Phalaenopsis bellina from Krull-Smith

This is the plant featured in the 'sneak peek' from the last post. Despite being its first bloom, this is the nicest Phalaenopsis bellina that I own. Hopefully, it will continue to grow and improve. Currently, the flower has a natural spread of 4.5 cm, which is quite large by this species' standards, but not surprising considering its parentage.

Phalaenopsis bellina ('Krull's Perfection' FCC/AOS x 'Krull's Prince' AM/AOS)

Phalaenopsis bellina fma. coerulea double spike

This is so far the best blooming for this blue bellina on two active spikes. Not many orchids bloomed this year because I've made changes to the growing conditions. Recently saw some good signs on most of the plants, so there's some improvement at least.

Phalaenopsis bellina fma. coerulea NF262 'Blue Lagoon' x 'Blue Bird'

Phalaenopsis bellina fma. coerulea

This plant has been a great grower because after being repotted a few months ago, it still managed push out two new spikes. I actually lost the first bud while I was traveling due to underwatering, but it is still trucking on as though nothing happened. The form isn't as nice as last years under the circumstances, but is still pretty nice.

 

Repotting time

Winter has officially ended in California with the last of the rains we experienced in late March, which means growth is gaining some momentum on some of these phals.

I also recently noticed the sad state that my standard Phal. cornu-cervi is in and decided that it needed to be repotted. It was sulking and is refusing to spike. Here's a picture of it looking much happier in new media next to Phal. bellina fma. coerulea after repotting.

There's actually a spike developing on the bellina and hopefully it won't stall as a result of my intervention.

In other news, I think there's a spike forming on the Phal. mariae! It was not doing much over the winter and but was growing steadily. More on that plant in the future hopefully.

Fresh bloom of Phal. bellina fma. coerulea

This is the third bloom from this plant, and it has been sequentially blooming for about two months now. I've been really enjoying the fragrance and colors of this species.

Standard Phalaenopsis bellina

Second bellina that has bloomed here so far. It is still in the original bark mix because I wanted to bloom it out before transplanting to sphagnum. This flower has a bit of a wild look about it. Not entirely sure how I feel about it at the moment but I find that it is quite enjoyable so far.

Phalaenopsis bellina fma. coerulea

Very excited to get my first bellina to bloom! This is NF262 'Blue Lagoon' x 'Blue Bird'. I really like it but I'm a bit worried because there's only three leaves on this plant and it has a tendency to get bacterial rot on the tips of its leaves. I've moved it to an area with more air circulation to hopefully prevent any future damage to the leaves. When this plant gets bigger, the petals should fatten up more so I'm looking forward to the next bloom season. This is a surprisingly nice sized flower with 5.9 cm NS and 5 cm VNS.

Picture with flash:

Picture without flash: