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.