Paphiopedilum NOID

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Paph. NOID

This was basically my first orchid (though there were some around the house before that I didn't pay much attention to) that I must have gotten around four years ago this spring and the first orchid I ever re-bloomed.

It may be in bud now but I know I shouldn't get my hopes up - these things are extremely slow to come into flower though the flowers last for a very long time once they are flowering. I recall two years ago it was in bud in April (probably before that though I was away at school) and still in flower in early June, though getting towards the end of the flower's life.

Even without the flowers (which are a fairly typical shape for a Paph. in a fantastic dark purple) this would be worth growing for the leaves, something that puts this Phal. fairly high up on my list of favourite houseplants.

Amaryllis 'Black Pearl'

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Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) 'Black Pearl'

This was in flower for Christmas but due to circumstances (i.e., cats) the first flower was knocked off before opening, the second had tooth marks in it, the third had a crooked top petal and the fourth was blocked by the second flower stalk, which is now open and fantastic. Flowers are very large and basically as nice a red colour as you could ask for in a flower (or anything else). It's a nice red - no real hint of pink or orange and a fairly dark red without looking like it's trying to be black (though the name hints that someone really wanted it to be darker). I'll be trying to re-bloom this one next year but if that doesn't work I'd be more than willing to buy the same one again.

We also had one at work I meant to take a picture of called 'Evergreen' which was different, interesting and fairly cheap (a potted one cost less than 'Black Pearl' bare-root) but didn't get to take a picture of. There are pictures around though.

Exciting things at work assuming a few things. Nothing is confirmed yet so I won't go into details (yet) but it could be good.

Merry Christmas

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Great orchid link

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Backbulbs: Developing an Orchid Collection Using Backbulbs. I probably found it googling "orchid salvage" or "shame regarding almost rotting off the roots of several plants and I want to learn to look after orchids better" or something similar to that. For whatever reason I found my way onto the site looking for ways to try to salvage orchids that are pretty far gone and stayed for the amazing pictures of a huge variety of orchids, most of which I now want (Miltassia Shelob 'Webmaster', for example).

Worth checking out for both cultural information and for the pictures.

NOID Orchid picture

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Picture taken summer 2008

Some sort of Miltonia/Miltoniopsis/Miltonidium. We've had it for a while but it was the only save from the great scale purge. We now have two of these, one the main plant and the other was a small growth off a back bulb which is now doing well with a second shoot. Keeping it a lot "wetter" than it had been and it's been rewarding us (so far) with healthy looking pseudo bulbs and good root growth. Didn't flower this year but with any luck next year we'll see something from it.

Off topic - Vanilla cookies

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These are the easiest cookies ever and so good. Very fast to make and they look nice, to bring in to work, or as gift, or to have around at a Christmas party. And you probably already have everything you need for it.



Mmmm...

Vanilla Cookies

Cream together
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar

Add
1 egg
2 tsp Vanilla (*)

Mix well then stir in
1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch Salt

Form into 24 evenly sized balls, roll in powdered sugar.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, dust with remaining powdered sugar.

* So many things you could do here instead - I've tried 1 tsp vanilla + 1 tsp ground cloves (good but maybe wanted more cloves?). I also want to try some with either switching out some of the vanilla with amaretto liqueur and/or using ground almonds in place of at least a portion of the flour (haven't tried this), then garnish with an almond before baking and maybe hold off on the dusting of powdered sugar or go light on it. Someone today suggested that lemon juice could make an interesting cookie following this basic recipe. Or, you know, anything else you can think of I guess.

Oncidium Sharry Baby 'Sweet Fragrance' AM/AOS

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Onc. Sharry Baby 'Sweet Fragrance'

Smells nice but does not remind me of chocolate. Attractive though, and with a reduced price. Oh, and while I was shooting closeups found aphids (At least aphids are easy but I seriously need to stop buying plants from where I work, I'm not even joking we need to include sample sized End-All bottles with each houseplant, it's sort of embarrassing.)

Gesneriads in bloom

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NOID Saintpaulia



Saintpaulia 'Shy Blue'



Saintpaulia 'Rebel's Rose Bud'



Saintpaulia 'Merlot' ('Senk's Merlot' Maybe?, label on the pot reads "MERLOT Wasp Violet")



Saintpaulia 'Merlot' leaf



Streptocarpus 'Royal Grape Fizz'

Mealybugs!

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If there's one thing I've learned it's that a plant we've had at work longer than a week has a very high chance of having mealybugs.

This means getting an orchid in, waiting for it to go out of flower and then taking it home is a pretty sure way to get mealybugs, fortunately the plant was free and I was sort of expecting it enough that the plant has not been close to any other plants since I brought it home.

I've now taken it out of the pot, removed all the moss it was in and sprayed it heavily with End-all. I figure that since it's already out of the medium and all that I'm going to try potting up the Phal in semi-hydroponic culture - I figure it's a good time to try it, lots of healthy root growth on the plant, it's already got all the moss cleaned off the roots and it was a free plant to begin with!

Top priority is getting rid of the mealybugs (I will not be potting up the plant until they are gone) and then getting it to grow in s/h culture. Will keep you posted on how it all works.

Winter container step by step

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So I said earlier that I would do a step by step of how I made an evergreen branch pot fairly cheap.

Start with a pot. I used garden soil (not potting) packed pretty hard.



