere to grow.
After some head-scratching and looking through all the pots I had at my disposal I came up with this:



Plastic vanda basket is shallow, breathable and wide enough to fit existing pseudobulbs with some space for the new ones, and roots can now grow right into moss.
Hope this works out.

Laelia alaorii

Laelia alaorii was a travelling companion for my Cattleya schilleriana. It is a small species but it is also a small seedling of the small species which makes it practically microscopic.
It is mounted onto piece of wood:



The wood piece is very small too but of course it looks gigantic comparing to laelia.
Here is the closer look of the plant:



I would rather grow it potted but am afraid to break it when taking off the mount -it looks so fragile.
I really hope it survives and grows a bit so I wouldn't be so scared to handle it.

Phalaenopsis corningiana x Coral Isles

Cross of corningiana and Coral Isles.
I expect something red and fragrant.

Dendrobium cochliodes

I am not a big fan of dendrobiums, probably because they associate with the view of the leafless canes to me. I like when plants look neat even without flowers.
Despite that I did have one dendro - noId from discount shelf, that does grow - probably because I don't fuss much with it.
Lately I became interested in the antelope dendrobiums and even purchased small antennatum seedling from Ecuagenera, but promptly killed it because it was very weak from beginning with started rot in place.
Now I got hold of three small seedlings of Dendrobium cochliodes. It is claimed to be hot to warm grower with medium to high light, which I should be able to provide in my indoors or orchidarium (when I get it).



I never saw the flowers in person, but found pictures on the web, they look spectacular.
Seedlings appear pretty strong, have some viable roots, hopefully they will survive.
Since my noID grows nicely in chc, I have potted the new babies the same way - clay pots with chc.

Phalaenopsi pulchra update

Since its arrival in June, Phal. pulchra grew new leaf and it came out normally colored but somewhat small. Now it looks like the next leaf is pushing out while the previous is not grown fully.
Usually smaller leaves mean problems with roots. It is possible, because it also produced whole bunch of new roots at the base:



One of the spikes activated the node and there is something growing too. Maybe a bud or a new branch of the spike:



And to my amusement I found the whole new spike coming out of the moss, below new roots:



Maybe there will be blooms soon.

Cattleya schilleriana

For some reason I always order catts from Clouds in the fall. This year I just randomly looked through their catalogue and found catt. schilleriana listed there. I wanted it for a while and decided to get one even though it is just a seedling.
Naturally it had to have a travelling companion(actually three), so I got four cattleyas.
Here is the one that is responsible for the whole order - Cattleya schilleriana:



I like ordering from Clouds, their plants are always extremely healthy and something listed as medium seedling usually looks substantial enough to pass for a large one.

Cattleya schilleriana is a small sized fragrant catt. that originated from Brasil. You can see the bloom picture here.
On the website about orchid species its synonym listed as C. aclandiae var. schilleriana. So, I guess my schilleriana is a close relative of aclandiae - another small fragrant cattleya I would like to get, especially the coerulea var.
Leaves are a bit dark comparing to my other cattleyas and, I checked, they are supposed to have red tinge on the underside.

My plant came potted into plastic pot with moss - road to death for any cattleya under my care, so I repotted it into clay pot with chc right away.

Hopefully it will adjust to the new conditions without problems.

Phalaenopsis fasciata 'Shaffers' CCM/AOS blooms

Last time it bloomed in December 2011 and blasted all buds except one. This year Phal. fasciata 'Shaffers' CCM/AOS has three buds now, one on each spike, and one opened today:







Here is how the plant looks now:



Two other buds are a bit behind in development, but blooms last pretty long on this phal, so I think there will be a moment when all flowers will be opened.
I like the flowers, only wish they were fragrant too.

Mounted catts

A little while ago I mounted two cattleyas and a very small vanda on one large piece of grape wood. It seems they like it.
I had to cover roots with sphagnum moss to keep some humidity around them.
Plants are still alive and I can see several new root tips poking out of the moss.

Catt. jenmanii:



Lc. Love Knot carmela's blue:



Vanda coerulescens seedling:

Equalacea coerulea

Here is Equalacea coerulea again, but now with all three flowers:

Laelia sincorana update

This little plant - Laelia sincorana var. coerulea - looked so fragile when I took it off the mount to pot up. Right after that - two newest pseudobulbs came off for some reason.
I thought plant was doomed.
Couple weeks went by and here is what it's growing now:



A new pseudobulb!
The whole plant is still small, smaller than when it came, because of two lost bulbs, but this new growth is quite encouraging, new roots should come soon too.

Phalaenopsis Crimson Cherub 'Chiayi'

Phalaenopsis Crimson Cherub 'Chiayi' is a small plant, but it is blooming size phal.
I really liked the pictures of its blooms found on the web.
Can't wait for mine to flower.

Phal. cornu-cervi 'red' x Tsay's Evergreen

I think this might produce interesting flowers - Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi red x Tsay's Evergreen.



There are two old spikes that are not active and one new spike, I hope it will bloom soon.
Plant itself reminds me of my cornu-cervi 'red' by its growth habit, has few nice roots. Yellowish patch on the right leaf - hope it is just a sun damage and nothing serious.
Can't wait to see it blooming.

