Ludisia discolor

It's quite interesting to notice the significant difference between plants months after changing their growing environment. The Ludisia discolor I bought in March was in a small, rather cramped container, grown in a greenhouse in someone's yard. The growth pattern was compact, leafy, a tad unruly from neglect, but otherwise showed a healthy amount of growth and even had a couple inflorescences. Everything was also the typical dark purple-red uniformly through the plant, leaves, stems, and everything.

Oh look, it's a shot of the plant before I got to it.

Fast forward to now. Poor thing has been growing in my room, which is considerably less humid than the greenhouse. As it has been a warm fall and summer, my room has been hot. At an attempt to regulate the plant's health and mitigate burnt leaves, I did occasionally mist the plant. At some point, I accidentally left the plant on top of direct sunlight for a few hours. The scarred leaves were not pleased.

Portions of the plant have also been cut off and put into jars of water to foster new root growth, acting as a sort of backup reserve in case I ruin the parent plant. I also did this to try growing the cuttings, which I trimmed off in an attempt to keep the plant in check. There are a few divisions sitting around, each growing in slightly different conditions. I tried an earlier potting media of bark and sphagnum moss, but that didn't work. A pot with bark, moss, and potting soil seems to be working so far, while the other cuttings are in water.

The plant now is rather straggly looking, with green stems and the typical purple-red leaves. New growth from the dormant stems/rhizomes is extremely spindly, the points at which they connect appearing to be weak. The space between the leaves is very large (can't remember the scientific term for this), nothing like the initial appearance of the plant. This combination makes the plant, while apparently healthy, appear ragged, haggard, and taking up extreme amounts of space.

Now, I'm not sure if this is a light, humidity, or media problem. I did repot the plant after I bought it, but the quality of the soil might have been a factor in the growth. Nutrient deficiencies, bug, bacteria, fungi, etc. come to mind. The division I repotted in the soil seems to be growing rather strangely too, with the bottom leaves falling off/drying out and the top leaves growing clumped...sort of like a tree. I'm pretty sure it's growing taller. Hopefully.

Sigh.

This looks fun!

http://www.orchidsanfrancisco.org/orchidsinthepark.html

The usual looking vendors, but I always love me a good show.

The growing season amazes me. The Dendrobium aggregatum I'm babysitting for my mother seems to be putting out something. I hope they're roots. But the plant is comprised of half-rotten and shriveled pseudobulbs and absolutely no roots whatsoever; I'm frankly quite surprised at what some heat and fertilizer and water can do.

The nobile NoID Dendrobium I have is shooting out keikis like crazy. The first and largest grew to a comfortable size (probably 7-9 inches), with a plethora of 3 inch roots. I plucked that off and put it in its own cozy plastic Starbucks-cup-turned-orchid-pot. The medium is fine bark, something I've had a modicum of success with in the one year of owning orchids.

The keikis indicate--most likely, but please don't quote me on it--that the plant is under extreme duress and looking for ways to continue its genetic lifespan. I guessed this was the case when it spiked and my hypothesis still seems valid. The initial canes are rather shriveled, further supporting this theory. Once the parent plant gives its last reserves to its asexual clones, I will probably throw it out, unfortunately. The way the keikis are situated make it way too hard to simply keep them on the parent plant; with limited space something so top-heavy would be a hassle to keep still.

The Miltonia I keep talking about is spike-happy. Last year when I bought it, the flowers were almost all dead, and they looked sort of torn up. I'm not sure if the difference in flower coloring, as minor as it is (more white, very limited purple coloring) is due to culture or simply because the flower was tattered at purchase.

Rebloom on a Paph NoID I have. At purchase there were 2 flowers on the spike...but I don't think that will happen this time around. Bad culture or a result of the forced flowering big box companies do?

And to end on a silly note, why do Oncidiums insist on growing so strangely? Silly thing, you are taking up a lot of room by growing at a 90 degree angle.

Plantgasm is always awesome

http://plantgasm.com/archives/4753

Jetlagged

I disappeared off for a trip for 3 or so weeks, and asked my family to water my plants. Prior to that I had been out and about for a week, and told them to not water anything, thinking that would be fine. I'm now short a Phalaenopsis and my Darwinara Charm. Whoops.

On the plus side, it IS the growing season, and I see something growing off the Epi and Bulbophyllum I have. Everything else seems to be doing reasonably well, and new spikes have formed on my Miltonia. My mother brought home a bunch of new orchids. Restrepia elegans and Isochilus linearis both seem to be Central American species, and her new Milt and Masd have confirmed crosses/lineages.

It's always a pleasure to find abundant amounts of new growth on a plant, especially plants with slow flowering and growing conditions. It's not as fulfilling when you realize that under someone else's care, your babies have sprung up vigorously, but if you're watching something daily, you won't see that drastic change anyway.

Go to sleep.

These look delicious. Looking at food at 1AM is ever a good idea.

Bulbs

I'm playing a game with myself, involving a list of common bulbed plants, their scientific name, and Google Images. So far I'm in the Bs. While I like them all fairly equally (and found out that the lilies I see so often are Alstroemeria), here's a few others I'm enjoying:

Babiana spp. (especially B. framesii)

Bessera spp.

