Hybridizing with a primary hybrid

This is my first attempt in making a novelty Phalaenopsis cross. It just so happened that I had Chienlung Luedgiana (P. corningiana x P. lueddemanniana) and Hannover Passion (P. Gelblieber x P. mariae) flowering at the same time and decided to do this cross. Because it's the first bloom for the Hannover Passion and it isn't an established plant, I removed its flowers soon after collecting the pollen. The Chienlung Luedgiana is established so I think it should hold a seed pod without issues.

Here's the mother plant.

And here's the cross that I made in picture form. I'm hoping for fragrant, long-lasting, glossy and blotchy blooms from this, but it will be interesting to see if the dominant flower form of corningiana and lueddemannia can be suppressed by the amboinensis and micholitzii influence from Hannover Passion.

Better late than never

Things have slowed down the past two months, so there hasn't been much to blog about. However, we have some winter bloomers in the form of a butterwort and a novelty Phalaenopsis. Nice to have some blooms in the winter time.

Phalaenopsis Hannover Passion ('Ching Ruey')

Pinguicula Sethos (P. ehlersiae x P. moranensis)

Added more endemic orchid species to Borneo

The grow space is now filling up at a faster rate than I thought, not surprisingly.. Among the additions are Dyakia hendersoniana, Paphiopedilum stonei and Paphiopedilum kolopakingii which are all species endemic to Borneo. I have also acquired a few different cultivars of Phalaenopsis bellina and Phalaenopsis corningiana. Very excited about their potential blooms. There are also other non-Bornean phal species in the mix that are not listed as well as a fair number of primary hybrids. More on these next time.

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
Phaphiopedilum rothschildianum	Endemic to Borneo
Phaphiopedilum sanderianum	Endemic to Borneo
Phaphiopedilum stonei	Endemic to Borneo
Phaphiopedilum kolopakingii	Endemic to Borneo
Phaphiopedilum lowii	Borneo, West Malaysia, Indonesia
Paraphalaenopsis labukensis	Endemic to Borneo
Dyakia hendersoniana	Endemic to Borneo

Phalaenopsis appendiculata surprise!

I recently acquired this species from BLO and was surprised to see it in spike after only a month under my care. Hopefully this is not stress-induced, but because it was pushing out new roots as well it is perhaps doing alright. Here are some first bloom photos of this Phalaenopsis appendiculata. The color on the petals is quite saturated. It seems to be happy enough potted in moss but I will eventually want to mount this and grow it in some sort of vivarium in the future. Undoubtedly, the smallest phal species.

Phalaenopsis appendiculata

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