Today we have May 1. and here is the new thread for the month.
I am starting up by showing two Orchid species with the tiniest blooms.
I enjoy Orchids with distichous growth like this Dendrobium distichum, they look interesting also when not in bloom. This plants looks to me a lot like its larger Cousin, the Dendrobium anceps, but the tiny blooms are terminal.
The blooms are pin-head size!
Restrepia blooms look more like something one might swat than a "typical" gorgeous Orchid bloom. This Restrepia antennifera is an easy, clumping grower with some blooms usually open in the morning. Once in a while I find a little cluster on the floor and start up another basket (coconut shells are perfect) or simply stick it back into the top of the basket.
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
Both the Dendrobium and the Zygostates are new to me! I have no recall of the Zygostates at all. The Dendrobium distichum I had heard of but this is the first time I have seen it. That is a beautiful little flower! So much is going on there in such a small area. Talk about stripes, oh my goodness.
Restrepias are just so cool! They remind me of a little butterfly with 2 antennae. It is one of the few orchids that you can start from a single leaf, just like an African violet. It is a tie between antennifera and sanguinea as to which one I love more! Today it's antennifera!!
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
Bill, I think you need a Zygostates! I grew one for years, got it that time from Hoosier Orchids, Zygostates apiculata. Your growing conditions would fit! It always flowered in March.
and when the mount fell apart I grew it in a small pot. But that was a mistake, as I lost it the next Summer. They really like to grow mounted and I always water with rain water. Light is similar to Phals.
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
I know, I know! But I can only spend so much $$$$$$$$.
I have not said what I bought from Ecuagenera at the West Shore Show in Ohio. Well I bought 4 Dracula's! Dracula ameliae, Dracula simiae, Dracula cordobae and a fourth whose name eludes my brain at the moment. Starts with an "f".
Then I picked up a couple of Masdevallias. One was a a veitchiana hybrid and the other is Masdevallia floribunda. That cost me $172.50! These guys are not cheap!
Two of the four I bought in March are doing great, the other two started to lose leaves like mad. Turns out the pot they were in wasn't holding enough water. So I repotted them both and with fresh moss and I finally think that after a couple of weeks I have turned the corner with them both.
The little Maxillaria I got in February has really perked up, I thought it looked good when I got it. But it too is in fresh sphagnum and has new leads everywhere.
I look forward to posting pictures.
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
I so badly wanted to buy a Dracula chimaera but it is a difficult cool grower. Well on a scale of one to ten with ten being impossible to grow, chimaera is a 9.00. Dracula vampira is a 9.6 or so. It was $45!
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
Yes I will.
I have about 15-18 plants that need to remain cooler and evenly moist so I'll keep them underlights. The Dracula's and Masdevallias love air movement so I have put an oscillating fan in the plant room to help. I have to keep the humidity up at 70-80% and the temperatures no higher then 72-75. I will do my best and see where that takes me.
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
So that will work perfectly!
I always have moved all my plants outside for the Summer, so the Orchids could be watered by a timer when we traveled. The cool to intermediate growers were not happy with humid temps in the nineties....so I had to give up trying to grow Draculas and Masdevallias and similar fun stuff. But, we are sticking around more nowadays, maybe I could try one...
Pardon my absence but I have been working like mad to finish up spring garden chores before the heat and humidity put an end to it. In addition, we are off to Europe for three weeks on the 19th. I'll talk more about that later.
As for the OC:
Grammatophyllum Broga Tiger: A typical small plant of around 30 pounds with two 30 inch spikes.
Jim, your absence is forgiven, your post shows three beautiful plants!
I love the "typical small plant", Grammatophyllum Broga Tiger. It looks great!! No complaints on the Mimi Palmer and Rioclarense either!
What a fabulous start to the month!
I am just back from my little trip and have only had a few minutes to check on the bench.
Jim, I love your Mini Palmer and that encyclia looks great!
Prabhi, your yellow Catt. Is stunning... I like the wavy petals and that color...
Ursula, I love all your tiny babies! I'm bought a really cool piece of driftwood with a natural little 'bowl' in the center that I want to put a SMALL orchid in (like the vase shaped one I have that liparis grossa in). You're giving me some great options!
Jim, as always, your orchids are just amazing! Enjoy your trip!
These aren't all blooming right now, but are the most recent ones...this is the first chance I've had to post in the last few weeks...
my enc. alata is a faithful bloomer and smells SO good!
Here's den. anosmum & aphyllum
And my two newer anosmum crosses (I try to get a new one each year at the Sarasota Orchid Society show from Mac of Mac's Orchids):
This was one of my first orchids more than 10 years ago...it has never bloomed before. Last year Rafael's wife pulled some of these out that they had in bloom and told me, "I always hated these, we had them for years and they never did NOTHING! Now look! Finally!" The blooming canes on hers were at least 3 feet long (something tells me Elaine bought one) but mine are not nearly that long.
Here's the whole plant, I'm sorry it's a terrible picture...the blooms are on the left side, and it's mounted on a piece of wood which makes it a little hard to sort out...
Patty, I love your post!! So many pretty bloomers! Must smell heavenly!
The one which steals the show for me is the white Dendrobium anosmum, what a beauty!
And there is the Rlc Hawaiian Green Valley x Rhyncholaelia digbyana 'Laura' with a double bloom again.
The bloom on the left didn't get the memo and didn't resupinate.
