Phal. Lyndon Red Sun spike.

Three weeks ago I was wondering why Phal. Lyndon Red Sun doesn't bloom when all the other plants do.
Well, I think it took a hint and here is a spike:



Very curious how the flower will look like...

Paph. St.Swithin divided.

That wasn't my choice of course, I like large plants with many fans. All I wanted to do - repot and check the roots.
Well, during unpotting the 4 rhizomes fell into two parts:




At the same time roots were still tangled together.
After long attempts to untangle them without much breaking - here is what I got:



Two plants newly potted:



The larger plant has old previously bloomed fan and new growth that I was hoping would bloom soon. Now of course plant got a huge setback and probably won't bloom for a long while. Smaller plant got two small growth, one of which lost many bottom leaves to some type of brown rot.
I returned larger plant to a windowsill and placed smaller one into tank.
We'll see how it goes...

Neofinetia falcata 'Shojo' flowers

And now for the blooms:

Neofinetia falcata 'Shojo' buds

This is a spoiler here of course, but I think that buds with the spurs are just so cute and wanted to document them.



Can't wait for flowers...

Phalaenopsis mannii 'black'

I got this one from Kingfishers too, still trying to follow my original idea of collecting all phalaenopsis species. Also I really like the shape and waxy appearance of the blooms on mannii, cornu-cervi and such.

Phal. mannii 'black' looks nice and healthy, although probably a bit too young to bloom now:



Hope I can keep and grow it nicely.

Phalaenopsis Yaphon Sir

This is one of my recent purchases from Kingfisher Orchids, tiny little seedling with not so tiny price tag. The label actually reads Phal. Yaphon Sir x sib.



Examples of flowers can be found here.
Of course it will take years until I see mine with blooms.

Phalaenopsis venosa update

I got this plant about a year ago with not much healthy roots at all. I had no idea if it will survive.
Well, this venosa did pretty good job recovering:



I think warm and humid conditions of orchid tank helped a lot. Wondering if it will give me a spike soon...

Phal. Liu's Cute Angel

So, I had no idea that these cute little things bloom twice a year. What a great plant!
Phal. Liu's Cute Angel bloomed in April, then dried the spike out and soon after that started a new spike, which now bloomed:



And this new spike has two little branches.



I think I need more of these, preferably in yellow colors. Any suggestions?

I-Hsin George blooms on the second spike

Even though my Phal I-Hsin George is carrying a seed pod, it decided to continue with the bud on the second spike, and now the flower opened:



I now have a big urge to put its pollen on bellina that I posted couple days ago. Should I? I know that the cross of I-Hsin George and bellina is registered but could not find pictures of its blooms, so I cannot justify if it is worth to spoil bellina bloom that I enjoy so much.

Vanda Roberts Delight 'Garnet Beauty' in bloom

The flowers opened up on my Vanda Roberts Delight 'Garnet Beauty'.



The spike has only four flowers again but they are huge.



I am glad that it recovered from the root loss enough to bloom again. I really like its blooms although they are not fragrant.

Paphiopedilum sanderianum

Seedling of Paph. sanderianum that I have since April:



Here is the picture of it when purchased.
Since then it put up some growth and is still alive. Although the growing is very slow and I have no idea how many more years is it away from blooming.
I noticed some growing root tips in the pot:



That's a good sign.

Neofinetia falcata 'Shojo' - it is a spike

Now I am certain that spike is growing on Neofinetia falcata 'Shojo':




Those small buds already have microscopic spurs, so cute!

It is an important milestone, because now I can buy more neofinetias. They will fit perfectly on the top shelf of the larger tank.

Seed pod watch: four weeks

Unfortunately there is only one pod left to watch. The violacea 'Orchis 01' hit the garbage bin due to severe mites infestation.
So there is only I-Hsin George carrying a pod now:



It fattened the pod since last update.



After discovering mites on violaceas I treated all my orchids with miticide soap including George, including pod. Not sure if it will affect anything in its development. Hopefully not...

Phalaenopsis bellina II blooms

I discovered the spike on my bellina II back in July and now first flower opened up :



This year there is more color in the middle. Higher temps and humidity in the orchid tank maybe?





It has beautiful leaves too:

Phal hybrid without label

I got this plant last March without label. It was in bloom and I really liked it.
The fragrance is very nice and strong.
It didn't stop blooming still and keeps producing buds one after the other on two spikes.
Here is the current flower.



I wish I could post the fragrance too...

Phalaenopsis bellina 'Chen'

Yet one more bellina joined my collection a while ago. Phalaenopsis bellina 'Chen':



I got it from Kingfisher Orchids in the beginning of summer. The plant is quite small but has healthy roots, hopefully it will establish well. I potted it into bark in plastic cup with holes at the bottom and sides. I made lots of such "pots" when moving my phals from moss to bark.