Gladiolus spp. (of course :))

Eucomis! Really pretty, small clusters of flowers and all...

Not on the list per say, but Brodiaea californica is a nice native species.

Fun fact: the Canna plants you grow? Apparently the rhizome is rich in starch, and the seeds are a tortilla supplement.

Those silly irises you see planted in bunches in California area called Japanese/Butterfly irises.

Orchids for everyone!

Tonight I scored an Oncidium species from the raffle at the Malihini Orchid Society meeting. I seem to have already lost the tag in the span of 5 minutes, but I do believe it's an Onc. sphacelatum. Hopefully the tag turns up in the car. Or in my lap. That would be nice.

Anyway, the plant is HUGE. The pseudobulbs are oblong, about 4 inches high, and the leaves are blade-like, about a foot or more long. The inflorescences themselves (there are 2 of them) are branched and are sporting at least 50 blooms. The plant is tall, so tall in fact that it might have to live outside or on a plant stand on my floor, as it cannot live perched on a dresser like the other orchids.

Tonight's speaker was David Sorokowsky, speaking on the delightful little things that are Sarcochilus. Predominantly white, red, or white with red splotches, there are attempts to bring out browns, blues, and yellows. They're quite adorable! Sarcochilus species themselves are native to Australia and are cool/cold growing orchids, tolerating lows to 30F and wilting in anything above 80F. Hybrid vigor allows for a wider tolerance range, but I would still not want to chance these picky fellers in anywhere but San Francisco, or a heavily controlled greenhouse setting.

Watering

This will be the first summer my plants will experience with an educated me. I know that this is the growing season for all/most of my plants and have been heavily fertilizing them. I use a 20-10-20 orchid fertilizer, diluted from anywhere to 1/10th - 1/2 of the concentration (1 tablespoon/1 gallon) for daily use. I keep it in a spray bottle for easy surface/foliar application, and just spray until the top bark looks fairly damp. Since it is pretty hot, I do mist and water daily, as the bark medium does not hold as much water as sphagnum moss.

The way I water my plants doesn't require any soaking, as I've seen other people do. Not usually, at least. I just pour the water in, allow it to drain out, and hope the plant stays happy. It's not strictly scientific or even a good judge of wetness, nor an efficient method, but my babies are still alive...

Repotting

I have this nasty habit of death, destruction, and splitting of orchid rhizomes during the repot process. Part of me just thinks 'oh, whatever lives through this will live forever'. However, a larger plant is usually a healthier plant, and splitting should only be done to keep the plant in check. Today's endeavor was to repot 2 Cymbidiums that were overdue for a repotting, and thankfully I didn't maim (maybe a little, but don't tell anyone...) or split any of the backbulbs off. There were new leads growing from the old, established bulbs on both and hopefully in my packing of bark, they weren't harmed.

The Epidendrum I split didn't fare as kindly however. It looked something like the first picture before I came and hacked it up. In my infinite wisdom, I did not plan ahead for repotting more than the Cymbidiums, so I ran out of bark. Running out of time and rather annoyed with myself, I just decided to just throw most of the divisions I so gently created back into the same pot. Whoops. See the second picture and guess how many divisions are in each pot. Hint, each division was about 2 canes big. Le sigh.

And a happy pre-Fourth of July to you Americans, and a pleasant Damn Those Colonists To Hell to you Brits. :)

Santa Barbara Orchid Fair

http://orchidfair.com/

Tempted to go, but that's pretty damn far from home. :(

Orchid observations

Just saw that my Miltonia/Miltoniopsis has a spike! How exciting!

Musings

You know what's worse than a Pop Tart? The edges of the Pop Tart that don't have any merit (frosting, filling) to them.

Summertime!

The best part about neglecting your plants is finding massive amounts of growth and/or beginnings of inflorescences. I love the growing season!

The Den. kingianum I have has been relatively quiet and unhappy the past few months, and I haven't been looking very closely at its pot. I now see 5-7 thick, purple stalks coming from out of the soil. They appear to be new canes forming, which is VERY exciting. While people say this species is stupidly easy to grow, I can try defying expectations and status quo by killing anything with chlorophyll in its veins.

I thought I had actually updated recently with an entry regarding the orchid shows/meetings/etc., but it seems that was simply a dream/imagination/misremembered fact. So let's try making this blog as precise, succinct, and informative as possible, shall we?

I bought a Phragmipedium Calurum back in March from someone trying to clear space in his greenhouse. This plant was MONSTROUS, and confined to a 5-6" pot. I split it into 7 or so divisions, and 6 of them are in various states of happiness/decline. I burnt the 7th in a west-facing window (don't ask...), and just tossed it. However there are new growths in each of the divisions so I must be doing something right!

Ludisia discolors are not my friend. I will keep trying, but the cuttings in water are doing the best of all the specimens I have currently.

My collection is starting to move towards Dendrobiums it appears. Huzzah for diversity!

