Masdevallia Peppermint Rock x ignea

I got this masdie from Ecuagenera for free, didn't order it. Have no idea how the flower would look because they don't have a picture on the website and google search didn't bring much either.



I might not even see the flower, it is marked as cold/intermediate grower, so most likely it won't make it. Or maybe it will...

Paphiopedilum bellatulum

Last weekend I had to treat all my paphs and masdies that live in the basement with miticide, because I found some indications that several paphs might have spider mites. Now, I didn't actually see the bugs, but even traces of those creatures on paph leaves make me shiver.
Knowledgeable folks from the slippertalk forum suggested Safer's Endall, that's what I used.
I have couple paphs with buds and was very nervous to spray them, because surely it can lead to the bud blast.
A week after treatment - paphiopedilum bellatulums bud is still alive and plump:




I hope it stays and blooms.



And when checking the leaves, I found a third fan starting to grow at the back of the plant.

Masdevallia decumana

Masdevallia decumana arrived from Ecuagenera, I picked it up from the Montreal show, it was barerooted.



Masd. decumana got on my wish list after I saw these pictures.
Well, mine is not that perfect, there are some strange holes on the leaves, but I am pretty sure it is a blooming sized one - there were couple dried out spikes.
I potted it into net pot with fresh sphagnum and placed that pot inside of clay one. It lives in the basement with my paphs and other masdies. After 10 days it is still alive even though I had to spray it with miticide last Saturday as I found traces of spider mites on one of my paphs.

Phalaenopsis Lowland Juwel

These are not my plants, I saw them all at the show in Montreal. All these pictures are different variations of one same grex Phalaenopsis Lowland Juwel.
They all look very similar but there are still some differences.












Phal. Lowland Juwel = (schilleriana x equestris) x stuartiana

Paphiopedilum St. Swithin

This is another great purchase from Crystal Star. Large plant of Paphiopedilum St.Swithin - primary hybrid between rothschildianum and philippinense. It came in a 5.5 inch black plastic pot and has 4 growths which looked to me as two separate plants with two growths each.
When I started re-potting, I understood how not ready I was for it.
Firstly plant didn't want to come out of the pot. I pulled, I shaked I hit on the bottom - nothing helped. Finally I cut the pot open - luckily it was thin nursery pot and large scissors did the job.
This was inside:



Secondly - roots didn't want to untangle. I wanted to remove the old bark from the ball, so I placed it into sink with water and moved it around in swirly motions - everything stayed tight. I tried to untangle them with my fingers but it seemed that roots just grew to each other for good. My awkward fingers broke many good roots and I stopped. This is the best I could do:



Thirdly, it appeared to be a single plant after all, those two "separate" growths are actually connected by rhizome and to my horror I didn't have any plastic orchid pot that would fit all the remaining roots properly. So I had to pot it into clay one:



Probably would have to water it more often then if it was in a plastic pot.
Hopefully it will survive all these manipulations and environment changes.