Cattleya luteola backbulb sprouted

I got a Cattleya luteola last summer and divided it. There were two leads which I mounted. There was a backbulb division left over.

Cattleya luteola grows in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, in lowland tropical rain forests. It needs a dry winter rest. Now that winter is over, the backbulb division has sprouted.

There were a lot of dead roots on the backbulb division. I left those on for stability. Now I'll remove them. I couldn't mount the division until it sprouted because it is important that the new growth is toward the bark. If it is not, the plant will grow out into the air and will not have a good look to it.

Maxillaria sophronitis

My Maxillaria sophronitis plant fell over. It had been growing in a clay saucer on a mound of sphagnum. The sphagnum had decomposed and could no longer hold anything up.

Maxillaria sophronitis grows in Venezuela and Colombia. It is a very small plant growing cool to warm, needing constant moisture and bright light.

I could have just re-potted, but decided instead to break it up. I have another division that is mounted and doing fine. That will become my collection plant and I will get rid of these once they have had three or four month to root and start new growth. Five of the pieces are good enough size and the other seven may hang out in the greenhouse until next spring.

Osmoglossum pulchellum

There are lots of reasons to be a member of an Orchid Society. The social events are one of the best. They give me the opportunity to get to know other orchid people beyond seeing them at meetings.

One of my favorites is the BBQ that the SCOS puts on at the end of summer. That's where I got this Osmoglossum pulchellum; at the silent auction of plants grown by other members.

Osmoglossum pulchellum grows in Mexico down into Central America in mountain forests above 3500 feet. It is cold to warm growing, very fragrant and blooms in the fall and winter. When spikes appear, set a stake since it will need support.

I divided the plant into two leads and six backbulbs. Both of the leads put up spikes. None of the backbulbs has sprouted. I am not worried about that because the leads haven't started new growth yet. Often, backbulbs will sprout in the same season as new growth on a collection plant.

Coelogyne flaccida

The first year I had this was spent trying to interpret the label. Once it bloomed and with the help of the good flower pictures on OrchidSpecies.com, I was able to get that straightened out. This is described as "very rewarding" and it is that indeed. It blooms regularly and grows easily, even if my greenhouse should be a little too warm for it.

Coelogyne flaccida grows from northern India through south China in mountain forests in the 3000 to 6000 foot range. It is cold to cool growing and is fragrant. The genus Coelogyne (Coel) contains 100 species found in all of Asia east of India and Indonesia and Fiji. Conditions vary considerably.

First bloom seedling

Just about a year ago I got this Laelia anceps 'Figment' AM/AOS x 'Marble Queen' from the grower, Steve Christoffersen. It was an unbloomed seedling but it had three pseudobulbs and a new growth so it was likely to bloom. And it did.

On one level, anything from Steve Christoffersen is a good, maybe great, plant. But this was a plant grown from seed and you never know what exactly will be the result.

There is a slight purple blush that I like very much. I hope the shape is good, but I will wait a few days before taking it to be seen by Steven to find out what he thinks. In the meantime, I will take more pictures as the flowers mature. The color may deepen a little.

Dividing Coelogyne miniata

I separated the leads and trimmed the dead parts. The leads were mounted on cork. Given the length of the rhizome they may turn out to be too small, but I have sometimes seen species with long rhizomes in the pot grow shorter on a mount. We shall see.

The backbulbs were broken up into small groups. I often do single pseudobulbs for backbulb sprouting, but these seemed weak and I don't have experience with this species. There were four pieces and I put these in a community pot.

I wanted to try sprouting these in bark rather than sphagnum. To avoid having a pot full of soggy bark I filled the pot about 3/4 with foam peanuts. On top of that a layer of sphagnum, thin but fully covering the peanuts so bark would not fall through. I arranged the pieces on top of the sphagnum and filled in loosely with small bark. The idea is that the roots will have a choice to go into the wetter sphagnum layer or the dryer bark layer. Once I know which they like better I can adjust for the next time I work with this species.

Oncidium onustum 'Bountiful'

When I cataloged and re-potted Lillian's plant in Sonoma I was able to have a piece for my collection. The flowers are very long lasting and the plant is quite attractive. Even though the original plant is in bark, I mounted it.

Oncidium onustum grows from Mexico to Ecuador and Peru. It is warm to hot growing and needs a complete dry winter rest from after blooming until new growth starts.

The plant has done well mounted. There are two leads which produced spikes and the pseudobulbs are as large as the previous generation. The flowers are open but the spikes are only about half as the spike now growing on the original plant. But it is doing well enough that I will wait a year before changing its conditions.

Coelogyne miniata

I got this Coelogyne miniata last September. It was in bloom, not too expensive and looked as if it could be divided. I put it aside and waited for new growth. This plant now has four new growths so I have reread what OrchidSpecies.com has to say about the species and I took it out of the pot and removed the old bark.

