The thread was getting a bit long, so here is the continuation - part two!
I had gotten a bunch of small plants from the Hoosier Orchids - going out of business sale, after the big Lots were sold.
Here is one which surprised me with a spike, it isn't what I had expected - the true Lc Irene Finney, but it turns out to be Lc Hausermann's Firewings
( Lc Irene Finney x C. Interglossa)
edited to capitalize Interglossa
This message was edited Feb 15, 2009 10:19 AM
And the plant -
The largest growth measures about 14 inches and the pretty blooms are ca 5 inches wide.
Gorgeous....simply beautiful!!!
FLStu - where can one find those 5 ring hangers - does the vendor have a site/name? What a great idea!!
I love a surprise and that is a great one, Ursula. Thanks for the new thread and your compliments on my success with the slippers. I won't tell you that I just threw away the remains of my lowii that I sooooo wanted to see in bloom. It sure is a numbers game!
I cheated a bit for Valentine's Day and bought Christina a Cymbidium orchid. Though she knew the orchid was mostly for my satisfaction, she seemed happy to have it as a temporary bedroom decoration and I did buy her some other incidental items and created a handmade card, so I think I met the requirements for for cupidity. LOL
I picked up the Cymbidium at Lowe's while I was doing some other shopping. It didn't have an I.D. tag (unless it is buried below the soil line). I added the tall tin and tissue paper during a quick stop at the dollar store (the tin container was light blue which I rectified with a can of white spray paint used in the parking lot to meet my color choices LOL).
I liked the idea of a gift that keeps on giving much better than spending a similar $25 (or more) for a bouquet of roses that might last a week (though I have now started rooting the stems from cut flower roses from florist shops as another propagation experiment and am having some luck with them so far).
Jeremy
OO, Jeremy! You can always give a cymbidium to ME on VDay. (BIG SMILE!) I would even take care of it! Also impressed that you made your own card. That looks a bit like a chinese x. Are the flowers small?
The flowers are about 2 inches across at their widest petal span. They do seem smaller than standard Cymbidium flowers. It would be nice if it turns out to be one of the minatures as they are more heat tolerant and do better in my subtropical clime than do the cool weather standard cymbidiums.
Here's my art card. Best I could do in a mad rush (as usual).
Jeremy
Lucky Christina!! :-)
Btw, Trader Joe's had last week Cymbis for ca. 30 bucks in full bloom. They were nice, but huge!! With a potential of becoming even "huger"....
Kathy, that was a beautiful way to finish the last thread. It made my day.
Ursula, surprises can be good!
Jeremy, you are the romantic. I stuck to a store bought card, a dozen roses and a nice dinner at our favorite restaurant.
Jim
Ursula, that Cat is delightful...I used to have a similar one but alas it is in that great compost pile in the sky!
Yes. I have a great compost pile represented in pics in my backup disk drive. Maybe sometime I'll make a memorial thread we can all post on! It would be way longer than I want to think about!
Spent the last hours repotting and spraying bugs. I found out that the ants are coming from my sandy cactus medium (at the bottom of the cereus on my window sill) and that ole Bayer Rose and Flower stopped em in their tracks
I saw those cyms at Trader Joes and stayed an isle away so I wouldn't take on any more and especially monsters. Only the most exotic minis for me (an arbitrary cut-off to control my lust).
Jim, glad I made your day!!!
Well- I know, there are people which keep the tags of their expired Orchids, I never went quite that far. But, as they say, expertise in Orchids is proportional to the amount of Orchids killed......
Speaking of Cyms, my C. ensifolium looks like it may be spiking. I had the blighter for two years and nothing. I brought it up to the greenhouse at work and after 3 months, I see a fat new growth...too fat to be a new growth...or at least I hope so! Guess it was not giving it enough sun at home. If all goes accordingly, I might have blooms by late spring.
Maybe I should take my non-blooming phargs up to work!
Aha! Lucky you!! None of my ensifoliums are budding. :( But I look forward to your pics, Todd! :)
I have 3 cyms in bud. One has 2 spikes. One HAD 2 spikes but all the flowers on one of them dissolved (!) on the tip of the spike one day (?????) so I cut off the whole spike and another has a spike that's almost there and one that is just starting. I'm hoping for more this spring.
I'm excited as I just ordered Potinara Susan Fender 'Cinnamon Stick' from ebay vender Orchids-Forever. I've been looking for that orchid forever.
Jim
Congrats, Jim!
I wish my Cym Mimi would do something....Not a peep of flowers since I got the plant about 5 years ago. It is a monster by now and I kept it cold and sunny in Fall through the Winter and it still won't bloom. We popped it last week into the garage to keep the Epiphyllums company.....
( the x Ackermanni is blooming in there for the last month.)
Here is my Laelia lundii flowering and I see quite a few more buds in the works.
I bought a small plant in 2005 ( from Hausermann) and tried to grow it in a clay-pot. The plant looked miserable and didn't want to thrive. So in 2007 I took the small pieces ( whatever was left of it) and pinned them horizontally 'as is' to a tree-fern slab. ( without Moss). The pieces finally started growing and I saw a couple of blooms last year. This year it is busting out everywhere.
I keep it right now inside under the glass ceiling on the top shelf/in maximum sun and water it daily. ( it never gets a dry period under these conditions.)
The plant always looks unruly, but I have been told that is what it does.
and one more sideways look -
the flowers measure about 1 1/2 inches, this Laelia is a miniature.
