Paph. St. Swithin bud

I was really holding my breath since I noticed this bud and didn't want to jinx it by posting pictures but can't hold it anymore.
Here it is, a new homemade real bud developing on my Paph. St. Swithin:



My worries are concentrated around the humidity now. Both of my multifloral paphs live on the windowsill with south-east exposure. Glass has protective film to keep plants from direct sun but they still get lots of light and it gets pretty warm around them. As a result - humidity is very low:



Now, I could probably move some stuff around in my larger orchid tank to fit plant in, but St. Swithin had pretty bad mites infestation last fall, so I am worried that mites can still hide there and orchid tank rules state - no suspicious plants allowed.
Therefore, the bud might die from dry air any day.
But the fact that it appeared is pretty exciting and means that:
a) my plant is not a stubborn non-bloomer (like some of them might be);
b) my windowsill has the correct environment to induce the spike.

Looking at the picture I wonder if the brown line on the bud should be there or it means that bud is dying. Hope it is by design.
I mist the plant often trying to not get any water on the budding spot but it probably doesn't help much with humidity around the plant.
Hopefully the bud will hold until the warmth comes and heat drying the air will be turned off constantly.

Gigantea repotting

I decided to repot my seedling of Phalaenopsis gigantea.
Partially because it was growing in very small clay pot and with largest leaf pulling on one side - pot was constantly tipping over from the slightest touch.
The other reason - I wanted to see what is going on in the roots department since they didn't look that good last time (that's why it had to downsize to the smallest pot).
This time roots don't look that bad:



There is not too many of them, but I was glad to see fresh growing tips and all the branches on the old brown root.

For the new potting I chose the plastic net pot. I found that in the humid environment of orchid tank they work the best - allowing moss to dry out faster and not showing as much of salts deposits and algae as my favorite clay pots:



Probably eventually and gradually I will move all my phals in the tank into net pots, at least those that grew out of two-and-a-half inch clay pots.

Phal. Mituo Sun King

Cross of Mituo Sun 'Mituo #1' and LD's Bear Queen.
Crystal Star had several plants of this hybrid with blooms. I was selecting the best flower (in my opinion of course), they had different colors since they are seedling population not clones.
Here is what I ended up with:



The flower is very thick and seems heavy. It has faint fragrance, smells like opened package of the baloons.



Now for the sad part. Plants were wrapped into plastic, I was concentrated on selecting a flower and didn't even look at the foliage. At home, unwrapping the plant I discovered black rot in the middle where new leaf should come out. Of course I sent the picture of it to the vendor and she replied right away that I should bring it back for refund or exchange. The problem is - I really like the bloom, there weren't any other with such shape and color.

Black stuff seems to be dry, but I don't know how far into the middle it goes. Otherwise it is very strong plant with nice roots and there is a nubbing of the second spike coming out. I can bring it back to Ottawa show and get another plant, but in reality I would like to save this one.
I spilled some hydrogen peroxide into the middle and keep the plant out of tank for now to make sure there is no humidity around the black stuff.

Any suggestions/opinions for me?

More pics from the show

Bulb. rothschildianum:



Rhynchostylis gigantea:



Vanda tricolor:



Masdevallia mendozae:

New purchases

Here is the group shot of new phals I brought back from the show in Montreal.
On the back left-to right are KS Jadegreen 'Kung sir', Mituo Sun 'Mituo#1' x LD's Bear Queen, phal hybrid with no label.
In the middle, large leaves - gigantea x LD's Bear Queen.
Front - two violaceas. All repotted:


I will post each one separately with more pictures all of them a bit later except one - red phal hybrid. It desperately needs ID. I bought it because it resembled Phal. Lea Marie Salazar that recently died from crown rot. At home I checked pictures of LMS and pretty much sure it is the one. Now just need a confirmation of an expert. I am goingto post following pics in ID section of BLO and see what people say:

Montreal orchid show: slippers

Roth:



St. Swithin:



Edna Francos (I really liked that one):



Couple groups from Glen Decker display, they always have very neat appearance:





Phrag. grande 4N x caudatum:

Montreal orchid show pictures

Phal. amboinensis hybrid:



Phal. Taisuco Glory:



Phal. corningiana:



Phal. bastianii mislabelled as mariae:

Phalaenopsis Mancervi - new spike.

With this one I wasn't totally sure whether it was a spike or a root at first.



Looking at the picture made with macro lens it is now clear that the growth is indeed a new spike.



I am actually pretty excited about this spike and can't wait until it matures. There is a remainings of an old spike, but it was already spent when the plant came to me so I never saw the flowers.
The purple splotches on the plant are from the bright light. I noticed this habit on my cornu-cervi red too. To me it looks like someone spilled the purple ink all over the plant and then didn't clean it properly.

Lueddemanniana bloom

It opened today while I was at work.



I think it looks nice but of course I know nothing about proper shape and form.



