Help with Phalaenopsis ID's!

It's not the end of the world if I never know their names, but I am curious to know if anyone has seen either of these 2 before and know what they are. I just pick them up at the "Gringo" Supermarket and they never have tags on them, but I could probably contact the grower if I really wanted to investigate further.

This one I lucked out on because I noticed there were actually 2 plants growing in the same pot. They were similar, but different enough that I figured I'd buy it. I can't resist a "2 for 1" special! I't's been driving me nuts not being able to separate them yet, but I'll just keep waiting til they stop flowering. I got them last July or August I think! The flower in the centre just opened and will fade to look like the 2 on each side.

This is the other Supermarket plant. I bought it because I loved the really dark blotches and the pale yellow background!

Second one looks like it could be "Golden Peoker". I'm not sure about the first one, though.

OH my gosh!!!!!!!!!! I wish we could buy something that pretty even at the nursery, let along a supermarket. Lucky you.....those are gorgeous orchids!
Thanks for sharing

Thanks mama and gessie! I'll go check that out. Are sure you spelled it right, lol!
You guys have way more choices up there in Phals. Just look at some of the photos on this Forum - wow!

I am a beginner with orchids and I can tell you I look at pictures on this forum all day long from the pros. Yours are just as beautiful and maybe more so!

Yes, I am certain about the spelling - I have one.

I can't help on the names but they sure are pretty orchids.

They're gorgeous! I especially love the second one too...

Thanks again mamasita. I'm always amazed with all the new hybrids whenever I browse photos! It might be the one you suggested or at least one of the parents.

vm

It's funny about the second one, possibly 'Golden Peoker'. It was sitting on a shelf in the Supermarket way down below the potatoes or something like that, but it caught my eye from about 10 ft. away. I went over and crouched down to take a closer look. Didn't take long before it was safely tucked away in my shopping cart, lol!

Thank-you gessiegail and everyone else who gave them compliments!

I just love to oooh and aaaah over great looking orchids!

Same here, and gesneriads too lol!

The two appear to be Taiwanese Harlequins. Many look very similar and are hard to pin point. The second could also be Sogo Pearl or several others. I wonder if the grower could even tell you. Most are buying these by the zillion and finishing them out for a year or so for big box consumers. It's how many growers in FL have managed to stay commercially viable after years of terrible hurricanes and the laws preventing wild collecting there and in the islands.

My Sogo Pearl is yellow with purple (it says PR after that on the label), and that's why I was thinking the second might be Golden Peoker.

I've wondered how the FL growers are doing after those hurricanes. Too bad no one has done a follow up article (up here anyway) about their plight.

Thanks Maypop, I'll check that out too. I did find lots of photos that looked similar, but I'm sure I won't be able to know for sure unless I speak to the grower here. What makes it more frustrating is all the confusing pics and names online. I have noticed that before, especially with orchids. There might be say 10 photos of plants with the same name, but they are clearly not the same. One is white, another yellow, and then they throw in a blue one to complete the confusion. Here the growers are very small because they mostly just sell to the local market, which is tiny and definitely not very profitable. All my friends who have small growing businesses usually buy flasks of named seedlings, and then grow them on. I'm not sure about the grower of my phals however. They are bigger and more commercial and do a small amount of mass-producing, mostly for a couple of large Supermarket Chains here.

We do not have "big box" stores here - yet! With the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. finally being ratified, that will probably change soon however. The first Walmart is already being built and more "big boxes" will follow. Anyway, I'm not supposed to get political here, so will stop there, lol!

Thanks again for your help and suggestions. That gives me one more Avenue to go down!

vm

Thanks vm for your post. I always find it enlightening to hear about the experiences of others.

It's a double-edged sword when Wal-Mart and other big-box stores come in to any area. I understand the politics and I'll tell you none of this is pretty.

By the way, I hear that Costa Rica has a huge American population.
- Lynn

Well, I wouldn't say it's "huge", but yes a lot of Americans retire down here, but also Canadians and Europeans, many Germans and Dutch retirees. Panama also has many American ex-Pats. Of course it's mainly for the climate and much lower cost of living lol, and they almost never integrate with the Costa Ricans or Panamanians etc.! Most "foreigners" seem to prefer living in segregated, "gated" communities, which I think is unfortunate. Oops, there goes the politics again, lol!

