Phalaenopsis pantherina

This is the 2014 bloom for this Phal. pantherina. It is still trying to be established in moss but I'm happy it can still bloom. Also, I detected a fragrance from this which smells like a sharply sweet parsley! The Cornu-cervi complex is a challenge in my conditions for some reason. I suspect they like really high humidity with bright light. However, in lower humidity I find that they do better under lower light conditions. The 'blooming size' Phal. cornu-cervi I have is still refusing to spike and Phal. borneensis I recently got is still a seedling, so it will be a while before I get to compare their flowers in person. I'm still missing Phal. lamelligera in order to have a complete set of this group of phals from Borneo, so the search continues.

Phalaenopsis pantherina

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.

 

Phalaenopsis corningiana and grow area update

My Phal. corningiana had seven buds on four spikes and had just finished flowering. However, I made the mistake of changing the growing conditions drastically (see below) after the buds had developed so it got shocked I think and subsequently had a hard time opening its flowers. Here's a shot of one of the blooms. There's an imperfection on the lower sepals because I had sprayed Physan the day before to control some fungus issues on my Phal. mariae that was next to it. Will try to flower this plant again next year to see if the severe cupping is a characteristic of this individual, or if it was just my rookie mistake. 

I recently 'upgraded' my grow lights to a six-tube 4' T5 HO fixture, and realized pretty fast that this was probably an overkill for my current conditions in the small space. However, it is still better than my small four-tube 2' T5 HO fixture, so it is here to stay. This new fixture can probably light up an entire growth room in terms of Phalaenopsis light requirements. Using an estimate for light intensity by an iPhone app, I'm currently only running two tubes on this fixture for 1000-1500 foot candles. I had used four out of the six tubes for a month prior to this and most plants were getting a little stressed out because it was at about 2000-2500 foot candles. Here's a look at the current situation and it appears I might have a little more room to expand the collection!

Phalaenopsis fuscata and Phal. Luedgiana

I recently returned from travel and it is a welcome sight to see some of the phals in flower!

This is the first time this Phal. fuscata has bloomed here, but it is from an old spike that came with the plant. I may save the pollen from this fuscata to cross with Phal. bellina fma. coerulea that is currently in buds.

Next up is Phal. Chienlung Luedgiana which makes quite a nice scent from late morning till the afternoon. Having two flowers in bloom definitely fills the room with fragrance. If I hadn't knocked off a bud from the new spike, it would've had three blooms...

 

First bloom: Phalaenopsis modesta

This Phal. modesta was one of my first purchases last year from Big Leaf Orchids. It made two spikes earlier this year, and is finally blooming. Those buds were taking a really long time to grow, but they pretty much all opened at about the same time which is nice.

According to the label, this is a sib cross of the 'Yaphon' cultivar. This plant hasn't been fussy at all, easy to grow and smells nice and very much like a fruity vanilla cake!

New addition: Phalaenopsis maculata

I have been holding back on new purchases lately, but this week I gave in, owing to the fact that Oakhill Gardens have had two species that is on the borneophals list below for a while now and I'd be disappointed if they were sold out. One of them is Phal. maculata as the post title suggests, and the other is another Phal. amabilis but of the grandiflora form as opposed to the one that I have now, which is supposedly the 'Sabah' form. I have yet to flower any amabilis in the grow area to confirm it, but I think this species generally sulk before they finally acclimate.

There was a great update from on Phal. rundumensis on the ranwild.org phal grower's website. Click on this link to access the article where they did side by side comparisons between Phal. doweryensis and Phal. rundumensis, which is quite compelling. Here's a screenshot of the images of the two phals. It would be great to initiate a sequencing effort for all the phal species and clarify their relationship between each other.

Borneo Phalaenopsis species list 006

Species	Distribution
Phalaenopsis amabilis	Borneo, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Australia
Phalaenopsis appendiculata	Borneo, West Malaysia
Phalaenopsis bellina	Endemic to Borneo
Phalaenopsis borneensis	Endemic to Borneo
Phalaenopsis cochlearis	Endemic to Borneo
Phalaenopsis corningiana	Endemic to Borneo
Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi	Borneo, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand
Phalaenopsis deliciosa	Borneo, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Philippines
Phalaenopsis doweryensis	Endemic to Borneo
Phalaenopsis fimbriata	Borneo, Indonesia
Phalaenopsis fuscata	Borneo, West Malaysia, Philippines
Phalaenopsis gigantea	Endemic to Borneo
Phalaenopsis lamelligera	Endemic to Borneo
Phalaenopsis maculata	Endemic to Borneo
Phalaenopsis mariae	Borneo, Philippines
Phalaenopsis modesta	Endemic to Borneo
Phalaenopsis pantherina	Endemic to Borneo
Phalaenopsis rundumensis	Endemic to Borneo
Phalaenopsis sumatrana	Borneo, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand

- Species highlighted green are the ones I currently have.

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.