Phrag. besseae repot

I decided to do something about new growth that was hanging out of the pot here.
According to advice from forum members, I needed to find wide and shallow container for it to fit long rhizome. At first I wanted to use plastic food container, but it looked too "foodsy", so I browsed through storage departments and came across see-through drawer organizers.
They look like glass but are actually hard plastic, so drilling holes at the bottom was very easy:



Here is how it works for my besseae with new growth. Unfortunately I broke off the very old fan, so there are two remaining:



Top up with sphagnum moss to prevent fast drying of the media:

Phal. Equalacea coerulea bloom

Cute little bloom opened today on Phal. Equalacea coerulea:



Plant had black spot at the base and I thought it will die soon, but it seems that black does not progress further, so plant was able to bloom.
I like the flower

Phal. LDBQ seedlings update

Here is my Phalaenopsis LD's Bear Queen deflasking from last summer:



I didn't loose any yet, but one of the larger seedlings got wet rot on the tip of one leaf, so I had to cut it off. I had this type of rot on couple of other phals and from my experience - once it started, it will come back on the next leaf even if you cut it off, so there is a strong possibility that the plant will die.

Why does it have to be one of the larger ones?!

Paphiopedilum seedlings update

Seedlings are still alive. I have moved them from clay pots with sphagnum to plastic pots with small bark mix.

I haven't lost any sanderianum yet, even runts in the small pot are fresh and perky:



Stonei is not as lucky. I lost few more to the same rot through the bent stem. Here is what's left:



It seems that they didn't do much since the last update but when I was re-compotting them, I noticed lots of root growth, so there was some activity under the surface :).

Phrag experiment

As I am getting more into phrags, the space limitation in my orchid tanks bothers me more and more. Because phragmipediums are not exactly small plants. I could not convince my family to convert useless small room under the basement stairs into my orchids place, so the last resort - large window that became empty since tanks appearance.
For experiment Phrag Eric Young was selected because it appears quite healthy and costed me only $20, so will be easy to replace if things go wrong. It was still blooming, had one opened flower and new developing bud at the experiment start. there were also few new shots starting to grow.
I have adjusted the pot by placing a layer of sphagnum moss at the top so the top of the medium does not get dry as fast. I put some pebbles on the flat plastic boxes from Ferrero Rocher chocolates to create sort of humidity trays:



When I moved plant here from nice and cozy orchid tank I expected some negative reaction like buds drop, growth stunting, brown tips on new leaves. But it seems Eric Young likes the new spot. It has been there for a little over three weeks and during this time it opened the bud ans stated to grow new one, new fans continue to grow nicely too.




I should mention that now we have -21C outside so the heater works like crazy to keep the house at 22C and brings the humidity in the house way below 30%. However my small window environment has RH hovering between 45 and 55%, although temps are down to 15C, but it doesn't seem to bother this phrag.
Well, now there it is - all the room for my newly pre-ordered 4 phrags...

Phrag. besseae

Phrag besseae finished blooming and I cut off the spike. Now, I think it is busy growing a new fan.
I have no problem with it, but what is up with such hanging out of the pot?



I mean, at some point new fan will start growing roots, where those roots would go?

Paphiopedilum Deperle in full bloom

I am impressed by my Paph. Deperle. The very first bloom is still on and it continued to open next buds. Now there are three flowers on:



And one more small bud still growing.
Even though the shape of the blooms is not perfect - I still like them.

Another pollination ...

About a week ago I cross-pollinated amboinensis and violacea alba. I didn't think it will work because both flowers were several weeks old and I just wanted to practise.
Violacea flower dropped right next day, but amboinensis bloom is still holding and I can see the signs of starting pod:



It is quite exciting, but I am worried that since the blooms were old - pod might grow empty and it will be just unnecessary stress on the plant.
Anyway, here is what the cross would be if everything works out:

Phal. gigantea x LD's Bear King

Phal. gigantea x LD's Bear King is a young plant that I got from Kingfishers last summer. Here is what I found on it:



Plant is quite small, much smaller than Phal. gigantea x LD's Bear Queen, so I thought it will take much longer for it to be ready to bloom.

Phalaenopsis Lyndon Red Sun bloom

First flower opened, one more bud to go. Sogo Lawrence x Kung's Red Cherry:



Flower is very thick and looks heavy. I like it.



Of course camera flash messed up the color. It is more like brownish marks on the greenish background instead of read on yellow.



Here I tried to make a picture without flash but in the tank with T5 lights:

Phragmipediums update

So, one month passed since my initial "phragmipediums assessment", now it is time to see how they are doing.

Phrag. besseae is still blooming, roots are growing. Small green nub of the new shot is now much larger and starts to hang out of the pot:



Phrag. Eric Young is still blooming too.
New growth on the front fan is developing well:



Two new fans on the back growth are growing nicely:



One of the formations on the old middle fans got a green point and most likely will become yet one more new fan:



And here is the best part. Month ago no green root points were visible in the Eric Young pot, now there it is:



All in all I think they passed the test and seem to be staying. To celebrate this "graduation" of my test phrags I went to Ecuagenera website and pre-ordered three more hybrids: Hanne Popow, Fritz Schomburg and Eumelia Arias...

Phal. Tzu Chiang Crisna

I didn't post anything about Tzu Chiang Crisna for over a year. Well, it was just sitting there doing nothing and it was surprising because most of the other phals started spikng as soon as they got into tanks, some of them bloomed twice already, but not this one. Until today...

I took it out for watering and here is what I discovered:



Plant itself looks nice and healthy. It grew large leaves and has plenty of roots.



So, in a couple of months there should be flower...