Waiting for Fall

Well, just as I had feared, the July scorching temperatures were the demise for several of my more heat intolerant Pleurothallids.  I lost a couple Draculas, a Restrepia and a few of my little Lepanthes, including the norae pictured in an earlier post.  Damn!  The greenhouse is not yet complete and I have been forced to move my plants from where they were to the greenhouse.  I am not ready to handle the variation needed to grow all these plants properly - my contractor bailed on me after trying to stiff me for a bill twice the amount we had agreed to for the electrical work.  Now that he is gone, I have noticed a few things he either didn't do or failed to do properly.  This is a guy I have worked with for many years but now I realize that I may have been stiffed all along - it is amazing how little regard some people have for others and the relationships they form.  Oh well, he's gone and it is probably in my best interests (I know it is).

What does seem to thrive are the Cattleyas and Paphiopedilums.  I seem to have been acquiring a lot of these guys in the past months and now I have my hands full.  I bought a bunch of Cattleya divisions (bare root) and now I have a potting task ahead of me.  I also got about a dozen mini-catts from a guy in Hawaii - some are exceptional while others are give aways - but at $8 each, you can't beat it.

In July, our Orchid Society visited Crystal Star Orchids in the Toronto area and I picked up a hybrid compact Cattleya that originated from Sun Valley Orchids.  With the permission of the hybridized, Fred Clarke, I registered the cross as Rhyncattleanthe Memoria Elizabeth Cott - a tribute to a mother and friend who was always supportive.  She loved bright colours - her orange kitchen and fluorescent pink bedroom were testaments to that.  So this opalescent yellow Cattleya with the gold and fuchsia lip is a fitting reminder and tribute.

Back after a Busy Period

The month of July has been crazy so far and today it is, literally, 110 degrees in the greenhouse.  Awwhhh....  Can't wait for some relief.  Some of my Pleurothallids appear to have succumbed to the extreme heat but I have brought them into the basement and will try to revive them if I can.

I have had a few things come into bloom.  One of the ones I am proud of is my Brassavola cucullata.  I bought this as a bare-root plant at a show and it really didn't look like it would do much.  I liked the flower so I thought I'd give it a go.  Well, It has a bloom and a bud and the scent is very fragrant at night.  I soak it once or twice a week and hang it in a south window with lots of shading.  It seems to love it.  Last year I kept it outdoors and it did well.  The only problem was with the squirrels who were intent on nibbling on it.  A sachet of mothballs hung close by thwarted that soon enough.

In addition to the Brassavola, I acquired a miniature Bulbophyllum from Clouds Orchids recently.  It is Bulb. tortuosum.  Tiny plant and blooms the size of a pinhead.  Absolutely fascinating.  You can see from the photo the relative size of the bloom to the staple holding the plant secure on the mount.

Finally, my Paph. Norito Hasegawa finally opened.  Beautiful chartreuse flower on a very long inflorescence of about 2' in length.  The bud was very small when it first emerged from the crown of the plant and the stem continued to elongate and finally stop.  Then the bud developed and I never would have imagined this flower could come from it.

Well, that's it for now.  I hope to post more regularly.



Busy, busy, busy

I have had my hands full for the past week and haven't had a chance to post another entry here.  Have taken some nice pictures and will take more today.  I have been working on a presentation about the genus Pleurothallis and am presenting it on Saturday.  I will be preaching to the choir - at least three renowned experts on the subject in the audience.  Well, it's a learning experience and so I approach it as such.

A couple of friends of mine have encouraged my to get into photography and I recently bought a macro lense.  This is essential if photographing Pleurothallis - many are less than a cm across.  I posted a photo of Pths norae a while back.  Here is another I took - Pths rubella (and it is coming into bloom again).

I will sign off now but look for postings next week.

The Blooms Keep Coming

This morning I was pleased to see a couple of my mounted species in bloom.  The first is Phalaenopsis parishii, a tiny Phal from Vietnam/Thailand.  I have had this specimen for a few years since acquiring it from Clouds Orchids (Niagara region) and it blooms religiously for me.  This year some of the buds blasted because I have the plant hanging in an east window and I think it got too cold there in early spring.  I saturate the roots once or twice a week.  Mounted on cork and supported with sphagnum moss and wire, the blooms are very similar to lobbii.  In fact, some argue they are the same but different varieties (lumpers and splitters again).  Parishii has a similar lip to lobbii but the difference lies in the colour of the lip.  Phal. parishii has a "blue"/mauve lip while lobbii has a brown/butterscotch colour.