The collection has now expanded such that I now require a spreadsheet to keep track of names, dates, and other details of my plants. There are currently 21 unique items in the file, not counting duplicate cuttings/split plants. Whoops, I forgot a NoID cymbidium in there. Thank you for helping me remember. :p

San Jose Orchid Exposition (June 3-5, 2011):

Selling, rather than showing, orchids in the heart of San Jose's Japantown. Andy's Orchids was there with a fantastic display of species, Cal-Orchids, a couple people who sell Neofinitia falcata and Sedirea japonica, and other Japanese orchids. Ridiculous prices on the latter, understandable prices on the former. I came away with two plants against my will (I brought no cash to the event on purpose, then saw a plant I wanted, found out there was a $30 credit card minimum and did some browsing...). The tag said 'Epi Mable Kanda' on the first, but I later figured out that it is now classified as an Epicyclia, and the name should be Mabel Kanda. It's lightly fragrant and has a very tall, branched inflorescence with tiny green flowers.

The other plant was a Den. aberrans x eximium. No flowers, a few new growths on it. I hope I can keep it alive. I'm not 100% on the culture required, but it seems to be potted in medium that doesn't hold water very well, so I'm misting/fertilizing daily. Looking forward to the day--if it lives, of course--that it graces me with the supposedly white flowers the picture next to it displayed.

Malihini Orchid Society weekly meetings (every second Friday of the month):

They're fun. I've missed the past couple months because I'm always coincidentally busy those weekends.

Did you know that you should do trial runs of greenhouses? Else if it gets to say, 150F, the plants inside will die? YEAH, I SHOULD HAVE FIGURED THAT ONE OUT RIGHT? :/

NoID Masdevallia

Bought an orange Masdevallia at the Malihini Orchid Show in Cupertino on Saturday! It likes the cold so that will be wonderful.

Today I learned...

There are plants called geraniums commonly used in landscaping. However, there is a genus of plants called Geranium, which are in the same family but are not the same plant. While this might be confusing, there is a sort of logical reason why the confusion exists. Both genuses were classified as Geranium at some point, until they were placed in different genuses sometime during the 1700s.

Moss Graffiti!

http://origin.juxtapoz.com/Current/moss-graffitinext-big-thing

Yay Orchids!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110131133406.htm

Musings.

I love SG-1 to death. It's so deliciously campy at first, and pays homage to great sci-fi endeavors before it in its 100th episode.

Oh. It is 2011.

Well, I realize now that orchids are semi-uneventful, and that I am a *terrible* person at cataloging things in my own room. Laboratory environments I can do, stuff living in my room not so much.

The house is badly insulated and the parental units resist central heating, and to be honest, with living in the south Bay Area, it's not a highly essential part of life. However this resulted in some unhappiness from the 'chids and myself. The dendrobium I bought in the summer is losing its leaves, and I sort of, um, took out all the sphagnum moss in the pot it came in, so it's sitting bare rooted and slightly moist in its own pot. While most of the roots appear to be somewhere between 'meh' and 'eh', there are some which are plump and full-looking. So sometime this weekend I will put it in bark and support the canes.

I have a phal which I've been griping about since August, but as it hasn't kicked the bucket, I thought I would try my luck with another phal. A mistake, as some sort of bacterial infection, or crown rot, has overtaken that plant, but that could have been my mistake in picking an already diseased plant. The current phal that is desperately clinging to life appears to not have any viable roots, slightly shriveled leaves, and is potted in styrofoam and small bark pieces. But it seems to be trying to come back; there are little green nubs that look like new roots, but I can't be certain.

My oncidiums are actually liking the weather apparently! A NoID from Safeway rebloomed off another pseudobulb. It seems to be from Matsui Nursery, and looks like the 'Massai Red', but I'd rather not assume. I digress from the whole wistful ID thing. The plant itself looks moderately healthy, with shriveling in the pseudobulbs but with new growth and new roots forming! I would assume--drat, stupid word--that the shriveling is due to the flower spike and the lack of roots from my abysmal wintery conditions/repot. But I'm thankful that there's growth!

My yellow NoID oncidium is also sending out new growth, but new roots are nonexistent and the old roots are much finer looking than the previously mentioned oncidium. Not sure, but hoping that bulbs form.

My self-ID'ed Miltoniopsis is sending out new growth and I think new roots! So I repotted it in the hopes of getting it out of the media it was bought in. I picked it up on a bargain shelf with the flowers looking rather unhappy, so I was hesitant to do anything to it. Hopefully the repotting wasn't a bad idea...

Bought a Mtdm Ruffles 'Scent of a Woman' last month due to the name. Suspecting fragrance, I took a sniff, and lo and behold, a wonderful smell from the blooms. Of course, I took it home from Trader Joe's and the blooms all fell off from the cold, but the plant looks ok! I hope. :(

My Darwinara Charm is looking unhappy, the woman I bought it from has sort of berated me on not giving it the proper light requirements, but as it gets warmer and the days grow longer, we'll see what I can do. The roots have mostly rotted off, but hopefully the new media and pruning job I did will help...

And that's all for my long-winded post for tonight!