Phal. gigantea x LDBQ: more blooms

The buds continue to open on phalaenopsis cross of gigantea and LD's Bear Queen:



I am starting to like the flowers more.

Phal. Bashi Blackspot

This is the second flowering of what I was buying as Phalaenopsis Bashi Blackspot alba and with each blooming it looks less and less alba-ish:



Even though I am a bit annoyed with this mislabeling, I must admit that I kind of like the random nature of the spots. Not black but rather raspberry colored...
In addition to that - fragrance is just heavenly.

Paph. Deperle bloom

I was sort of busy lately and totally forgot about the Paph. Deperle bud watch. Well, it is too late now because it just flowered:



It is amazing how the cross of two species with colorful blooms could result in such a pristine white flower.

Here is the whole plant:

Phalaenopsis deliciosa bloomed

Tiny spike on Phalaenopsis deliciosa did develop its only bud and today it opened up:



That is the cutest phalaenopsis flower I ever had bloomed. It is so small and hiding under the leaf so I had to use flash to make the pictures otherwise it would come out totally dark. The flash created all the sparkles on the bloom:



Now I would like to get a white flowered variety...

C. aurantiaca x angereri

Back in September I discovered a new pseudobulb start on this cattleya primary seedling. Well, after just over two months here is the result:



New p-bulb grew very tall, it sits on the top shelf in the larger tank and is way too close to the lights now. Leaves are getting reddish patches. The new thing for me - light colored formation that comes out from the middle of the pseudobulb. I think it is what they call sheath, that's where the flower will come out.

Right now it seems empty inside, when I look on it with light at the back. I am not sure if the buds should come later or it is just faulty sheath that doesn't have flowers at all.
Time will tell...

Phalaenopsis amboinensis bloomed

Phal. amboinensis bloomed and I like it:



I was expecting cream colored flower with burgundy bars but it seems very green with dark brown bars, maybe it will change color with age; markings are not symmetrical. I like markings on the fuzzy lip too.



It was a good purchase...

Phragmipedium Eric Young

My second phragmipedium purchased in October Phragmipedium Eric Young bloomed now.
The flower is not as bright colored as besseae and the shape is different too:



Picture with flash:



Looks quite pretty but I think I look the besseae bloom a bit more. Here they are together. With flash:



Without flash, the blooms are backlit:



If they survive until spring my next purchases will be besseae var. flavum and any type of caudatum species that I can find...

Phal. gigantea x LD's Bear Queen

I have seen many pictures of this cross posted on forums lately and finally I have one blooming too:



Unfortunately it is not one of the best ones, I was hoping for more color.



Still I like it. The flower would flatten more but it got trapped in unlucky position on the spike:



I like large leaves on this plant too.

Phalaenopsis amboinensis

Here is yet one more new purchse that I made at the Montreal orchid show in October - Phalaenopsis amboinensis:



I got it from Crystal Star Orchids, so far it has been the best source for mature phalaenopsis. They always have nicely established plants with good root system. I already have one ambo "common', but it had almost deadly roots problem at the beginning, then it took a year to grow some new roots, then it started what I thought was a spike but came out as a keiki and now it just sits there doing nothing, so I am not expecting any blooms from that one for a while.

The new ambo has three spikes, one is visible on the picture above and has buds already, the other two are small under the leaves and not active at the moment.
Plant has mechanical damage on the leaf but that doesn't bother me much, it is healthy otherwise.

So, waiting for those buds to open...

Phal. cornu-cervi 'Burma'

I didn't post anything about this plant since the very first introduction in June 2012. Mainly because there was nothing to post comparing to all the other plants that had something going on.
Initially cornu-cervi 'Burma' arrived mounted on the metall mesh with a small handful of sphagnum moss. I remember trying to grow it that way, but I didn't have my tanks back then yet, so it was extremely dry most of the time and at some point I took it from the mount and potted.
It did grow couple new leaves and many roots but the reason it deserved a post today - two spike starts that I discovered on the plant:



It is an exciting event because I might actually find out what the word "burma" in the tag means, I mean how is it different from all the other "non-burma" cornu-cervis.
So, fingers crossed, hope at least one of those spikes will eventually bloom.

Phal. violacea alba

Violacea alba opened second flower:


Notice how the color of the bloom changes with time loosing some green.

I repotted it because couldn't stand old dirty moss, plant didn't complain and continued to bloom.

New phrags, what is going on.

I had my new phrags for couple weeks now. One of them bloomed, other is growing a bud. I really like besseae and its hybrids so I want to keep an eye on these two "test plants" to see if they will progress or decline and decide if I want to buy more when the shipping season restarts.
So, here are my observations.

Phrag besseae has one old growth which does nothing and one new growth which currently blooms. Through the walls of clear pot I can see quite a few nice green roots with growing points:



Blooming fan also started new rooots at the base:



And there is a green nub of the new fan coming out:



Phrag. Eric Young has four fans: two in the middle are old previously bloomed fans, two others - one in the front and one on the back are new. This plant didn't have any green roots with fresh growing point, all roots were brown but firm and not mushy.
New fan at the front currently grows a bud:



It also has started new root at the base and a new fan:



Back fan didn't spike yet but it is busy, two new green nubs poked out and one of them already has tiny leaves. Although direction of the growth is somewhat strange:



Two old growths have some white formations at the base too, but they don't look like the green new fan starts yet, so I am not sure what will come out of them, if anything:



All in all both plants look happy in the tank. I water them every day with rain water and keep their pots in the saucers with rain water which I change every day too.
Let's see their status in a month...

Phrag. besseae blooms

I was holding my breath because at some point it seemed that bud on my new besseae was becoming limp and might actually wilt.
But it didn't.
Instead it opened a beautiful flower:



The spike is quite thin and started to bend a lot under the weight of the open flower, so I had to use the stake and ugly green clip to support the spike:



What a lovely bloom. I definitely want more of these...