Cattleya araguaiensis II

Yet one more attempt to have Cattleya araguaiensis. The small seedling I have already will take ages to recover and some more ages to grow to blooming size. This one is already adult plant.



There is even a new pseudobulb starting, hopefully it will bloom when mature.

Every Catt. araguaiensis I tried to buy(and this one is the third one) had some black and brown patches on the leaves. I mean, there should be a way to grow cattleya with nice foliage so it doesn't look like cr*p when out of bloom.

Paphiopedilum after bloom.

I was wondering what happens with paph after bloom. Does spent fan die away or stays there to support new growth?
Here is Paphiopedilum armeniacum II about 4 months after blooming.



The old growth is still fresh and new runners started producing the leaves. I doubt any of the new growths will be ready to bloom next year, so it will be a long wait for the next flower.
Unfortunately my other plant didn't survive. Blasted bud rotted whole plant down to the base.

Phalaenopsis lueddemanniana II

I already had one - very small seedling growing very slowly. This lueddemanniana is a mature plant with three old spikes:



Foloiage is not in perfect shape, but new leaf grows healthy and there are few nice roots. Also one spike - top left on the picture, activated one node and grows this:



I am guessing it will be a new branch on the spike, so there might be blooms soon.

Dracula chimaera update

It turns out that all the new growth problems(pleated leaves) with my draculas came from low humidity. Here is my attempt to increase humidity around Dracula chimaera:



I know saran wrap at the top looks weird, but it is temporary until I fashion something more elegant.
Now I need to find suitable glass container for Dracula simia which is twice taller.

Also knowledgeable folks from Orchidboard suggested to pot draculas into net pots since they send spikes down and to the sides, so I also moved my dracs from clay to net pots.
I hope all these manipulations are for good.

Mites attack

Nowdays I am busy fighting mites on my paphs. Good thing they are on totally different level, isolated from my other orchids.
I never saw the actual bugs but here are the symptoms.
Rusty orange traces on the leaves:



And underside:



Indented damages on the leaves:



All the above pictures are of one plant - Paphiopedilum emersonii II, it took the most damage.
I am annoyed at the bugs for ruining my paphs and mad at myself for not paying attention - I probably could check on them more often and notice those pests traces before it's gone so far.

I have used the Safer's Endall insecticide on Monday, then yesterday. Then I freaked out that insecticide could collect in the media and damage the roots. So I unpotted each of them, washed thoroughly plant and pot and potted into fresh chc.

I think I am going to repeat Endall next weekend, meanwhile - will use cotton swab with alcohol to wipe the plants every third day.

I don't know what else can I do.

Blooming continues

I am amused by the phals that span their blooming time for several months producing sequential buds on the same spikes.
Here is Phalaenopsis Vio Vio. I checked my log - it opened first bloom back in June. Since then - it always has a flower on. When one wilts - new bud is just ready to open. It is on fourth bloom now and fifth bud is growing:




I also like how heavy textured the flower is and of course the fragrance.



Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi 'red' stays in bloom since beginning of May. At first it had one flower on each spike at the time. Now it is producing clusters of blooms. I wonder if it is something that all cornu-cervis do, or I just got lucky with this particular plant:



It is also somewhow hard to photograph as a whole plant. Picture always comes out either blurry or wrongly focused or with too much shine.



Equalacea coerulea actually just started blooming recently, it now has two blooms opened and third bud growing. I like how crisp and delicate the flowers are:



The whole plant is extremely cute:

Paphiopedilum Fanaticum

I bought this Paph back in spring but forgot to log it in.
It is still alive and growing, althiugh lost couple of bottom leaves and looks kind of short.



Together with Paph. Fanaticum I also bought Paph. Magic Lanthern. I didnt forget to log that one in, but today I removed it from the list. The brown patch at the bottom was rot that was spreading to each next leaf until none was left.

Phalaenopsis violacea 'red'

Here are the small seedling and the tiny seedling of Phal. violacea 'red'.



The little one dropped out of the moss where the main seedling was wrapped. I assumed - it is the same type.
Maybe not. If it survives, in many years, I might find out.
I bought the seedling against my rule of only mature plants again because you don't see that many of violacea 'red' mature plants for sale here and I have this idea of collecting all types of violacea and bellina.
So, it was a legitimate purchase in some way.

C. aurantiaca x L. angereri

C. aurantiaca x L. angereri is growing a new pseudobulb.



Normally with all other my catts it wouldn't be a big deal - most of them grew more than one p-bulb since spring.
However it is a very big deal for C. aurantiaca x L. angereri because since its appearance here last fall it didn't grow a thing until now.
I mean there were new roots of course but all catts grow new roots like crazy, I wanted a new growth that potentially could flower some time in the future.
Stubborn plant was just sitting there doing nothing and I was questioning the usefullness of this purchase.
So, I was really happy to discover this little nub growing into new bulb.

Phalaenopsis fasciata 'Shaffers'

I got so busy with new phals, that totally forgot about my Phal. fasciata 'Shaffers' that lives here since last fall.
Now it activated three spikes and grows three buds:



Last time it flowered in December, so now is probably the time to start blooming again. This guy is a known bud blaster and last time I only got one flower.
Now I keep him in a humidity tray and that should help to keep all buds until opening, hopefully.