Leaf problems = mites infestation.

Last couple days I was busy...
It all started with watering when I was wearing reading glasses because wanted to see how my San Shia Appendo bloom would look like with glasses on.
Well, I noticed ill look of the leaves surface on my two violaceas from Orchis. I always thought it was discoloration from too much light. So I started to inspect it closer and realized that it is something more serious.
Some pictures. Macro lens really helps to see it better. Top of the leaf:




Underside:



Having no clue I posted pics on the BLO forum and got verdict very fast - mites.

I removed the plants from both tanks and checked them all. Even though I didn't find symptoms on other plants, I sprayed them all with miticide. I was quite brutal and sprayed even blooms, spikes and pods (wonder if pods now doomed). During this activity I realized how many plants I have, since I had to do way too many trips from basement to kitchen sink.

During treatment:



There were two positive moments in all this:
1. I got to clean my tanks while plants were out. It is amazing how much dirt was there under white egg crate;
2. all plants now have shiny clean leaves.

After treatment I let the plants to dry out and kept lights off all day yesterday.
Here are the tanks now:






I have excluded two plants with symptoms and now debating if I should just throw them away. Sad part - they are both spiking and one of them even carries the pod.

Phal. gigantea x LD's Bear King

Got this hybrid from Kingfisher in July. It is not as mature as cross of gigantea with LDBQ that I have spiking now, but is a healthy plant, so I hope it will pick up in the orchid tank with its warmth and humidity.



Wonder if it will have huge leaves eventually too...

Phal. Lyndon Red Sun update

Well, the update is probably not really necessary since nothing special happened to this plant, but with all other phals actively spiking in the orchid tanks - this one not spiking kind of stands out. On the positive note - it grew lots of roots and large floppy leaves with nice burgundy tinge. Those leaves are glossy and hard and resemble the leaves of hardy noIds sold at grocery stores, so maybe it could stand a bit drier conditions and doesn't have to take space in the orchid tank?



Real reason for posting about Lyndon Red Sun is to record this picture:



It is a screenshot of USA orchid vendor website as of September 5, 2013 with bunch of Phal. Lyndon Red Sun plants advertised at drastically different prices ranging from $28 to $150. I am almost sure that my plant came from the same origin and now really curious into which range my bloom would fit.
So when my Phal. Lyndon Red Sun will decide to bloom I would need to remember to go back to this post and compare my flower to these ones.

Phalaenopsis San Shia Appendo bloom

Surprise waited for me at home today. Teeny-tiny bud on Phal. San Shia Appendo opened up:



The bud was so small that I thought it will take couple more days to bloom, but it didn't. I am not sure if top part will open some more, if it does, I will update the picture.
I like the bloom as it is though. It is adorable and kind of weird.
This is a late introduction too, I had this plant for a while but never posted about it before.

Phal. gigantea x LD's Bear Queen

Finally I got the spike on Phal. gigantea x LD's Bear Queen:



I saw quite a few pictures of this cross blooms on the BLO forum and couldn't wait for mine to bloom. Now there is a hope I will have flowers soon.

My plant has huge beautiful leaves:



I wonder what the flowers will look like...

Ooops, there is no existing label for this plant, which means I never logged it in here since I got it in March, just like many others, so this is a late introduction too. My current orchids list is so outdated.

Vandachostylis Sri-Siam again

I tried to make some pictures of the blooms without using flash, right in the orchid tank. Now, the color looks a bit more real:



I think flash takes away blue tones, but then again, maybe T5 lights enhance it a bit here:



Here is where Sri-Siam lives:

Phalaenopsis Princess Kaiulani

My first Princess Kaiulani, the one from Crystal Star, started a new spike:



Just recently it surprised me with un-proportionally small new leaf:



I still don't know why exactly it was so small. Plant has lots of roots, I water it regularly. I decided that maybe it was stressed by too much light when I placed it into orchid tank and moved it a bit farther from the lamp. Hope the spike will develop nicely...

Neofinetia falcata `Shojo`

I already mistaken the new fan for a spike twice before on my Neofinetia falcata 'Shojo'.

This time she decided to give me two new puzzles at once:



At this moment the new growths look different to me, so I really hope that the top one will become a spike eventually.
But I was terribly wrong about these things before, so - just patiently waiting...

Vandachostylis Sri-Siam blooms

V. Sri-Siam is a first vandaceous that bloomed in my orchid tank under T5 HO lights.



I wasn't sure if tanks lighting would be enough for vandas but it turned to be ok, so I can go back to my "vanda obsession", although concentrating on smaller sized plants.



Vandachostylis Sri-Siam is a small plant with waxy flowers and color hard to capture. It is more purple in real life.
Lip has an interesting texture and pattern.





I find it adorable...