Blooms in the backyard

After a very cold and gloomy start to spring it finally feels like it. It's cool with a high in the low 50's but we had a couple of above average 80 plus days.  The Kwanzan cherry tree in the back is almost at full bloom. Just two days ago there were only a handful of blooms opened. Here are a couple of pictures of blooms in the yard.

No ID tolumnia blooming

I have had this plant for a few years now and it blooms reliably. This year is probably the best so far with the number of flowers. It has bloomed from the last two 'fans' that have matured. One spike each. Does each growth only produce one new growth?  Specimen plants with spikes all over are amazing. I recently just purchased another tolumnia so now I have two in my collection. I like the compact size and they are easy to take care of. When I purchased it it was in a tiny ceramic plant t with charcoal. Now it's in a larger pot with a bark mix.  The leaves are unique. They are a triangular shape and are not flat. I don't remember how long the blooms last.  Gotta enjoy them while they last.
Dirty bloom opening.

The rest opening up.

Teeny tiny flowers

Chamaeangis (Microterangis) Species: hildebrandtii

It likes lower light levels and is a warm to intermediate grower.  For watering it should be moist and dry slightly between waterings. I purchased this plant mounted which has pros and cons. I have a tendency to over water as apposed to the latter. It's very difficult to over water on a mount. The con is that there is a lot more maintenance. I am required to water frequently.  There is a small bit of moss on the mount and it gets crispy within a day.

I got this plant at the end of November. Out of the group of plants I purchased, this is the first to bloom. I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. For a first time flowering, I didn't expect this many flowers. And there are six spikes! A couple of the spikes have been opened for weeks. And the smaller spikes are starting to bloom. I had actually thought the spikes were roots. They are the same shape and size. The color was maybe a little different with more of a brown tone. But I had accounted that to a different climate and conditions. Not until the bracts started to form I realized they weren't roots.

There is also a fragrance that I can smell from a few feet away. Pretty incredible from such minuscule flowers. I can't describe the scent really well. It's floral and mild. Similar to other flowers but I can't think of a specific one at the moment.

In a picture below I've included a finger for scale.

Lyman estate greenhouse orchid sale March 31

There is a sale every few months at Lyman Estate greenhouses. They have some of the oldest greenhouses in America. I've purchased plants a couple times before from the greenhouse. They have unique plants that are hard to find.  There is one greenhouse that contains plants for sale, and you can browse around all the others. Even the nurseries around don't really have the variety they have in the one small area that they have for the sale.

Here's what I got:

Stapelia gigantea

I got it for the huge and amazing strange looking flowers, but I'm afraid of what they will smell like. People say  it smells like rotting flesh. The reason for this is to attract flies as pollinators. 

This one had what looked like rot. So I made a clean cut below and put cinnamon on it. Cinnamon is a natural fungicide. The reason I still purchased this one is that it had the most branches. Is that what they are called? Others just had a large single stem and I figured the more the better. It has been 11 days and I don't see any blackening around the cut, so hopefully that means the plant is healthy.

Dendrobium Enobi Purple Splash
This one only had three small canes but the picture of the flowers lured me in. There is a spike so I'll be able to enjoy the flowers soon. And it's a miniature orchid it helps with my space situation.  I had no trouble finding pictures of the flowers online, but hardly anything about the care. I think it's a warm grower and it's free flowering and doesn't need a winter rest.

Dendrobium mini purple
Compared to the plan above, this one is seems a lot more mature.  You can see the difference in the number of canes. This is also a miniature and has a bloom spike with a few buds.

Tolumnia 'Nalo beauty'

I have one other tolumnia in my collection.  It's in a tiny clay pot that doesn't have any media in it.  But the pot is completely root bound and is a solid mass of roots.  I'm not sure how many roots are actually alive.  The pot is tiny and they don't have pots that small at the big home improvement stores.  So I'll have to go to a craft store to find a smaller pot.  Tolumnias need to dry out quickly so they are mounted a lot.  But mounted orchids are too much work because they require watering a lot more frequently.

My doggie checking out the blooms.  They are not scented, but a dog's nose might detect something.