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? :/