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. 

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.

Houseplant sale at Lyman Estate greenhouses

These are amongst the oldest greenhouses in the United States. They have some rare plants that are hard to find and have sales where u can buy them. Here are some pictures of their greenhouses.

These are the plants I got.

Vanda Robert's Delight Pink

The flowers on this are so impressive, this is the first plant that caught my eye.  The flowers are huge and so vibrant.  There seems to be a healthy amount of roots and they are long.  Unfortunately I don't think they will survive.  What I've read is that in humid places, the roots grow very long and thin.  In drier locations they are thicker to help retain moisture.  This seems to be true as I purchased a vanda a couple of years back.  All the new roots are significantly fatter then the original ones.  They are thicker then a pencil and some of the original thin ones are desiccated. Hopefully I can rebloom this.  I have never rebloomed a vanda but have gotten two keikis to grow last year.

Neostylis Lou Sneary 'Bluebird'

As you can see from the dried flower spike this one just finished flowering.  So hopefully I won't have to wait too long until the next bloom.  I also see at least three old cut spikes.  

Lc. Pure Soul 'Yutaka Morimoto'

There are two blooms.  Here's a picture of each of them.  There are two other sheaths, but I don't see anything in them.

Dendrochilum Bicallosum
There are some leaf tips that look burnt.  I'll trim them off to make the plan look cleaner.  I see 11 spikes and small growths that may be additional spikes!  The flowers cascade down in spirals and is supposed to have a unique creamy pale salmon color.

Crassula Morgan's Beauty

The succulent leaves look super cute and look at all those flower buds.  

Lifesaver plant

I have one of these already, but mine has a brown flower and I wanted one with the red 'lifesaver.'  The picture on the tag had a red flower so hopefully the tag is accurate.  The flowers are so bizarre they don't even look real.