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.

Monstera deliciosa

I got yet another plant this Saturday, March 11.  The Monstera Deliciosa.  The plant was labeled a split leaf philodendren, but it is labeled incorrectly.  First of all the split leaf philodendren like it's namesake has splits throughout it's large leaves and as the name states, is a philodendren.  While the monstera deliciosa does have split leaves, it also has holes which the split leaf philodendren does not have.  I have seen some that say that both names can interchangeably for this plant.  But that doesn't make sense because the monstera deliciosa isn't even a philodendren.


The nursery I went to had a lot of these plants.  They all looked large and healthy and I spent some time trying to find the best one.  It was hard to choose because they all looked very nice.  I hope I chose well.

 The huge plant is outgrowing the six inch plastic pot.  Look at all the stems.  I could probably split this up into 20 smaller plants if I wanted.  You can see the aerial roots forming at the bottom.  The more I look at this, the more I think this may be many plants in a single pot.  In pictures I've seen, they only have a stem or two.  As the stems grow longer it will actually try to find something to support it and start climbing.  

The leaves are amazing which is why I always wanted one.  The variegated form is actually on my wish list but it is impossible to find.  I've searched online and they are all back ordered or sold out and too expensive.  I have not seen them for sale in a nursery.  I hear the variegated form is very slow growing so maybe the solid green is a better choice.

You can see that some of the smaller younger leaves do not have any splits or holes.  They will form them as the plant matures.  The leaf pictured below is the newest to unravel.  You can see it is a little curled and is a lighter green.  This new leaf has the most slits/holes on the plant.  

The leaves are already pretty large for a houseplant.  The longest leaf is just under 9 inches long.  I plan to bring this outside once the weather warms and hopefully this will help it reach it's potential.  If you research care for this plant, you will see that almost everyone advises no direct sun and to keep it away from windows.  If this plant can take some direct sun in tropical places, why not in temperate areas? Of course I don't mean all day sun.  But I plan to put it in a location where it will get a couple hours of morning sun.  And I will gradually harden the plant so it won't get sun burned.

Here are a couple of full grown plants in Maui, Hawaii taken back in December 2015.  You can see deep the splits get and the many holes in the leaves.  It was in direct sun with some taller plants in the back.  You can see a lizard hanging out on the leaves in the first picture below.  The leaves were gigantic, probably three feet long.  I know that an indoor plant won't grow as large, but I hope to grow one with leaves at least half the size.  

Hawaii is one of my favorite places.  Maybe this is why I want this plant around.  To remind me of tropical paradise.

Update March 19:

It severely required a repot.  It fits well now, but it looks like I'll have to repot again soon since the roots seem very vigorous and will probably fill this new pot in no time.

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.  

Another big lip phaleonopsis

I bought another phal at Trader Joe's yesterday. They had several big lip ones including this unique dark purple one which looked like it was tiedyed. But it has a shorter smaller flower spike so I went with the tall one.  It is missing a couple of buds but it looks like there are a lot more buds to come.  Seems like the big lips are becoming more available. But I have only seen them at Trader Joe's for sale.

Like the majority of plants around here there is no ID. But after googling photos, it looks like Phalaenopsis Yu Pin Fireworks (Sogo Dove x World Class). Based on the name it looks like the same orchid breeders as the last one I purchased. They actually look the same where one is subtle and this one has dark intense lines. They also both have branching spikes.