C. leopoldii v. coerulea 'Blue Spots' x C. leopoldii v. coerulea 'Kathleen' JC/AOS

Blue version of leopoldii from SVO.
C. leopoldii v. coerulea 'Blue Spots' x C. leopoldii v. coerulea 'Kathleen' JC/AOS:



Can't wait to see it blooming...

C. leopoldii 'Dark Select #1' x C. leopoldii 'Paul' AM/AOS

I always wanted Cattleya leopoldii. This one came from SVO too.
C. leopoldii 'Dark Select #1' x C. leopoldii 'Paul' AM/AOS:

Paph. superbiens deflasked

Paph superbiens x sib is the second flask that I got from Ching Hua. I really like the leaves on barbarta types and since my callosum deflasklings are doing ok, I figured this one should too.

Bathing in a bowl:



Look at those amazing roots! 22 plantlets were in the jar, all pretty uniform in size, no runts:



Potted up:

Two new micranthums

Here are two blooming sized micranthums that I got from trading my seedlings in. One of them has nice clean foliage and haven't bloomed yet. I already had two micranthums before and one of those is still alive, so this one will be Paphiopedilum micranthum III:



The other one had attempted the bud, but it dried out. Foliage has some damage, but there is a new fan growing out under the leaves, so when it is mature - plant will look nicer. Paphiopedilum micranthum IV:

Paphiopedilum stonei

Paphiopedilum stonei seedling came from Le Paradis des Orchidees in Montreal, full name is Paph. stonei 'Crown' x sib



It is my second attempt to grow stonei. First one was a flask from Orchid Inn, it wasn't very successful. Hopefully this seedling will survive.
I lives in small tank together with phals and warmth loving paph seedlings...

Cattleya loddigesii var. alba

A new cattleya plant I brought from Montreal orchid show. An alba variaton of Cattleya loddigesii ordered from Orchis Floriculturing in Taiwan.



It is a blooming sized plant judjing by traces of spent flower stalks in all the mature pseudobulbs. There is a little green nub of new bulb start, hopefully it will be blooming for me when ready.

I have to get a few of smallish cattleya plants to keep in high light areas of my orchid tanks to provide some shade for paphs and phals. The previous residents - tenebrosa, purpurata and aurantiaca cross grew too tall and had to move out.

Since there are thousands of crosses exist in Cattleya alliance I decided to limit myself to getting species only, so there will be some kind of theme in my cattleya collection...

New paphs from the show

I got a few new paphiopedilums at the Montreal show last weekend. They are all parvisepalum type.
Paphiopedilum emersonii, 4 seedlings from Ten Shin gardens:



Paph. micranthum var. eburneum, 4 seedlings from Ten Shin also:



And three mature plants, vietnamense, Mem. Larry Heuer and Wossner China Moon:

Paphiopedilum callosum deflasked

Maudae type species that is supposed to be easy to grow and bloom. Paphiopedilum callosum x sib.



I counted 35 plantlets. Some of them have yellowing leaves at the bottom. Since they are bottom leaves - I will not worry about it for now.

Paphiopedilum Paul Parks deflasked

Sanderianum primary hybrid - Paphiopedilum Paul Parks. Hopefully more vigorous than my sanderianum seedlings.
Cross is sanderianum 'Lady in Red' x adductum var. anitum 'Ace' AM/AOS.



There are about 26 seedlings, all pretty uniform in size. I didn't bother with small protocorm-sized plantlets, just threw them away.

Paphiopedilum Harold Koopowitz deflasked

Another parvi hybrid that came yesterday in flask.
Paphiopedilum Harold Koopowitz - rothschildianum 'Gigantic Dorsal' x malipoense 'Sam's Choice' FCC/AOS.



About 30 seedlings. One was large enough to go to the individual pot, I think. Hope it will be ok...

Paphiopedilum Carolyn Butcher deflasked

Sometime in winter I pre-ordered bunch of paphiopedilum flasks from Orchid Inn USA. Received them yesterday.
Here is the first one I deflasked- Paphiopedilum Carolyn Butcher:



The cross is Fanaticum 'SVO Chunky Monkey' AM/AOS x delenatii 'SVO VII' AM/AOS. There are 27 seedlings in total, couple were clearly bullies with large roots, so I potted them separately. Bottom right pot has two plantlets that are actually connected by long runner.

Paph. Dollgoldi

Here is my new purchase from Montreal show. paphiopedilum Dollgoldi = rothshildianum x armeniacum.



I didn't pre-order it, and just pick it out from the sales table. From what I see plant didn't bloom yet, but has two nearly mature growth and two additional little runners. I think it looks cool.

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...

Paphiopedilum henryanum

New paph arrived today in the mail. I purchased Paph. henryanum from a member of SlipperTalk forum.
Plant looks gorgeous, 8 growths, spotless leaves.
It came barerooted, I mixed some fir bark with perlite and charcoal and added few river rocks to pot new henryanum.
Here it is in all its glory:



I placed henry in the larger tank beside my new phrags. Hope he will like brighter light and occasional slight breeze from the fan:

New phrags

This is something I always wanted but didn't dare because of dry conditions in the house. Now with tanks I decided to try.
So, here is Phrag besseae :



It came from John Marcotte at Orchids Canada. The plant is just perfect: immaculate leaves, nice healthy roots and a spike! We'll see if it will bloom or drop.

The second plant is a hybrid between besseae and longifolium - Phrag. Eric Young:



I got it at the show in Montreal. The foliage on it is not perfect and has some damages, so normally I wouldn't buy such plant but three reasons made me do it anyway:
1. it has a spike;
2. damaged are old leaves, there are 4 fans,
one new growth:



and each of the mature growths has a small green nub which I hope will become a new fan:



So, even though it does not look all that nice now, I think it has a potential.
3. it was really cheap.

I put them into the larger tank:

New purchases

Here is what I got today at Eastern Canada Orchid Show:

Vanda coerulea. I already have one, but this one was so large and with two spikes so I could actually see the flowers and be sure that it is in fact the species, so I couldn't pass. The flowers are almost finished, but just to get an idea of how nice it is:





Two paphs. Paphiopedilum Deperle 'Philippe'(left) and Paph. Magic Lantern(right). Phil is growing a bud.

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.

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.

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.