Sorry Scott! I was convuseing you with Ted, who lives near me.
Our December Holiday Blooms
I'm not seeing a link, Scott, but I went to the site and see they have registered an unbloomed cross. I'd never pay for something never bloomed. There is so much of that "should look like this" stuff out there. Just because you cross parent A with parent B doesn't mean you'll get the best of both worlds. Even hybridizers will admit (on the side) you usually get a dud. If it's that good once it blooms it will be all over the place for the same price. Plus, I think the 18-24 month bloom time frame is for a greenhouse plant.
No worries, Carol! :o)
Okay, so you can't cut-and-paste on here. One more try.
Laurel - it's called Vandaenopsis Newberry Whimsy - parents are Vanda cristata and Phaleanopsis philippinense - a newly registered novelty cross by Gene Crocker - with spring/summer bloom season.
Yes, I saw that Scott. If you look carefully at the description you will see "We expect..." This means they have either not bloomed it yet or that of the ones they have bloomed there is no stable color or form. What is to be expected is a range of colors and forms as described and hoped for.
Wow. And there's lots of "we expect's" on thier website, since they do lots of hybridizing there. Maybe that's divine intervention - reminding me that I don't need to buy anymore orchids right now. :o)
I do have about 7-8 orchids in spike / in bud right now, which is a nice surprise. I collected lots of small plants last summer, and it looks like they're all coming-of-age around the same time. Maturity is worth waiting for (especially if you get a great deal on young plants) and I'm hoping a few of these become nice specimens over the years.
I have spikes everywhere and still only Hilo has any blooms. I rush home every afternoon and go from room to room hoping for blooms.
Meanwhile, I'll keep marching through the old orchid patch. Epic. Volcano Trick Fireball began opening yesterday.
Jim
I love the color on this one. Here is a closer look.
Jim
Bulb. paluence 'A-doribil' X Bulb echinolabium put on another bloom. It looks like a sequential bloomer.
Jim
My Blc Goldenzelle 'Frank Smith' opened last night. I bought it when I was in Apopka with Laurel last year. Krull Smith have their greenhouses there.
Jim
And now for the real Rhynchovola David Sander, which has put on a new flower with many more buds developing. This is one great orchid.
Jim
The Spathoglottis plicatas are putting on a wonderful show this year.
Jim
My newest bamboo orchid, Arundina graminisolia, has put on its first flower. It seems to be a little bigger than my other Arundina but the color is about the same.
Jim
The Bletilia yokohama 'Kate' p.p.a.f. is also putting on a great show. It's a good year for terrestrials.
Jim
Nice, Jim. Of course I'm partial to David Sander. My Bulbo that is like yours just finished a second bloom and is working on a third. Cool that they are sequential. I can see how that Epi. came by its name. Amazing colors! The 'Fireball' gets single quotes as it is a cultivar (one of many offspring of the original cross) of that grex (which refers to all the offspring).
Scott, in case you ever wonder why I don't grow Catt's refer to the above. It is more than I can keep up with.
We were out of power for over two hours today. It really messed up the day.
Thanks for the tip on the Epic name. The tag omitted the '. Do you have a David Sander?
Jim
I don't that is why I am so green every time you post it!
I should be able to fix that problem.
Jim
Ohh. Time for a date. :)
Cym Leodogran 'Cradlemont', a gift from Laurel about a year ago, is putting up scads of spikes. This should be fun. Last year it bloomed in February.
Jim
Jim, it's looking fabulous! Mine have not even started to spike yet. While on the topic of gift plants here is the Acampe papillosa from you. Still looking great and smelling wonderful.
Such nice flowers.
Vanda Boonchoo x Kulwadee Fragrance is going strong.
It must smell wonderful in the green hut!
47 degrees on this cold morning but it bottomed out at 60 in the new lanai. The windows are closed again tonight but it is not going to be so cold.
