Orchid haul from Andy's Orchids

I haven't posted in a while it's been quite busy with the holidays.  There was a 40% off sale at Andy's Orchids.  So of course, I had to purchase more orchids.  I purchased these in November, so sorry the sale is no longer going on.  But it seems to happen every November, so remember to check next year.  I could have paid for 2 day shipping, but if it was delayed for any reason the third day had below freezing temps so I went for overnight shipping.  It was pricey, but I did get 40% off, so I think it was still worth it. 

I know this picture doesn't show any details, but I'll post new ones when I posts updates on the orchids.

Here are the orchids I purchased (from left to right):

holcoglossum flavescens

ascocentrum pumilum

leptotes pohlitinocoi
haraella odorata
gastrochilus somai

Non-orchid purchase (top):
Myrmecodia (Ant Plant)

The plants are all very small, the largest was the gastrochilus which game in bud.  So excited about the buds.  They are miniatures, so they won't get big, but it will be a long while before they become specimen size.  Besides the leptotes, all the other genera are all new to me.  Hopefully they'll grow well for me.

Winter is always difficult though as the air is extremely dry.  Even with a humidifier on, its about 30%.  I wish we had a longer growing season.  It's so much easier to grow outside. Because it's so dry, everything pretty much dries in a day, so I water daily.  Watering is also difficult since I grow inside and I have to water each mount individually and try to get the hardwood floors all wet.  I usually get water everywhere. 

I have thought about transferring the mounts to pots, but it seems like it'd kill most of the roots and I would set the orchid back.  Potted plants will not have to be watered as often, but it takes a while for an orchid to recover after a re-pot so stripping it off a mount seems like it would inflict trauma to an orchid.

The ant plant is also new to me.  The caudex is supposed to grow large and it has all these crevices and tunnels that ants live in.  I'm not sure I want ants living in my plant, but I really like the shape of the fat base.   Like my orchids, this plan also likes humidity.  Hopefully it can tolerate my conditions.

Well that's it for now.  Good luck growing!

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. 

More new orchids from the Lyman Estate greenhouse

The greenhouse has a sale twice a year. There were a lot or orchids for sale. It was hard not to buy too much. But I think I did ok with only three. I don’t have an orchid nursery nearby, so this is basically the only option for a variety or orchids other than phalaeonopsis.


Psychopsis Mendenhall ‘Hildos’
I’ve always wanted one of these. I’m really satisfied with the size of the plant and picked the largest available.  It has 11 leaves so it must be a mature plant and it’s trying to squeeze out of the pot. But the lady at the greenhouse says they like to be kept rootbound so I’ll keep it in for a season and see what it does.  Too bad it doesn’t have a spike. The color of the leaves are beautiful. The top is green with purple patches and the back is purple with green dots. Please spike!

Angrecum Didieri

I got the next two orchids for their fragrance. There is a small nub in a leaf axle which looks like a spike. I don’t think it’s a root as those are grayish and bumpy. This one also has a new growth with seven leaves. 

Neofinetia falcata ‘Shutennou’ 朱天王
This one should have some pink in it. It’s planted in a small basket with sphagnum moss. I also got a pot (sold separately). The basket pops right in so I’ll keep it in there. I don’t see a need to repot. The moss is fresh. The plant is small but there are 5 growths. The roots look new, but unfortunately the tips that are visible look damaged. Don’t know about the ones inside the most.

I had to retrai myself. There was so much more beautiful plants. 

Ebay orchid haul!

I got some plants today in the mail.

trichocentrum lanceanum
This plant should have a nice fragrance and waxy flowers.  It is a species orchid.  When purchasing orchids I'm looking for ones with fragrance. Why not have something that's pretty AND smells good.  The American orchid society site says hey require bright light. So hopefully I can give it enough light to bloom.

Onc. Sharry Baby 'Red Fantasy'
Wils. Aloha Sparks 'Halloween'
Onc. Aka Baby 'Raspberry Chocolate' HCC/AOS
Mttsa. Shelob 'Tolkien' AM/AOS.

I also purchased a group of plants that were sold as a set. They are small plugs and cost about 4$ each before shipping. They are small plants. There are two sharry babies. It'll be interesting to compare fragrances once they bloom. I have a sharry baby sweet fragrance and it is in spike right now.

New phaleonopsis orchids

I ordered a couple of plants on eBay and revived them Saturday. They are small phaleonopsis orchids. But they are blooming size. The smaller of the two did come with a flower, but it was dried and fell off after a couple of days. Since they should rebloom on the same spike, hopefully another bud and flower will form soon.
I'm very interested in species phals and fragrant orchids. Can't wait for them to bloom.

Phal bellina 'TH'  (Right)
Phal (bellina var. coerulea 'Bessing' x violacea 'USA Blue')  (Left)

Repotted the orchids on September 3rd.

I used decorative orchid pots.  This is the first time using one of those glazed pots with holes on the side. Once it matures and roots grow through, it'll be stuck forever right?  No repotting I guess unless you want to rip all the roots off. Not sure how I feel about that. I guess we'll see.

The other pot is a very small glazed pot. There are no holes on the sides but there is one large drainage hole.