I have 2 lundiis too (also a L. lundii x Epi. longpetalum). I can't wait till they are big (?) and beautiful like yours, Ursula!!! WOW! I have 2 because Santa Barbara Orchids sent it by mistake! But that one is not doing well. The other one looks really good though. I just ordered a bunch more mini laelias from Fred's Brazilian folks. And I have a bid on ebay for one, too. I will have quite a collection. I adore them. Speaking of mini laelias, I'm sooooo excited that my Sl. Marriottiana flava (L. flava x Soph. coccinea flava) has a beginning of a spike. I seem to only be able to grow sophronitis in a cross.
Kathy, the L lundii x Epi looks like a totally different plant than lundii, growth-wise. But it flowers under the same conditions/in full sun.
I would be happy too about that spike on the Sl ( tickled pink...)
They are charmers, aren't they? And they don't take up so much room! And there is something to be said about hybrids usually being easier to grow than the species. These small Sophronitis are tough to grow I think.
Wish we had Trader Joes down here....sounds like a great place to puruse.
Chantell....... the vendor doesn'[t have a web page but does have a small catalogue. Here's the info given. They may Email a calaogue to print out possibly:
Hicks Orchid Supplies
11410 Judge Ave.
Orlando, FL 32817
Cell # for John Jr. 407-256-8518
Cell # for John 407-493-3080
Fax # 405 382 5380
Email: hicksj0430@bellsouth.net
Hrs: Mon-Sat 8:30A to 5P
Home # when closed: 407-277-0430
Seems like they're a down-home Mom and Pop (Pop and Son) place. They don't take charge and require check or money order with an order and will bill for shipping (per their calaogue pamphlet). Don't know if they are open to PayPal.
Glad I don't have the temptation of so many orchid vendors in Canada.....and none ship in winter so the purchases have a hiatus until next May. I don't know of any Canadian vendors who sell rupicolous laelia...they are cute and small but I doubt I'd have enough light for them.
After years without a paph bloom, I can finally give you Paph Satchel's Legend. Woohoo!!
Jim
Congrats Jim - it's gorgeous. I love the darker paphs.
Joanne
Great Jim!!
Todd, my rupicolous laelias are in the cool room (minimum 55 degrees F) in north light and they spike there. I moved one to bright light because of impatience. Many are growing new pseudobulbs.
Just a little side tour if you feel like looking at absolutely gorgeous stuff, pictures from the Tokyo Dome show 2009.
The first link shows a lot of labeled orchids all through the 8 pages, and the second link is a slideshow - just sit back and drool a bit.....
http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10955
http://flickr.com/photos/14396340@N02/sets/72157613670703140/with/3279905329/
Jim, I agree - your nice Paph is worth a woohoo for sure!! Maybe even a whole bunch of woohooos. :-)
Anyone have a tissue so I can wipe off my keyboard? :) Ursula, that slide show was a welcome diversion on this cold and dreary day. Thanks for sharing!
Sarah
OMG!!!! I want to go there before I croak! I wrote down all the cyms I could read and the lycastes and that mounded neo......Ursula did you see the L. lundii plant????
Yes, I saw it and I still haven't recovered yet!! Awesome!!
Sarah and Kathy, glad you enjoyed it too, we just went through the slide show a couple of times. Those Phals are incredible!!
They ARE incredible. I can't imagine growing one with that many blooms. At this point I'm still learning to keep them alive from one year to the next! LOL
Thanks Ursula. That was certainly better than watching TV tonight.
Jim
I was late for supper!
I just bought a Laelia crispilabia http://www.orchidspecies.com/laelcrispilabia.htm
and a Sophronitis rosea http://flickr.com/photos/jvinoz/2695527890/ on ebay. I am very excited!! I pray that I can keep that Soph alive.
Kathy, That Sophronitis rosea is a gorgeous color! I hope you grow it well...I look forward to pictures.
Sarah
Wow Jim...better late than never. That slipper is wonderful!
Kathy, I used to have S. rosea.....emphasis on USED TO! LOL!
Todd, what should I NOT do to it? I'm hoping the RO water makes a difference. Also this plant looks more established than the ones I've had before. It's in a small clay pot.
I covet the Laelia crispilabia! And, praying may not do the trick of keeping temperamental Orchids alive, but how about an offering to the Orchid Gods? A nice bowl of freshly produced water of your finest quality with a sprinkle of fertilizer?
How about a pretty Miltoniopsis hybrid this wonderful sunny morning? ( Actually it better rains tomorrow, I am running low on rain water).
Miltoniopsis never want to dry out and they resent old broken down medium.
ahh, we overlapped, Kathy
This message was edited Feb 17, 2009 8:04 AM
Oh, I love Miltoniopsis - that one looks like it's made of velvet Ursula. Very nice.
I found an interesting article from 1985 that says to grow sophs cool bright and humid. No wet medium. Maybe it's time to stop overwatering!! I have a cool room but it's quite dry so I'll hafta baby it by misting it daily. Inneresting about the watering of the laelias. Why can't I just stick to one type of orchid? Oh yeah, I get bored.
http://www.diabloviewos.org/Library/Articles%20by%20Frank%20Fordyce/fordyce%2011aos.pdf
Love the Miltoniopsis. I just bought my first in bud but it's a Miltonia. Not a species x I guess. I never bought one cause it was too hard to decide which color I wanted. I chose pale yellow.