Jim
We were touching the low end of thirty last night. The greenhut was at fifty eight when I checked first thing this morning. Today's high was in the low fifties and it was seventy eight in the gh at one point. I'm very happy with the way it's working but yesterday we lost power for three hours. The temps took a quick dive. Everything would have been fine for maybe six or eight hours but then I would have had to move plants. If we are here we can lay tarps on the floor and pass plants through the windows and into the family room in front of the gas fireplace. The option is several thousands of dollars for a generator. I am still a major power outage away from having to start at the beginning again.
A generator is on our list for next year. We cannot continue to be as lucky as we have been! Where I work in NY in the summer has actually had more power losses from hurricanes than Florida this year.We were a shade under 40 yesterday morning!
Laurel,
What a beauti!!!!!!!! Vanda Boonchoo x Kulwadee
We have a little gen set since Hurricane Charlie in '04. DH needs the computer for work so could not chance being out of power for weeks. It's not big or expensive - cost us about $1500 but it will run the bedroom a/c, fridge and computer all at once very nicely. We figured we did not need to run the whole house's system for the short times we'd need a generator.
You might need a bit more juice than we have to run heating for the orchids, Laurel. But look at a simple set-up and it might not be as expensive as you think. We got ours at Home Depot.
Arg, 40deg. Debi? I hope my 'chids are surviving! Home tomorrow, so we'll see. Lots of pretty flowers here but have not seen any orchids - if I can drag my companions to the Botanical Gardens, I might have some worthwhile pictures to post when I get home. But it's raining out right now, so . . . here I am on a computer.
Elaine
We have a generator purchased at one of the box stores. DH has a conversion kit installed so it will run on gasoline as well as natural gas, whatever we choose. He just plugs it into the house gas line with a quick coupler and runs it as we need. When hurricane Katrina came along it was too hard to get gasoline. It costs much less then a home generator like the "Guardian".
I almost bought one but decided it was cheaper to toss the food from the fridge if we lost power for an extended period. The prices I was getting approached $20,000. My greenhouse is not heated except by the sun and that seems sufficient to date.
Jim
Lucky you. Right now we are have temps in the 20's and 30's.
The lowest temp we have experienced so far this winter is 47 degrees.
Jim
I'm working the MG desk at the Extension Service today. We just identified a seed pod form a West Indian Mahogany tree. They are not common this far north. That is the fun of this job as I never know what is coming next. If I lived closer, I would volunteer more as it is a great place to learn.
Jim
Since we're sharing, we've had some temperatures all the way down to 28 already, supposedly. I guess some of my outdoor plants still haven't "melted" simply because they're pulled up close to the house.
The basement where I'm now growing all my orchids (with no supplemental heat at all) has only dropped a couple degrees below 60 so far down there. I guess there's something to be said for 3 of the 4 walls being underground. And I think the 'chids are doing better with more constant - albeit fake - "sunlight." :o)
Hope everybody's ready for a nice, restful weekend, in spite of the busy season. I'm still trying to find a magical way to avoid Christmas shopping...
Thank you, Peg, about the Vanda. It's pretty blue.
Elaine, the greenhut is a very simple affair and only 8' x 14'. I was thinking more on the order of a propane heater. The little solarium is about the same size. I could shove everything into the greenhut and not worry about potential fumes if necessary. They can run for up to eight hours on a tank. We used to come up to Maypop when we had major outages because we have a woodstove and a seriously well engineered soapstone lined fireplace. Also, the cottage is one third the size of the Atlanta house. Now that I've got orchids again I can't leave if bad weather is expected.
Oncidium Gold Dust with all five spikes open...
A close up...
Is that a dog hair in there. lol
This message was edited Dec 9, 2011 5:28 PM
Thought I had this Vanda photo labeled but apparently not. It's a Vanda denisoniana cross thus the yellow and a very knock out fragrance. This one got a big chill in October. All the buds dropped except the bottom two so I trimmed the spike down,
A single flower.
Love the Vanda, Laurel. It's a shame about losing the other buds.
Jim
Yeah, it's Vanda denisoniana x Asc. Suksumrun Spot. I had a brain burp 'cause it's not the only denisoniana cross in the hut. :) I can't imagine the fragrance if it had kept all its flowers. Sounds like you had a great day at the extension office, Jim.
I am off to light a fire and candles here at Maypop. Happy weekend everyone!