Phalaenopsis parishii

The second gem in bloom today is Bulbophyllum elassoglossum, a species native to the Philippines.  I don't recall who I got this from but it's likely one I got at one of the Orchid Shows in Toronto through a Taiwanese grower.  It bloomed for me once before but it happened during a week I was away.  When I returned, the bloom was spent.  This time  have monitored its progress.  The bud appeared quickly but was slow to open.  Orchidwiz (invaluable for research like this) indicates that it likes to be saturated with water regularly.  So last night I set it in a tub of rainwater and Viola!, the bud was open this morning.  Somehow, I suspect the flower is pollinated by a night insect because once I had the flower out of the tub and into the light for 15 minutes, the flower began to close.  I can't find anything about that in my books but I will continue to check.  I have put the plant in a dark area for a bit to see if the flower again extends its sepals and petals to flaunt its beauty once more.  This photo has the flower partly open.

Bulbophyllum elassoglossum

Time Will Tell

I never used to have a strong appreciation for the genus Paphiopedilum but I have acquired quite a number of them over the last few years and it is now starting to pay off.  Many of mine come from Orchid Inn and Zephyrus Orchids.  I know the proprietors, Sam Tsui and John Doherty respectively, and both are very good growers.  Sam is probably the leading Paph hybridizer in the US and he has been kind enough to bring selected plants for me to the Orchid Shows in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal this year.  His plants are in beautiful condition and healthy.  The same can be said for John's plants.  He came recently to speak to or Society in Windsor - just having won multiple awards for his Paph. sanderianums he had taken to the Toronto Judging Centre including an AQ/AOS.  If I get his permission, I'll post the photo he sent of his sanderianum collection.  This Paph., of course, has a jaded history but thankfully new colonies of the plant were discovered in Borneo (1970's I think) and they are now commercially propagated and available to the hobbyist - at great expense.

Below are a few of my Paphs that have bloomed recently.  When I was looking over my collection today, I noticed that my Paph. Robinanum and another hybrid (Paph. Lady Booth x Paph. sanderianum) are well in spike.  This is the third blooming I have managed on the Robinianum (a Zephyrus acquisition) and the first for the other.  I was also surprised to see a bloom on my Paph. Ho Chi Minh - I hadn't even realized it was in spike.  My Paph glaucophyllum (var. alba) now has a second bud open on it.  This is a sign that either I have too many plants or I am not spending enough time with them - or both.  I will take a photo of them tomorrow and perhaps post them later this week.

I had acquired a compot from Zephyrus a while back of Paph. Cinder Cone (Onyx x sukhakulii).  These guys are slow growers but I am hoping it is a nice alba form.  Time will tell.  I have distributed some of the seedlings to friends in hopes that one of us will get it to blooming size.  Mine seem quite healthy but, as I said, slow growing.  One of those friends, I'll refer to as RK, is new to the hobby but quite keen on learning.  I think he will turn out to be a very good grower.  Unfortunately we recently had a falling out.  Many of these paphs are prolific growers and I would loved to pass on some divisions to him.  I know he would enjoy them.  They say "Time heals all wounds" and others say..... "Time will tell".

Paphiopedilum Robinianum

Paph. hirsutissimum var. esquirole

Paph. Pink Fred

Paph. Fairy Dell

An Orchid by any Other Name

I often wonder how hybridizers and award winners decide on a name for their plants when called upon to give one.  Sometimes it’s obvious but many times it is a mystery.  A couple of years ago, I had acquired a very small seedling of an orchid hybrid from an grower I had come to know in Florida.  The cross was between Ryncattleanthe (syn Blc.) Orange Nuggett (from R.F. Orchids) and Cattlianthe (syn Slc.) Galaxy Belle (from T.Orchids).  I am partial to the compact cattleyas and especially to those of orange and yellow.  I pampered this fragile seedling for more than two years giving it lots of light and regular, but not too frequent waterings and on October 1 of 2010 it rewarded me with two beautiful blooms.  They were brilliant orange for the most part and they also displayed hues of yellow at the base of the lip and maroon along its ruffled fringes and along the outside edges of the petals and sepals.  If this special cross blooms each year at this time, its colours are certainly well-suited for the autumn season.

