February rains!

The last two weeks has been great for the orchids. The Ridiculously Resilient Ridge dissipated finally and we got a sprinkling of rain. Then, earlier this month an atmospheric river aka The Pineapple Express dumped a whole lot of rain on us. However, we are still very far away from even getting close to the amount of rain to match the record low for rainfall accumulation which means we are still very much in drought conditions.

As a home indoor grower, the rain made a significant effect on humidity levels. While my humidifier was working hard in Dec/Jan to keep the RH at merely 45%, it has not even turned on the last two weeks! The average RH has been around 60% which is quite a healthy level for both humans and phals alike.

Most plants seem to be loving it, and the two new spikes on my Phal. modesta are finally making buds. Still no sign of buds on the new spikes of the Phal. corningiana though. The Phal. bellina fma. coerulea is even working on a new spike! However, I haven't seen any spiking activity from my Phal. amabilis or Phal. cornu-cervi, and I'm assuming they are still not adjusted to the growing conditions yet.

Looking forward to a nice smelling spring.

Continued efforts in 2014

Happy 2014, fellow phal-o-philiacs! It has been a rather quiet winter season in the grow space in terms of flowers but a few spikes are rapidly expanding and most phals are undergoing good vegetative growth. This Phal. gigantea x LD's Bear King plant in particular is a great example of the hybrid vigour you'd expect from a species crossed to another vigorous complex hybrid, and the shape and color of the leaves are very attractive on its own.

The Chienlung Luedgiana primary hybrid is STILL flowering, and producing some welcome color and sweet grapey scents in the grow area. On the other hand, two species (Phal. corningiana and Phal. modesta) have made new spikes and I should hope for some bud formation soon.

The winter in Davis has been extremely dry and this is the third straight year of drought conditions. Some rain would be nice, so the humidifier can rest, but reprieve seems unlikely so far.

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.

October update

So far this month, there has only been a new flowering but I think most plants are settling down and steadily making good progress. Both my Phal. corningiana and Phal. modesta are putting out new spikes and buds are still forming on the currently flowering Phal. bellina and Chienlung Luedgiana. The grow area is pretty much at capacity, but I've been tempted many times to buy more phals. I actually have space left for high light plants near the lights so perhaps a few miniature Dendrobium (from Borneo of course) are in order.

My only paph species wasn't happy in S/H so I repotted it in sphagnum and put it in the humid chamber. The repotted Orchidview Phal. violacea are also in here and are slowly recovering. One of the indigos is probably large enough for flowering and I'm hoping it will put out a spike once it has recovered.

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 pantherina

Finally have a few things blooming to offset the greenness of the grow area, so I'm not complaining. This is Phal. pantherina 'Chiba' x 'Chin'. It was recently transplanted but still managed to make a few buds so I'm really happy to see that it managed to push out a flower. The first bloom was weird with two dorsal sepals and no lip, so I cut it out and here's the second bloom that is thankfully normal-looking. And yes, this species is endemic to Borneo.

I'm giving this species more light along with the Phal. cornu-cervi, at about 2500 FC. The cornu-cervi has not spiked yet despite the higher light treatment but is making roots like crazy. I'm giving it a dry period for a couple of weeks perhaps this will encourage it to spike...

Phalaenopsis violacea var. alba 'Morningstar' x 'H.P.'

I was lucky enough to obtain this beautiful plant from Orchidview this week, along with two indigo seedlings. Phal. violacea is found in peninsular Malaysia, so is not a Borneo phal per-se, even though it is closely related to Phal. bellina. The two species have distinct, but very pleasing scents so that's a total bonus. Really excited to have this violacea alba among the other phals.