Coelogyne miniata grows in Java, Bali, Lesser Sunda Islands and Sumatra in mountain forests above 3000 feet. It is cool to warm growing and blooms in winter.

The roots are quite sparse. There is a pseudobulb that has three growths that is the center of the plant. I think the plant was ripped from a mount and potted, winding it around to make a full-looking pot.

The two top pseudobulbs and their new growths will be on one mount. The other two new growths will each be another mount. The lead without a new growth now will be one. The backbulbs will be at least two more.

Miltonia (spectabulis x Jim MacKinney) revisited

With the Miltonia spectabilis x Miltonia Jim MacKinney leads potted and tagged, I went back to the plant to finish the re-shaping. I removed all the parts of it that had grown away from the mount. The backbulbs on the mount should start new growth and get a new generation of spikes for this year. This is still a large plant.

This flower is far too nice to throw away the pieces. But since these are all rootless and leafless pseudobulbs, some as much as five years old, they are not a good bet to sprout. I cut them into single backbulb pieces and all 25 of these in community pots.

There is an inch of rock just under the pieces and there is another 1/2 inch of small bark around them to support the pseudobulbs. The bark will help keep the roots more evenly moist once the sprouting starts. As they sprout I will individually pot and tag them. They will stay in these pots until they sprout or until they turn brown.

Angraecum sesquipedale 'Orchidglade II' FCC/AOS

The genus Angraecum (Angcm) contains 200 species grow in tropical Africa to Madagascar. They like a wood slat basket, high humidity, moderate shade, and ample water while in growing.

Angraecum sesquipedale grows in Madagascar. It is hot growing and needs consistent warm temperatures and even watering. It has large, fragrant flowers.

This was an impulse buy at POE five years ago. It took three years to get the light level down and the temperature up. I may be done with this plant which is not a good fit for my greenhouse. Since there are roots near the base of the leaves, my plan is to trim the bottom and put it in a new basked, then take it for sale to the next SCOS meeting.

Miltonia (spectabulis x Jim MacKinney)

Lillian has a Miltonia mounted on a 4-inch log of some sort. It is Miltonia spectabilis x Miltonia Jim MacKinney. Miltonia Jim MacKinney is half Miltonia regnellii. It has been there quite some time and I was hoping for a good show last summer.

It bloomed well enough but not all that many spikes for a plant of that size. When I looked more closely, I realized that there was a lot of previously bloomed growth. I had missed seeing the best blooming by a couple of years.

A good portion of the plant has grown away from the mount and is hanging in mid-air. I removed the leads from that part of the plant and have potted them. I probably should re-do the whole mount. If I want to do it, now is the time with new growth starting all over the plant.

Brassavola Little Stars continued

The Brassavola Little Stars was ready to be repotted. The pot was filled and was coming over the edge. The pot would no longer stand up with too much weight to one side.

An easy and effective solution for a top heavy plant is to set it inside a larger pot. This works for all the let-dry-between-watering varieties of orchids and all the Brassavolas are in that category. I have some of my Dendrobiums potted that way.

I wanted to see the condition of the roots and I had decided to try this plant mounted. When I took the plant out of the pot, the roots looked pretty good. There seemed to be a good amount of new root but the root ball was not so dense that there would be a lot of damage when it was opened.

Unfortunately, that was the end of the good news. When the older roots inside were exposed, I saw that they were all dead.

Now that I can see the whole plant the plan has changed. Instead of a single larger mount I am going to remove the youngest 5 pseudobulbs and mount them. The rest of the plant will have the roots cleaned of the dead velamen leaving the root threads to help hold the plant in place. All that will be put in a pot of rocks and staked.

Brassavola Little Stars

I have started to develop an interest in Brassavola. It took awhile with some setbacks. I killed a Brassavola nodosa and almost killed a Brassavola Yellow Bird.

I mentally gave up on Brassavola and tossed the remaining small piece of Yellow Bird into a flat of Paph seedlings where it stayed for at least 3 years. It just hung on, growing slightly in a spot that was much too dark for it.

Lillian has a Brassavola nodosa in her collection. It is coming on to be specimen sized and doing really well. It is mounted with most of the plant growing in open air. It is placed in just about the brightest spot in the greenhouse and gets watered daily in summer.

The genus Brassavola (B) contains 18 species which grow in all the tropical lowlands of the New World. They are fragrant, mostly at night with a citrus fragrance.

Brassavola nodosa grows just about anywhere in the Brassavola range that is wet and hot. It needs bright light and blooms spring and fall.

I took a small cutting and mounted it on cork bark. It did really well in my greenhouse, blooming soon after and continued all summer with a small number of flowers.

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