Both orchids were potted with a lot of styrofoam peanuts for drainage along with bark and charcoal. The larger pot also has perlite.

sedirea japonica seedlings

I purchased some plants on eBay. It was an impulse buy. The action I bid on came with three seedlings. Two plants have four leaves and one has three. They are in 2 inch pots. It looks like they have got good roots, but I didn't take the plants out of the pot so I'm just looking at the ones on top and the air roots. How long will these take to bloom?  Maybe I should have purchased lareger plants. lol. I'm not alway very patient. But at least these don't take up much space cause they are so tiny.

These are Japanese orchids and are a species. They should be fragrant. I've never smelled one but people say they smell lemony and very pleasant. The fragrance is one of the reasons why I decided to purchase these plants. 

Phalaenopsis Princess Kaiulani 'Chin Yo'

Princess Kaiulani is a cross between amboinensis and violacea. The colors on the flowers are unreal. They're almost neon. I do like natural colors but the pictures of these flowers on the web are amazing. I haven't seen this orchid available in online nurseries so once I spotted it on eBay I jumped on it. I was nervous about buying an orchid on eBay, but the sellers ratings were good. I purchased it over the weekend. It was shipped Monday and I got it today. 
It was potted in sphagnum moss and I repotted it in bark and included a lot of styrofoam peanuts that came with the shipment. The pot is kinda of large for the orchid so I wanted to make sure drainage was excellent. 
It is supposed to be blooming size. There is no spike. I really want a flower! What are the chances I can get one this year? They are supposed to be summer blooming. I am also not sure if I should keep it outside. It will probably grow better with natural light but the it will be exposed to the elements. Inside it'll just get light from a window but be protected from pests. I have brought a bunch of other orchids outdoors. They are doing ok so I might give it a try outside. Wish me luck!

My first zygopetalum

The blooms on this plant aren't too amazing, but people always rave about the fragrance. And hey describe the scent as like a hyacinth which I love.  Usually the plants in stores don't smell to strong, but maybe that's just the stress of changing environments and the lack of sunlight. But I can smell it and it's very pleasant. Hopefully it'll be more intense as the blooms age. There are two spikes each with 4 flowers. The second spike hasn't opened yet but looks very close.   I got this at Trader Joe's. If you know the name of the orchid, please comment. The bulbs don't look great and are shriveled. But it was the only one there and I wanted to get something. It also has quite a few pseudobulbs. I count eleven which is quite high as there was an oncidium there that was just one big bulb. Hopefully this will do well for me. 

A couple of days later:  Two more buds opened. The new blooms have a fair scent. The lip is very wrinkly which I don't really like. The older books have the same problem but not as bad so I think they'll straighten out but not completely. 

Another NOID succulent

I got a new plant today. It looks like one of those with strange out of this world flowers so I got it. I find the flowers intriguing. So we'll have to wait and see what the flowers look like as I don't know what this plant is. I've been aquiring quite a few lately and can't wait until they flower.

 These succuenlents have new growths that start anyware along the stems close to a spike. But there is a red growth in the center that looks like a flower bud rather then a new growth. I'm crossing my fingers.

Update: July12

Flower bud opening up. It is plain yellow with a dark center. I was hoping for a more unusual looking flower, but I'm happy it bloomed. 

July 17:

Flower is fully opened. It's textured and seems to be fuzzy. I don't detect any scent. If anyone knows the ID of this plant. Please leave a comment. 

NOID succulent. Possibly a huernia.

Anyone know what this is? I think it's some sort of huernia and that's why I got it.  If I can get it to bloom it should help with the ID. I did repot this from the plastic nursery pot it came in into a ceramic pot. The plant is fragile and I broke a few pieces off. I stuck the pieces into the soil. They should root.

Mini haul

More plants. 😀
I stopped by Home Depot on Wednesday 5/17 to look for some garden plants. We've had 90 plus degree weather for a couple of days so the plants looked a little crispy. So I was a little disappointed and went to look around the indoor houseplant section. And look what I found!!

It's a fragrant mini phaleonopsis. I was so excited when I caught the scent.  It's difficult to describe but it reminds be of a floral scented soap. It wasn't labeled but I'm pretty sure it's Phal. Jiaho’s Pink Girl.  It is a cross between Phal. Schilleriana and Phal. Zuma’s Pixie.  It looks like it has picked up more traits from the Shilleriana parent. I love the spotting on the flowers and the dark mottled leaves.  It also has branching flower spikes. Such a tiny plant with so many flowers.

There is one flower that's missing a lip. Strange. I wonder if it is a genetic thing. Hopefully I'll get it to rebloomed. I have a lot more luck with large phaleonopsis. I feel like the smaller ones are easier to overwater. Not sure why, maybe it's because it's in such a small container it seems like it would dry out too fast, but it really doesn't.

 Another strange thing is I didn't smell the scent the next day. Maybe it's the change in environment. Some require sunlight to become fragrant. I did move it into more sun and it did help, but it's still a lot more mild than it was before.  I'm really glad I found this one.

 Echeveria setosa var. minor

The hairy leaves were just so cute. It kind of looks prickly, but they are not spines. I don't have any fuzzy echeveria yet, and now I do.

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.