The Fall is my favourite season – due in part to my partiality toward the colours that dominate it but also because of my intolerance of the heat.  Certainly that year, October brought some relief with it.  At the same time the Fall is filled with sentiment for me because it was 16 years ago this year that my father passed away after having been ravaged by a relentless cancer that showed no mercy.   It defeated a man who had shown undaunted strength in dealing with the many tragedies that marked his life.  His father died when he was quite young and at a time when his siblings had already ventured out and had established a life of their own.  So it fell upon him to help support his aged mother and maintain the meager family farm.   He volunteered to enlist when the Nazi’s invaded Europe and was a gunner in the Royal Canadian Air Force at the age of 19 until a serious injury brought him home.  He then married and, along with my mother, raised 5 children who, in my mind, turned out pretty good.  To provide for us, he had a full-time job as a tool & die maker and also played guitar (he came from a musically inclined family) in a band that performed on weekends at weddings and parties to earn extra money – he abruptly gave up music once his full-time job was enough to ensure that we lacked none of life’s necessities.  His only brother, and his best friend, chose suicide over a lonely existence as a widower and Dad put up a strong front to handle the job as executor, never being able to fully grieve for his loss.  

My relationship with my father was not everything I wish it had been.  Don’t misunderstand me – I admire(d) and love(d) him.  He was devoted to his family, a constant provider and protector.   Conversations were awkward between us because, I thought, we had little in common.  He was a hunter, a pastime he carried from his youth when he managed the farm and provided for his mother.  It was his passion and he looked forward to it every September.   Now, in retrospect, I realize that we did share that appreciation for the Fall season.  In the summer months, before duck hunting season opened, he would spend hours tending to his roses and vegetable garden.  It was from him that I gained my appreciation of the therapeutic value of tending to your plants.  And so, we shared that as well.  He also taught me that there are many kinds of people in the world - some who will become your life-long friends and others who will do everything in their power not to be.  I've met them both.

So you are probably wondering where I am going with all this rambling.  Well, back to that first bloom seedling I talked about in the beginning.   As I said, the intense colour of it reminds me of the season and all the sentiments that go with it, especially my Dad.  And so, with the help of my friend, the Florida orchid breeder, I started the process of having the orchid hybrid named after my Dad.  Today, on the anniversary of his passing, a letter arrived from the Royal Horticultural Society notifying me that my application had finally been accepted and that my once untitled, first-bloom seedling is now to be known as Ryncattleanthe (Blc.) Memoria Wilfred Cott.  Happy hunting Dad – if only you were here, we’d have so much to sit and chat about.                      

Ryncattleanthe (Blc.) Memoria Wilfred Cott

Well, here we go boys!

This is my first blog and I am very excited about it.  A good friend of mine introduced me to this medium and I am hoping it will put me in touch with othe orchidists out there and it's a way for me to display some of my orchid blooms.  I don't know how frequently I will post but I hope I can find the time to do something at least weekly.  All the photos I will post are of plants that I have in my collection and that I have brought to bloom myself.

Anyway, I hope you will enjoy the blog and the photos.  I won't deface them with watermarks but I hope if you see one you'd like to use for some purpose, that you'll e-mail me to get the OK.  I have to trust the integrity of others.  Perhaps you'll see one that you'd like to add to your own collection.  I'd be happy to share whatever I can with you about potential sources and cultural needs.  I've been growing orchids for mre than 25 years but I am always learning more - especially from other orchidists.  Hey, that's what this hobby is all about.  I've lost my share of orchids, and certainly don't profess to be the perfect grower, but I've learned a lot from mistakes and from others who are experts with certain genera.

My first photo is one of a South American species I acquired from Ecuagenera - Lepanthese norae.  This tiny guy is no more than a couple of centimeters across but look at the beauty that the macro lense brings out.  Gold and crystalline petals and sepals sequentially blooming on a long inflorescence.  These are not so easy to grow and like many of those in the Pleurothallid group, require cooler temperatures and high humidity.  You cannot let this tiny gem dry out.

Hope you like it and keep watching for new additions.  Please, send your comments and e-mails, I'd love to chat.  All the Best!

Lepanthes norae