Phal. cornu-cervi blooms again and reference website additions

My huge Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi is blooming again. And is growing a small keiki too.
Here is the video of it:


I also added Lycaste and Miltoniopsis to Orchideya.ca...

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi 'red'

Non-stop blooming for a year:

Phal. cornu-cervi red

Cornu-cervi red still goes on with the blooming:



It is hard to photograph because bloom is waxy and shiny by itself and when I use flash - there is too much shine, but when I don't use flash - there is too little shine...

Phal. cornu-cervi red

One of my favorite plants in its full glory:



I have it for the second year and every summer it produces spectacular show that lasts for several months. View from the other side:



It didn't mind recent switch from moss to bark. Looking at the few larger plants that I moved to bark as a test, I might actually start switching most of my phals that live in the tanks and have good roots except the small ones in 3 inch pots and smaller. Bark doesn't stink as much in high humidity and looks somewhat cleaner. I already ordered bunch of clear plastic pots.

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.

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...

Blooming continues

I am amused by the phals that span their blooming time for several months producing sequential buds on the same spikes.
Here is Phalaenopsis Vio Vio. I checked my log - it opened first bloom back in June. Since then - it always has a flower on. When one wilts - new bud is just ready to open. It is on fourth bloom now and fifth bud is growing:




I also like how heavy textured the flower is and of course the fragrance.



Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi 'red' stays in bloom since beginning of May. At first it had one flower on each spike at the time. Now it is producing clusters of blooms. I wonder if it is something that all cornu-cervis do, or I just got lucky with this particular plant:



It is also somewhow hard to photograph as a whole plant. Picture always comes out either blurry or wrongly focused or with too much shine.



Equalacea coerulea actually just started blooming recently, it now has two blooms opened and third bud growing. I like how crisp and delicate the flowers are:



The whole plant is extremely cute:

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi red

Phal. cornu-cervi red is one of my best purchases. Blooming constantly from April when I got it in bud and it seems that it doesn't want to stop. Flowers stay for a while, wilt, but new buds are ready to open almost instantly.



I have noticed that the more sun it gets - darker the flowers get.



It is in full bloom now again. Each spike has flower or two:



All this blooming doesn't seem to affect normal growth. It keeps producing new leaves and roots, and now there is a new spike coming out too:

Phal. cornu-cervi 'red' with many flowers

Cornu-cervi 'red' came with four buds and I was worried that they will blast. They didin't. Not only they flowered, but plant grew more buds ant still continues. There are now 6 opened flowers and 4 buds. I am starting to worry that plant will bloom itself to death. Although it grows a new leaf and there is tiny new spike start too. Oh, and the blooms are long lasting too. This turns out to be my best orchid purchase.

Phal. cornu-cervi 'red'

Some more pictures.



With heating turning off, humidity started to go up in the house and now is around 70%. I wonder if keeping this phal in plastic pot with moss is a good idea. If the moss won't dry out in 10 days I better move it to the clay pot.

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi 'red' blooms

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi 'red' opened flower today while I was at work.



Flower is a bit squished by another spike, so it is not very convenient to photograph. But there are few more buds growing and some are going to be unobstructed, so there will be better pictures.



I like everything about this plant.

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi 'red'

I got this beautiful specimen of Phal. cornucervi 'red' from Crystal Star Orchids too. I must say their established plants are the best I ever got from anywhere.
It came with 4 spikes and three growing buds, one of the buds already shows red color. Plant grew out of the pot and needed repotting. When unpotted, I was impressed by fat and healthy roots filling all the space.
Taking moss out was quite easy and I didn't have to trim anything. I tried to not disturb plant and didn't even uncurled the roots so they are still in shape of old pot. I put some packing peanuts in the hollow space under the base:



I decided to keep it in plastic pot with moss since that's how it was potted before. I arranged the long aerial roots on the top of the media all around the plant:



Picture of the bud with dark red color showing through: