MOS orchid show

I attended the MOS orchid show today. It was a beastuful crisp fall day and stepping into the nursery where the show was like stepping back into summer. The nursery that is the venue for the show fills the entrance area with hundreds or orchids for sale. Vanda hang from the ceilings and the display tables are overflowing with brilliant orchids surrounded by twinkling lights.

Oncidium ornithorhynchum
This orchid was first brought to my atttention when watching YouTube. There was an amazing specimen sized plants with sprays of pink flowers flowing like pink clouds. It is also fragrant which is always a plus.  Floriferous and fragrant.. what a great combo. But unfortunately a pseudobulbs fell off! My heart sank when I saw it. Poor little orchid. Hopefully it’s salvagable. I am not sure If this oncidium can bloom on back bulbs. I emailed the vendor about this and I’ll wait and see if I get a response. 

Oncidium twinkle red
I have always wanted one of these. Years and years ago I saw a little white one at Trader Joe’s that I believe is a twinkle. I’ve never seen one there since. I ave seen it at other sales and online but never purchased one. I finally gave in today. The plants look very healthy and looked like it’s about to burst into flower. It has thirteen spikes. Yes you heard it right. Thirteen. I can’t wait 

Dendrobium species aff limpidum 

I just looked up what aff on the tag means.  The term is short for affinity which means the plant is similar to a to a particular species, but that the actual identity is uncertain.  That’s a little annoying. It’d be nice to know exactly what I was getting. There are some old blooms on this plant that look very bite. When it’s large enough to be covered itlll be beautiful. The small cascading canes look amazing flowing off the mount like a waterfall. 

April showers bring may flowers

There's been so much rain lately I don't remember the last sunny day. The sun finally came out today and it was glorious, even though it also came with watery itchy eyes. Yesterday there was an herb sale, but I didn't get any herbs. I came home with two orchids and an ice plant. Part of the sale was outdoors and it started raining just as we started browsing around. Here are the plants I got.

Oncidium sharry baby 'sweet fragrance'

This one is so famous for the chocolate fragrance I just had to get one although I don't think it smells too much like chocolate.  To me it smell like some sort of sweet cookie. The fragrance hasn't been too strong. I'm not sure if it's because some of the blooms are past it's prime. From researching online sweet frangrance should have a stronger fragrance than the other most popular clones.  It is said that the fragrance will fill an entire room.  This is also a very large plant. From the base of the bulb to the tip of the spike it's 37 inches. Hopefully it will grow larger under my care and I'll get multiple spikes.

Dendrobium attoviolacea Pygmy x 'H & R'

This one had so many flowers and three spikes on a petite plant. They stay small which is great for my space situation. I'm running out of room and there are still so many more plants I want.  The spots stripes and the purple edge drew me to this plant. Even the back of the flower is decorated with the spots. I believe this doesn't require a winters rest like the nobiles. I found a forum post where someone mentioned this smells like chocolate, but I don't detect any fragrance at all. Two of the canes are new but they came rebloom on old canes which means a potential for more flowers. 

Ice plant 'fire spinner'

I have some ice plants and they grow so well with little care. The multicolored flowers in this one looks like a sunset. I also decided to pick this one as the plant seems very vigorous and healthy. The pot is having trouble containing it. 

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.

Dendrobium "Country Girl" blooming

There are a total of nine buds and they started opening on Feb 24. There are a few flowers opened and there are still a few more to go. This is the same plant featured in my very first post on this blog back in September 2016. It actually rebloomed with one single flower a few weeks back on an old cane that already flowered, but I had an accident and knocked that one off.  Clumsy me.

I wonder what the normal blooming season is for this plant.  Since the nursery is located in Hawaii in optimal growing conditions, switching climates probably affected the timing of the blooms. I also really didn't give it a winter rest as your supposed to with dendrobium nobiles. The plant had flowers and new growths on it that were only a few inches tall, so since it was still actively growing, I didn't restrict water.  These new growths are still a lot smaller that the older canes. I'm hoping I can bring it out in the summer for natural sun, rain and wind. And by winter, it'll be over a year under my care so it should be fully acclimated and I should be able to give it a proper winters rest.

I've also notice that flowers I've bloomed are more purple and there is less orange in the throat. I'll see if the color changes as the flowers age, or if it is just because of a difference in the environment. I have some other plants that when they rebloomed had a different appearance from the time I purchased them.

Update on March 13
The flowers have lightened and there are darker yellow tones.  The flowers are still going strong.  I hope they'll last a long time.  

Merry Christmas! Dendrobium Burana Sundae in the sun

I wish you all a very merry Christmas. I'm relaxing on the couch and noticed the sunlight hitting the flowers. I purchased this plant on Oct. 22 with four bloomed flowers. There are a total of nine flowers on the stem and they have all been opened for a while. They are still going strong. I thought I'd share.

MOS Orchid Show and more new plants! 😜

I went to the MOS Orchid Show on Nov. 5, 2016 and of course I can't leave empty handed. This was my first orchid show.  It was exciting, but seemed a little small.  Here are a few pictures from the show.

The show had a small number of vendors. My first purchase was from Andy's orchids. They are well known for their 'orchids on a stick' and specialize is species orchids. Andy was very helpful and spent time showing me plants when I asked for easy to grow orchids as I still consider myself a beginner. I ended up buying a couple from his recommendations.

Dendrobium tannii. The color of the flowers differ from plant to plant. But I believe Andy said the ones they had were pink.  The flowers are supposed to last for months. The canes looked a little shrively and did plump after watering. But I'll need to keep them dry as winter is coming. I also pulled away some of the brown dried bits from the canes. I figure that it will give the plant more area for photosynthesis and I also found a tiny dead bug crammed in between one of the canes and the dried stuff. So cleaning up the orchid will help it harbor less pests. Good thing I didn't find any live ones.

Encyclia bractescens. It should have narrow star shaped flowers, red-brown sepals and petals, and the lip is white with fine lines of purple radiating from the center. I just love the moss that has grown all over. It looks like a very established mount.

Sphagnum moss (tillandsia usneoides). Not an orchid and actually an air plant but I always wanted some so I had to grab it.  I see people grow them in their vanda baskets along side the roots and this is what I plan to do with some of it. I'll also use some on a grape wood branch that has a few mounted air plants. I'll have plenty of leftovers. It was an enormous amount for only 5$. I know down south they can't get rid of this fast enough. But up north a tiny handful probably cost 15$ at a nursery so I was lucky to get it for such a deal! I hear it's hard to grow indoors during the winter due to the dry air, but Andy says it is easy, so we'll see.

Piping Rock Orchids specializes in Paphiopedilums & Phragmipediums but I didn't get any.  

Butterwort (pinguicula).  I purchased a butterwort.  Again, not an orchid but I'm also a fan of carnivorous plants. I have fungus gnats that will hopefully fall prey to the plant. They also have pretty flowers which remind me of violets. Carnivorous plants do not like too much mineral and salts in the water.  I'm hoping tap water will be ok as I don't have a tds meter and don't plan to buy one anytime soon.  It wasn't labeled with the name of the cultivar so if u know please let me know in the comments.

From Fair Orchids I purchased an orchid.  I was actually on my way out and saw this little guy and wanted to get just one more.  

Dendrobium jenkinsii.  It's a miniature orchid with golden orange flowers. The flowers don't last long but are supposed to cover the plant. Look! I see some growing root tips.

I wanted to purchase more, but controlled myself.  There was a vendor there that specializes in orchids from japan.  I was very tempted to buy a Neofinetia falcata orchid, but will hold off for a future purchase.