You're forgiven! If you ever feel the desire to get onto topics which are questionable or off-topic, use Dmail. It's great!

Anyway....are you having any luck identifying those two beauties? - Lynn

Not really, but I've sort of put it on hold for the time being. I made note of the suggestions I got here, but I'm moving in 2 weeks so I really have to get on with the packing and all the other stuff you have to do to get ready - yuk!

Thanks for the advice and offer to use D-mail!

Yuck is right! We're hoping to do the move thing in 2 years, so I can sympathize.

Good luck with IDs and also the move. -Lynn

Thanks Lynn! Naturally I can't actually pack the orchids yet, but I want to make sure I have enough boxes and packing etc., as I'm sure you understand.

Of all the things associated with moving, it's what will happen to all my plants that makes me the most nervous (I grow more than orchids). I suspect I'll have to thin the number and decide which babies get to come with me and which will need to find new parents. Thank goodness I'm not near that decision, yet!

Yes, you have lots of time yet to even think about your move seriously. I've started digging up Gardenias, Brugmansias, Hibiscuses, Allamandas, etc. etc., and I'm also starting cuttings of things all at the same time, lol! I just keep thinking how nice it will be in 2 weeks AFTER it's all over and I'm there! I'd much rather be unpacking and putting things away etc. rather than packing them up to go. Mainly because I know I'll be taking lots of coffee breaks and wandering around my new gardens and looking at the river that flows by!

You've got 2 years before all this fun!

Hey vm, that sounds really nice. It'll all be worth it after the fact. I hope all your cuttings make it and you settle in soon! Post pics of that flowing river!

Yes, please do! You probably mentioned where you are moving to? Where is that part of the river?

Yes, it will be all worth it in just 2 more weeks lol! I'm getting very excited now. My new place is in south central Costa Rica, but at an elevation of 1300 meters so is nice and cool all the time. It's close to the entrance of the Chirripo National Park. Mount Chirripo is the highest peak in Central America and lots of tourists go there to hike to the top, which takes 2 days, up and down that is. I am right on the Chirripo river and the water is so clean, you can actually drink it, so they say. I'll use the Township "tap water" lol! It's a wonderful location for orchids, bromeliads, and gesneriads, as well as for birding so I should have lots of things to keep me busy. Just down the road a little, there is also a place that has "thermal springs", where you can soak in the pools of warm water, but it's another tourist attraction so you have to pay an entrance fee.

This is a pic looking down my garden to the river below.

This will be my view down my road. Yes, it does look like a cow path!

Here is a large boulder in my garden, just above the river. You can see 2 different orchids growing on it!

What a fantastic, FANTASTIC place!!! Are you a transplant or a native of Costa Rica? Looks like paradise to me!

We have cold winters and hot, humid summers in my area of NY. I place only a very few orchids outside when the temps remain above 50 at night. We're looking for a place somewhere in the southeast. Your place is a dream!

- Lynn

Thanks Lynn! I am a Canadian "transplant" and have lived here just over 5 years only. Yes, that place is a sort of "still untouched jewel" and I'm lucky to have found it I think.

Absolutely! Was it a terribly difficult adjustment to live in paradise?

Lol, no not "terribly", but I'm actually still making the adjustment. I already knew quite a bit of Spanish before and now I'm almost fluent, which is a big help. English is only spoken/understood at the most touristy places and big hotels. Once you leave the "beaten path", everything is Spanish! Naturally it's not the US or Canada and is still a "developing country" so there are many differences in that respect. A lot of people come here first to explore the possibilities, real estate etc. if they are considering retiring here. There are even special tours offered that take you around to various parts of the country to see what it's like. A lot of folks have a place down here to come for the Winter and another place in the States to go in the Summer, like the Canadian "snowbirds" who flock to Florida for example. The rainy season here is very long and a little hard to cope with, for me at least. It usually begins the beginning of May, but this year it already started a full month early, which is disappointing to think that our Summer is already over! Here they call the dry season Summer and the rainy season Winter, so we are now in Winter, although the temps only vary slightly. It's just the rain that creates the 2 seasons.