There was a slight fragrance sweet and pleasant but very faint. Probably during the day it is more pronounced. I will sniff it on the weekend.



Plant picture:

Next to bloom

Phalaenopsis hybrid with very long name is getting ready to flower next after luedde:



It has nicely pink and elegant blooms with very pleasant fragrance. Just for the record - the name is Phal. Chang Maw Evergreen 'U-Bix' x P. {Tzu Chiang Litlitz x P. (Buena Jewel x Peach State Red)} x P. (Su-An Super Star x George Vasquez).
I wonder if it ever has a chance to get a shorter name. Plant started second spike on the other side, so I will be able to enjoy its fragrant blooms for a while.



I think I am going to buy just fragrant orchids from now on. This will give my collection some kind of theme, so it is not just a mess of everything together.

Bud started to open, finally

Just pictures:

Phal. Lyndon Equator Jewel II

Technically this is not my plant anymore - it was sold and just waiting for the weather to warm up for shipping. It is catching up to its sibling in spiking:



Plant lives in the orchid tank too and got a bit of reddish tinge from the intense light. I moved it farther from the bulb yesterday, hope red disappears.



I noticed that different phals in my tank react to high light in their own ways.
Bellina just gets really light green, almost lime colored leaves.
One of the Tsay's Evergreens and fasciata got ugly yellow patches and really show the damage.
Equestris and its hybrids - get reddish brown pigmentation coloring leaves in patches that gets off when plant gets removed from the high light, at least I noticed it on equestris orange, equalacea, KR and this plant above.
Cornu-cervi and its hybrids get purple specklles all over.
Schilleriana gets bleached pattern on its mottled leaves.
Interestingly bright light seems to have no effect on gigantea seedling at all, no change in color, no pigmentation.
I wonder what other phals can take high light without showing signs of stress.

Lueddemanniana bud

Here is the thing that is literally testing my patience:



Every morning I check on it and hope that it is the day when it opens, but it never happens.
How large the bud should grow before opening? I don't know. It looks ready to me.



I hope it is worth waiting...

Phalaenopsis deliciosa

I have had this plant for a while.
From the beginning it had some problem with one of the leaves and it came down almost to the crown so I was pretty sure plant was a goner. I didn't throw it away only because it is kind of hard-to-find species, so I just left it be.

At some point problem stopped and plant was just standing there looking non-pretty.
Recently I noticed some positive activity - a new leaf and a new root:



So, I guess, this is a belated introduction. The name on the plant stated deliciosa yellow, but there is no var. yellow in the deliciosa family. However from the description of the var. hookeriana I think it might be it. Therefore I am going to log it under the name Phal. deliciosa var. hookeriana for now.

Cattleya tigrina

Phals are not the only group that likes my orchid tank.
Look at Cattleya tigrina, her two new pseudobulbs are growing much fatter and taller than all the previous and roots are bursting out of the pot:





Being right under the lights pseudobulbs don't need to lean anywhere and are growing straight up. There is a lot of purple pigmentation on the new leaves, I hope it is ok and wouldn't harm my tigrina:




I wonder if there is a tiny possibility that any of these two bulbs might bloom when mature... That would be awesome.

Phal. Lyndon Equator Jewel

Slight correction to the previous post about spikes on Phalaenopsis Lyndon Equator Jewel.
Apparently it has not two - but three new spikes at once:



Crazy little plant, it is not that strong to handle so much.
I hope it will be smart enough to stall at least one or better two of those spikes.
I would prefer it to grow more leaves and roots instead.

Bl. Morning Glory

I think my Bl. Morning Glory is probably approaching blooming size:



New pseudobulbs come out fat and start to develop white papery stuff inside. It resides now in the orchid tank very close to the lights.
I like plants habit to grow upright, it doesn't take that much of horizontal space. Recently I noticed two more new pseudobulbs started in there:



I am hoping these two will bloom when mature.

Coming up: lueddemanniana

It is now clear that Phalaenopsis lueddemanniana will be the first blooming in my tank:



The markings are there and they were visible even on the smaller bud. These two buds are not the only blooms there will be.
Here is the other spike:



They are much smaller but coming along nicely too. I wonder how long before the first bud opens...

Deflasked seedlings update

This is all about Hawaii Dragon Girls. I noticed that some larger plantlets started to grow real adult round leaves. They did however look somewhat crowded in their compots. I didn't want them to come out all crooked and swirly, so I decided to separate those that were larger and bullying others.

Each of them got individual little pot - either plastic net pot or clay like this:



I was pleased by the look of the roots, even on the smaller seedlings:



They all were grouped into compots like this:



I didn't touch compots that contained smallest plantlets since there were no problems of crowdness. Here is a result of all the manipulations.
The family picture of all my Hawaii Dragon Girls:



There are about 25 seedlings still in compots and 13 seedlings in the individual pots.



Couple more years and I might see blooms, maybe.