Hai there! ^-^

Wow it's uh....almost been a year since my last post how lame of me...sorry to anyone who reads these lol! Not much happening with my orchids. I did get a few new ones..killed a few more..again...getting ready to send a few off to California to Kanna as soon as it gets warm enough for more than a day at a time :)

Lots of things have their new growths going on and new roots starting up. Nothing..and mean I mean nothing has bloomed in the last year! It's all my fault though. They haven't had consistency during the last year and got moved around a few times, and then subjected to freezing temperatures over the winter when the apartment complex decided to install new windows and a new balcony door :/ I like the new windows and all but I wish they would have waited to install them until it was warm out.

We are 5 months into 2011 now, with 7 months left of the year I think I might get lucky and get some fall blooms on the Ludiscia discolor, Paph Delanatii, and restrepia; and some late summer blooms on the Hwra. & Blc. Kosh Wallace 'Paradise' (which is a new one I got in the beginning of March). I think it will be next year before I start seeing the normal cycle of blooms one would expect from my plants if I can maintain the consistency of care, let's hope I can do it!!!

Here is the shelf as of today, I plan on sending at least 4 out to California to make room for some new plants that I have better luck growing and maintaining.

The new additions are:
Blc. Kosh Wallace 'Paradise'- Lowe's
Den. aggregatum- Lowe's
Blc. Fritz Nicholaus 'Spring Dance' Lavendar- Lowe's
Onc. Gower Ramsey- Lowe's, divided itself diring repotting, sending one piece to Kanna
Blc. Lawless Freischutz X Goldenzelle 'Paradise'-YRL-Lowe's, not sure what YRL means yellow
red lavendar maybe????
Odcdm. Wildcat Green Valley-Lowe's

Also the Phal cornu-cervi looks like it has a new spike starting to break through! The leaves are atrocious looking though. Watering issues had made the leaves look pretty strange, and then on another phal... Phal Regal Bells x Brother Fortune Gleen the leaves are even worse. I was going to send this one to Kanna since I have never gotten it to rebloom but the flowers are beautiful.. but I can't send her something that looks this bad:

kill = buy

yes i killed some things, unfortunately they were really cool things. My masd. herra. for the OG project, my Den monoliforme benifuki, and my restrepia muscifera! :( So to make up for it I ended up buying 2 NOID phals from 2 different big box places spending a grand total of $35 on all 3. Anyways at lest now I have some stuff in bloom! I previously have not had anything in bloom for a looong time. I have also been slacking in the watering department which is why 3 things died :( I also have the harraella retrocalla near death now but it hasn't kicked the bucket yet yay! Anyways here's some pictures of 2 of the new ones that were $10 a piece from Lowes. I'll post pics of the other one later since i potted it differently than I pot most things.

December, Long time no see!

Ok so I have been slacking lately to provide your window. But I have all kinds of great news and pictures to share with you! Above is my friend and fellow CIOS member Terry Onofrey at our annual orchid bingo christmas event.

Several society members preparing to play bingo and in just generally hanging around.

Now for the good stuff! This is the plant table for bingo winners!

Slc. mem Alvin Begman Poem reblooming for this year's second blooming! I am beside myself with this. It just bloomed a fwe months ago and as soon as the buds fell off a new spike emerged.

This is Hwra. Lava Burst 'Punami' AM/AOS spiking. I received this plant earlier this year from a friend in LA. She got it for $7 at trader joe's after it finished blooming as one growth. I was quite surprised to see it spiking. So I guess that means this might have the possibility to bloom multiple times a year!

Hwra. Lava Burst 'Punami' AM/AOS close up of spike.

Den. Cathy Beck in bloom! This is the plant's second bloming. Last year I received it in bloom in the summer of 08. It had lost one spike and one flower blasted. I ended up with two spike both having two flowers. This is a compact grower and the canes only grow to about 4 inches tall. The flowers are pretty small. A previous thread has more info from when I had first received it about its characteristics.

This is the plant I won at the CIOS annual Christmas Bingo game! It is a Gongora galleottiana. The above pic is after the repot into a net pot. Below is the before pic. A good portion of the roots had rotted however it had a ton of god roots. This thing had roots out the wazoo!

Octoberly Happenings

Haraella retrocalla spike 2 bloom one just opened! Smells great!

Stima. Kelly Lea
The last of the flowers were starting to fade so I just went ahead and pulled them off so I could take one last picture of them. Blooming this was a huge milestone for me and so was blooming Slc. mem Alvin Begman 'Poem' but the flowers faded so fast after I accidentally spraying them with dishsoap water & cinnamon extract:(

Onc. Twinkle is plumping up now! Maybe I will get some spikes soon???!!!

Den. Kathy beck's three spikes. I did something really stupid and let it start to shrivel before I watered it again, I dunno why I did that. But it looks like it will cost me one spike :(

Last Call on Catts & First Signs on Den Cathy Beck

The above three pictures are Den Cathy Back: pic 1 is last year's blooms, 2 &3 are this year starting three spikes :) Yay! I love the way the blooms change colors and shape once they open from triangular in shape resembling kingianums to a fully antelope shape, it's beautiful and amazing! They open up more reddish than purple pink and over a few days as the sepals begin to twist the reddish tint fades into that wonderful pinky purple. Also the first pic was before the petals started to twist.

Last year the plant was shipped to me from Florida in spike with 5 swelling buds. One bud blasted. This year what a surprise! So far three spikes can't wait to count the buds! Last year it bloomed in July so this is a bit later for Cathy Beck than she did last year, this is also her second blooming so I expect see more buds per spike than last year, maybe I will have to steak the spikes in that tiny two inch square pot. She will definitely be due for a good repotting come spring.

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Although I am ver very satisfied with these two blooming for me with 4 spikes on the Stima. and one with two flowers on the Slc. I am so sad becasue now they are all open. Soon they will surely be gone :( Thes pictures do not do them any justice. And unfortunately during a misting of cinnamon oil/dishsoap/water/natural insecticde I spryed the flowers and some of the deep purple washed out of one of the stime flowers, and one of the lips on the slc got dried up on the edged from it...DOH!!!!! Lesson learned.

Rearranged orchid shelf!

Also today I rearranged the plant shelf to make more space for the plants i brought back in. Would you believe the leaves are already starting to change colors! Where did the year go???Anyways I am baby sitting seven plants for my good friend Terry four of which are in s/h and I am happy to report that they are all doing well in my care yay!

Wow! more Blooms!!

Well it's been a while since I have last posted! So I am happy to report that Stima 'Kelly Lea' now has three buds open! And looks great! Also Slc. mem. Alvin Begman 'Poem' has one bud open and it is beautiful! So worth the two years it took me to get it right for both plants. My camera died as I was trying to take a picture of possible spikes on Den. Cathy Beck so you'll have to wait until I get some more batteries lol.