Well, I'm out the door now to go shopping. Maybe I'll find a nice new Phal at the supermarket today, lol!

vm, good for you!! Your new place looks and sounds like paradise to me too. Sorry about the rainy season, but I still would love the location! I have major zone envy here!
All the best to you!

My situation is similat to Lynn's, hot Summers and cold Winters, but I do move everything outside into a protected spot for the Summer. The Orchids love it and my other plants don't object either.

edited for plural as in plants

This message was edited Apr 12, 2008 7:44 PM

So true. Bringing them all back in for the winter and creating space for all the newbies acquired over the summer months can be a problem, though!

- Lynn

Hi All, I've been following the posts, but been between houses. Please continue to share your posts and photos Vanilla. Being a tropical native by birth, I love the tropical life, but when I came here for the first time and saw trees turn color, well...who needed crotons! All these plants, brugmansias, alamandas, and citrus...palms in every size and shape that Dgers crave... who would have thought that people would actually go out of their way to grow these things? Not me. Definitely proof that one man's trash is another man's treasure. My oncidium thing is because so many used to grow wild in FL, and so they remind me of home, not because they are so magnificent compared to other orchids.

I will probably repeat this story many times over on DG, but think I am the only person ever to order "extra vigorous violets" from Burpee the first year I lived here. I had read poems and stories since childhood about violets that were plucked, collected, strewn and sniffed. The pictures looked so beautiful and guess what? I still cultivate them in my yard and gardens! Up here at Maypop we have tons of bird's foot violets. With the bloodroot and European ginger...well those are really special. I sometimes see spiranthes (orchids) in the meadow.

Laurel

What you have said is so true, Laurel. We take the wild violets and ostrich ferns for granted. The bloodroot which used to grow in the woods is gone now and I'm not really sure why. Do the deer eat them? It seems they eat nearly everything that flowers except daffodils. And skunk cabbage. There are people who were looking for some to plant around their pond/garden. I couldn't understand why! The stuff grows like crazy around here and no nursery I know sells it. But, hey, different strokes. I still love tropicals probably because they're different from anything I grew up with. On another site, someone told me they were jealous that we could grow blueberries.

- Lynn

Wow Laurel, I know what you mean, but in reverse sort of! I always dreamed of having my own banana trees, oranges, grapefruits, lemons, not to mention all the other tropical stuff. Having said that, I miss many of the plants I grew back in Canada, especially the Spring things, like bulbs, Rhododendrons, Lilacs etc. This year I managed to force 3 Jan Bos Hyacinths that I picked up in Canada at HD in December for I think 99 cents or something like that. They were the only ones left and were reduced. I really wanted some blue ones, but will wait til the Fall and stock up on some. Anyway, the forcing worked great and I potted them individually so I could stagger their flowering. The last one is just finishing now, but I lucked out with it because it gave me 2 stems! I'm very lucky where I am now and where I'm moving to in 2 weeks because even though the latitude is within the tropics, the altitude gives me a cool Spring-like climate, although naturally I still can't grow hyacinths, tulips etc. They need those colder temps! I can however, grow a lot of "temperate" growers like lilies, and most annuals. Strawberries and asparagus even grow at these latitudes so I will be planting patches of both, for fresh picking. I started lots from seeds and they're ready to be planted now. I'm experimenting with other things as well, such as Columbines and Sweet Peas because these are 2 personal favourites and I'd like to see if they will grow here. Violets would succeed, but unfortunately they're not my "cup of tea" except for Pansies, which I have several pkgs. of seeds to start up. You could say I have "the best of both worlds" because even though those cool growers will grow, I can also have my bananas and oranges too. It's not too cold for them!

I feel very fortunate but never take any of it for granted. Thanks for all the comments! Sorry if I'm causing "zone envy", but you guys have your wonderful Summers just ahead with those great long days when the sun goes down after 9 p.m., which is another thing I miss.

Thanks for such a lovely post, vm. You have put into words the beauty of enjoying everything this world has to offer.

Thanks so much Lynn, that is really nice of you to say!