Phal. cornu-cervi red

Phaaenopsis cornu-cervi 'red' continues to bloom with short breaks to form the bud:



There are several spikes with many buds that still growing, so more flowers will come out later. I recently moved the plant to plastic pot with bark and it seems cornu-cervi doesn't mind it.



As always, flower is very shiny and it is hard to make a decent picture.

Something I've been working on...

For some time I have been working on a small reference app that I thought might be fun to use for some people who is into orchids, hybrids and their parentage. It is far from being finished yet, focuses only on phals at the moment and wasn't properly tested too (it is my hobby project and I have very limited spare time, so maybe you'll help me to test it), but I think I can now share the first draft of "beta version" (are these correct terms ?).
Unfortunately I don't have a lot of pictures of all the crosses created so most of the pages have ugly placeholder "sorry no picture yet" but ultimately in ideal world each plant page should look like this:
http://phalaenopsis.orchideya.ca/Plants/P/Penang-Girl-id%3df317628d-fcf4-4362-8bf9-977ebb1b441f
or this:
http://phalaenopsis.orchideya.ca/Plants/S/Siam-Treasure-id%3d4e093a28-a1c2-495c-9b4c-7fc20d05f3fd
And the left bottom part of the page (now empty) will have online availability of each cross (that only if I find vendors who doesn't mind to have their inventory listed).
I am still working on that part.
Well, let me know what you think and if you find any issues please let me know too, so I could fix them. You can email to orchideya2012 at gmail.com
Also if anybody would like to contribute images of the phal crosses to be published there - please send them via same email above along with copyright info.

Phal. Mancervi blooms

I was waiting for the first bud to open on my Phal. Mancervi and it came out just awesome (and for some reason I see the hooded dude from Assassin's Creed crucified in the middle of bloom on the first picture):



Dark and glossy it is hard to photograph with flash though. I tried different settings but it still has reflection.



There are couple more buds to open:

Paph. Prince Edward of York

All three blooms opened up on my PEoY:



Isn't it gorgeous? The long petals continue to grow after the flower opens.

Phal. Lyndon Equator Jewel II blooms

Second cross of Buena Jewel and equestris opened the first flower:



Shape of the bloom looks a bit different from the first one and it seems to be more colorful, but color probably can be explained by the bright and humid tank conditions.
I think they both are pretty.



Too bad my first plant dropped the buds for some reason...

Phal. I-Hsin George

Here is a small update on George. He is obviously enjoying his life in the orchid tank and doesn't grow long narrow leaves any more.
New leaves now come out nice and round:



I-Hsin George grew lots of new roots too. He already had few spikes and now I discovered start of yet one more spike:



All I need now - just a few blooms...

Seedlings available to sell

I did an assessment of my deflasked seedlings and realized that all of them survived and are progressing well, which I didn't expect really for it being my first deflasking.
Anyways, I decided to sell some of them on ebay, hoping to raise some money for new flask purchase and free some space for new seedlings.
As a test I created a listing for one compot here:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Phalaenopsis-Hawaii-Dragon-Girl-compot-/111079020481
Here is how the seedlings.
Group shot with a dollar to give an idea of their size:



Compot 1 (currently listed on ebay)



Compot 2



Compot 3



Compot 4



Now, obviously since I never sold anything on ebay before, my feedback is 0 and judging from my own buying habits - it is not likely anyone would actually bid on it. I wonder how first timers go about building their feedback.
Any suggestions from experienced ebay sellers? Does the listing look ok? Is the start price reasonable?

I am also willing to trade for any paph or phal seedling compots except standard phals with large side petals. I prefer star-shaped ones and fragrant. I posted the trade thread on the OB in the Orchid lounge section.

Phal. cornu-cervi 'red' - trying bark

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi 'red' with its roots grew out of all containers that I was comfortable to have moss in. So I decided to try it in a bark mix.
The pot has slits on the sides but with the higher humidity in the tank it shouldn't be a problem.



