Phalaenopsis deliciosa subsp. hookeriana blooms

This plant surprised me with a spike a month ago after moving it to the top of the growing area where it began getting more light. When it was transplanted from bark to sphagnum, it wasn't really doing that great in terms of vegetative growth even after I cut off its old spikes. I guess the move was good because it's now making new roots as well. The leaves are really dark green in my conditions despite the higher lights, so perhaps it can take even higher light conditions than it is currently in. At the last blooming, only single buds would appear, so it's great to get a multibloom spike this time around.

Phalaenopsis deliciosa subsp. hookeriana

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 borneensis, appendiculata and lists

It has been over a year since the Borneophals Phalaenopsis species collection activity began and I'm happy to say it has been steady progress up to this point, thanks to breeders and other collectors that have kept each species going. The most recent notable addition from the list below is the namesake of the island that inspired this blog, Phalaenopsis borneensis. I'm looking forward to try to coax a spike out of this species but as I've said, I found my conditions to be a little challenging for the Cornu-cervi species complex unfortunately. There's been some discussion on whether Phalaenopsis lamelligera is just Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi, so this species may be removed from this list. Lastly, I also managed to acquire a Phalaenopsis appendiculata, which is still quite rare in cultivation.

Two more non-phal additions are Paphiopedilum sanderianum and Paphiopedilum lowii because they happen to be the two species of slippers from Borneo that I think are quite distinctive and may take a while to get established. I felt comfortable to include these in the expanded grow space, and from what I've gathered, they should be relatively easy to grow.

Borneo Phalaenopsis species list 007

Species	Distribution
Phalaenopsis amabilis	Borneo, Indonesia, Australia, Papua New Guinea
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 growing.

Other orchid species from Borneo

Species	Distribution
Paphiopedilum rothschildianum	Endemic to Borneo
Paphiopedilum sanderianum	Endemic to Borneo
Paphiopedilum lowii	Borneo, West Malaysia, Indonesia
Paraphalaenopsis labukensis	Endemic to Borneo

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...