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...

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 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.

Phal. stuartiana 'yellow' x 'green'

It is a new purchse and the tag really stated Phalaenopsis stuartiana 'yellow' x 'green'.



Plant came from Crystal Star Orchids and as always with their plants - the roots appeared quite nice during repotting:



Vendor noted that this plant needs to be kept a bit drier during winter and if it is going to be in the humid environment - it is better mounted. I don't like mounts so I decided to pot it into the net pot, hoping that moss will have a chance to dry out fast enough for stuartiana.

Phalaenopsis deliciosa

I have had this plant for a while.
From the beginning it had some problem with one of the leaves and it came down almost to the crown so I was pretty sure plant was a goner. I didn't throw it away only because it is kind of hard-to-find species, so I just left it be.

At some point problem stopped and plant was just standing there looking non-pretty.
Recently I noticed some positive activity - a new leaf and a new root:



So, I guess, this is a belated introduction. The name on the plant stated deliciosa yellow, but there is no var. yellow in the deliciosa family. However from the description of the var. hookeriana I think it might be it. Therefore I am going to log it under the name Phal. deliciosa var. hookeriana for now.

Phalaenopsis venosa

I got this plant for a while, it arrived here during summer, I just forgot to log it in.
There is not much I can say about Phalaenopsis venosa, never saw one blooming in person, but read somewhere that flowers smell like crushed centipede. Since then I decided to smell crushed centipede but never had a chance yet.



My plant used to be a keiki because I found the remainings of an old spike that it was connected to the mother plant with. There wasn't much roots but maybe it improved lately, plant has started a new leaf recently.
Hopefully I will have a chance to smell the flower before I will find the crushed centipede.

Phalaenopsis amboinensis var. yellow

Looks like Phal. amboinensis var.yellow had pretty tough times before it got here. Roots are rotted, leaves are damaged in several places. I wasn't sure if I should waste my time with it or no.



Since it is a var. yellow that you don't see very often, I decided to give it a chance. I have potted it into smallest clay pot with sphagnum moss and just let it be, watering when moss becomes crusty dry.
Now there are some new roots and maybe it will survive after all:

Phal. bellina 'blue' x sib.

Even though plant is very small and has damage on the newest leaf - I am very excitied about this little seedling.
Not only is it bellina, but a BLUE bellina.



The hole in the leaf looks like some slug damage, I can tell because I had the same hole on my masdie and found a slug in the pot.



Yellow bottom leaf is hopefully just a normal aging process when old seedling leaves just shed away. Two new roots look promising, hope they will continue to grow.

Phal. violacea alba II

Second plant of Phalaenopsis violacea var. alba. It is smaller than the other one and had some leaf problem.
It seems ok now, so I am logging it in:

Phalaenopsis bellina III

Yes, yet one more Phal. bellina. I got it in the summer with an old spike and ugly yellowing bottom leaf.
Was hoping that spike will activate and produce a bloom for me, but no.
All it did since arrival - shedded ugly yellow leaf (with my help).
No new roots, not any sign of growing, nothing.



Well, I guess it is still adjusting. Hopefully there will be some activity soon.
I now have 4 bellinas.

Phalaenopsis lueddemanniana II

I already had one - very small seedling growing very slowly. This lueddemanniana is a mature plant with three old spikes:



Foloiage is not in perfect shape, but new leaf grows healthy and there are few nice roots. Also one spike - top left on the picture, activated one node and grows this:



I am guessing it will be a new branch on the spike, so there might be blooms soon.

Phalaenopsis violacea 'red'

Here are the small seedling and the tiny seedling of Phal. violacea 'red'.



The little one dropped out of the moss where the main seedling was wrapped. I assumed - it is the same type.
Maybe not. If it survives, in many years, I might find out.
I bought the seedling against my rule of only mature plants again because you don't see that many of violacea 'red' mature plants for sale here and I have this idea of collecting all types of violacea and bellina.
So, it was a legitimate purchase in some way.

Two bastianiis

I was actually getting one plant, but there was two plants squished together in one pot. I had to untangle their roots to separate one from another. It could have been compot that was left as is.
So here they are.

Phalaenopsis bastianii:



And Phalaenopsis bastianii II:



I don't think they are ready to bloom yet, since they both look like seedlings to me, but website about orchid species lists it as small sized phal.

Phalaenopsis gigantea

It is just a seedling:



New leaf is shiny and quite large comparing to the rest of the leaves. I am a bit worried about my phal. gigantea because I already tried to grow a seedling last year and promptly killed it with crown rot.
Now I am very careful when watering it and never mist the leaves at all.

Phalaenopsis speciosa pink

Here is Phalaenopsis speciosa pink:



I am not sure what does the word pink in the label mean. I thought speciosa had white blooms with random red patches. I didn't find variety "pink" on the phals.net website. Maybe this one will have pink instead of red patches?

Plant appears to be blooming sized but is quite weak and doesn't have much roots. Hopefully it will recover and bloom someday to solve the mystery of the word "pink" in its name.

Phal. violacea alba

Phalaenopsis violacea again. This time it is var. alba.
There are two spikes, not active at the moment.



I am really making an effort to log here all the plants that I have, so they are all "catalogued" with pictures.

Phalaenopsis violacea var sumatra

Violacea sumatra was just two dehydrated leaves with dried up roots when it arrived couple months ago.
I have potted it into sphagnum moss and placed into the propagation tray with dome.
Soon it started a new leaf and couple new roots.
The old leaves never perked up, but new one looks fine:

Phalaenopsis equestris var. coerulea

This would be second equestris type I currently own, the other one is orange.
Sadly I killed 'blue' and alba last year, don't think I ever entered them here.
Strangely I never had just regular equesris.
Anyways, this one is Phalaenopsis equestris var. coerulea:



Plant looks healthy and I think it is blooming sized.

Phalaenopsis amboinensis var. common

Phal. amboinensis var. common came from Kingfisher Orchids almost a year ago in the fall. Somehow I managed to rot all the roots on it almost instantly. I peeled all the mushy stuff from the root strings and potted it up into sphag with just inner strings.
I was pretty sure it would be gone soon.
To my surprise plant started to grow a new leaf, then another. It was hanging on with just root strings until the spring, new leaves came out smaller than the previous ones.
When spring came - it started multiple roots at once and a third leaf.
Now it looks like totally recovered, so I am entering it here.



View from the other side:



Hope future leaves will come in a normal size with all the roots.

Phalaenopsis bellina II

I was going to post it as a bud update but then realized that this plant was never entered here. So, here is an introduction of yet one more bellina.
Not sure if bud will survive because I had to repot it today due to severe root rot, the yellow bottom leaf doesn't look good either.
Hope the bud will stay.