Of course the only bark we have available here is Shultz mix which needs a little work before it can be used. I bought a bag to repot my multi paphs too, so I sorted out the bark pieces - larger for phals, smaller for paphs, removed ridiculously big pieces of wood and other garbage and washed out all dirt that was there. At the end I had nicely clean bark.
Plant is nice and healthy, it grew couple new spikes since I got it and now there is a new red bud:



Hope it will do ok in bark...

Phal. KS Jadegreen 'Kung sir'

This phal came in March with two spikes full of blooms.
Now all the blooms fell off, but one late single bud on one of the spikes just opened up now and looks very nice uncrowded alone.
So I took couple of pictures in the tank.
Phalaenopsis KS Jadegreen 'Kung Sir':



I like dark yellow spots at the bottom:



Since there were lots of blooms opened simultaneously, I am guessing it is not a sequential bloomer and this would be probably the end of this year show. Would I have to cut off the spikes?

Repotting catts

I spent half a day yesterday moving some of my catts to larger pots. Not because they grew a lot of p-bulbs, but in the tank their roots gone really wild sticking out in every each direction and bursting out of pots.
I ripped out a big deal of good roots when trying to remove them from clay pots (that's a downside of clay with its porous nature - the roots grab on it for good).

Some of the plants had pots totally filled with roots:



and wouldn't want to move out of the pot at all. So I had to take a hammer and literally break the pot on some of them:



I took the pots couple sizes larger so I don't have to do it very often, but now need to watch out for overwatering.
Here they are all repotted:

Vanda leaf problem

I have noticed some strange markings on the underside of two leaves on Vanda insignis.
They looked sort of freaky so I isolated the plant (removed it from the tank) and cut the both leaves:



Here is the closer view of actual patches:



Both leaves were at the same level and are not the oldest, here is the place where they were (clear gel is just a hand sanitizer which I use to dry up the wounds);



The question is: should I throw away the whole plant?

Paph. Prince Edward of York blooming

First bud opened on PEoY and it really is majestic.



I like how dark is the burgundy color on the pouch and how it matches the color of the spike. I am not sure if the whiskers are going to grow more, but they are quite long now as is.



The flower on Prince Edward totally beats the one on St. Swithin (also quite nice) in my opinion. I mean, I like them both but if I had to choose just one - that would be PEoY.

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) II blooming

I was really looking forward to this blooming to compare it to the number one of this cross and I am not disappointed. It has totally different color:



It is soft yellow, waxy and shiny, and has the same fragrance as the first one. The spike is too short and makes it hard to make a decent photo.



Here is the picture of two siblings together:

Phal. Vio Vio bloom and concern

The first bud on Vio Vio opened all right:



But notice: the second bud is yellowing and will die soon:



This happens to the second phal in my tank for the past couple weeks - the Bashi Blackspot was the first one. Why would that be - too hot? too humid? did I let the medium dry too much?
Any thoughts?

Paph. St. Swithin

St. Swithin didn't mind to be photographed yesterday...













And I realized how ridiculous that green flower clip looks on the spike...

Phal. Vio Vio

Here is yet another preview with a great looking bud:



Phal. Vio Vio bloomed last summer for over three months growing new buds on the same spike.
This will be the second blooming for me. Really like this cross.

Paph. Prince Edward of York

I know, it is a bit of a spoiler, but buds look so incredible that I decided to make couple pictures and post them for the history. Who knows, maybe I'll never get them again:



The spike looks quite strong but I might need to stake it soon to make sure it doesn't break.



The lowest bud already cracked open and I can see some curles inside:

Phal. Bashi Blackspot alba

Bashi Blackspot alba bloomed and it looks wonderful:



The flower is very thick and waxy.



This phal lives in the orchid tank number two with cattleyas and vandas in the corner a bit farther from the lamps but still gets quite bright light.



Bud took two days to open and I took some pictures. It was totally green at the beginning:



But I could see some burgundy spots (and thought that it maybe is not an alba at all):



When it opened - color changed a bit becoming more white with green edges:



There is a raspberry patch around the middle that you can only see from the side:



Does it make it non-alba?