Pot

My design will be one sided - this makes life much much easier and the container will be less expensive to decorate because you only need to decorate one side. I started with Fir (looks like Balsam Fir) branches arranged at the back to make a nice solid green backdrop. You could use other greens for this but I like the firm branches and flat fan shape you get from fir - I've also used Carolina Sapphire (Cupressus 'Carolina Sapphire') which is also fairly upright but much finer in texture. Leyland Cypress (X Cupressocyparis leylandii) could also be used. Important thing here is strongly upright - you don't want it being crushed by snow).



Pot with Fir

I used Ontario Cedar (Thuja occidentalis) for a "skirt" on this pot. I much prefer the shape and colour of BC Cedar (sp.?) but I was looking to save money and this was the way to go. Also the Ontario cedar will be exactly the same in April as it is now while the BC Cedar tends to brown around the first few warm days in March. I do my containers seasonally - one for post-frost spring/summer/fall, one for late fall/winter/early spring so it's nice having everything last until the dogwood is rooting and leafing out before having to take everything apart.



Pot with Fir and Cedar

After this you basically add whatever decorations you want. I have used very natural things like Sugar Pinecones & berries with Magnolia Leaves as well as more glittery seasonal things like large gold snowflakes and balls. I wanted to cheap out here so I went with a single 5.99 Ball on a Stick with some pinecones from something last year (Super easy table-top decoration - Brandy Snifter + pinecones (I used natural colour but shiny) and small ~ 1 inch green and red ball ornaments - I had extra ornaments and used them on the tree to help tie it all together) and filled in around it with white pine. At some point (doesn't have to be at the end) add dogwood or willow (or something similar) branches for height and a bit of extra colour (and if you use dogwood or willow then you get a number of cheap shrubs the next year too!).

Water well until the container freezes then that's about it. I have mine in a sheltered spot so it doesn't collect snow like it did last year.



Pot, finished.

So what did this cost?
6lbs Ontario Greens - $8.88 (Reg 14.99)
Bundle Dogwood branches - $7.99 (10 sticks, only used half here)
Red Ball - 5.99
Pinecones (had them last year, don't really remember but less than $10/10)
Already had pot & Soil so total is less than $30.

I had enough greens left over to make a small wreath as well (fairly boring though without adding a little extra to it) and could probably have managed to bang out a small door swag as well but didn't really feel like it do I just have a few pine branches still lying around.

Now I've been talking with my colleagues at work about this and apparently these containers are not wide-spread. My supervisor (from England a few months ago) says these don't exist back home (in a wonderful land where hardy plants can be grown in containers year round). They're not common or popular anywhere that doesn't freeze over either because, I suppose, the greens won't last very long then.

Dtps. Sogo Tris 'MP0980' & other peloric orchids.

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Apparently Dtps. Sogo Tris morphs commonly produce peloric plants, 'MP0980' being one of them. The raised yellow markings in the two side petals are somewhat developed lips rather than normal petals, which is what gave those petals both their unusual edge shape as well as the raised yellow part. Phalaneopsis Sogo Tris 'Wacko' represents an extreme form of the same thing but where the extra lips are much more developed.

Dtps. Fullers Miss 'Peloric' is another very similar orchid.

This orchid is one of the most perfect of this sort of peloric orchid I have seen.

I have also seen (but unfortunately didn't save a link to) a peloric Cattleya which did not have a lip or column at all, just two petals and two sepals if I remember it right.

Oh, and the second flower opened right-side up which made the whole thing much more normal looking, though still with more lips than normal.

New Orchid - Doritaenopsis Sogo Tris 'MP0890'

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Today was absolutely horrible with the strong winds so I spent as much time as possible in the greenhouse selling people houseplants and the like even though it's not really my department. Saw three new boxes of Phals being unpacked and headed over and was actually surprised to see this. Doritaenopsis is an intergenic hybrid of Doritis and Phalaenopsis and is pretty well the first time we've gotten something at work I've really gotten excited about. Just look at this thing! First thing I noticed were the strange yellow spikes in the middle of the petals, the flowering is upside-down compared to most Phals (the opening bud further along the stem suggests that this may just be a fluke), the tips on the top petal look like little fangs and then of course there's the pattern in the petals. I grabbed this things right away and now I can say I own one of the coolest orchids I have ever seen.


Dtps. Sogo Tris 'MP0890'

Clicking the picture will bring it up large on my Flickr.

Oh Christmas Tree

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As mentioned previously we're carrying some exciting and different (depending on where you live) firs as Christmas trees.

My personal favourite of these is the Nordman Fir. Reasonably enough you could argue that the tree is not very dense and that it's very wide for its height (we have Fraser Firs at 12' that are more narrow than our 7' Nordman Firs). I love the colour, length and thickness of the needles on this tree, and the shape of each tree is pretty much perfect.



Abies nordmanniana (Nordman Fir)


Abies nordmanniana (Nordman Fir), Detail

As a tree the Nordman Fir is apparently even more attractive and comes in a huge number of forms, most of which I now want though few would be reliably hardy for me here, which is probably a good thing.


The Noble Fir, if it had better colour, would be a clear #1 in my books - perfect shape, dense but not so dense you can't hang ornaments, good needle retention, longer needles than a Fraser Fir helps make the tree look more full. The colour on these has sort of a dull, faded effect that's a little off-putting though, and most of these that are larger than 7' tall have trunks that won't fit in any but the largest of stands. Nice trees though otherwise. I sold a 7-8' tree last night which had a 6" trunk at the bottom on a tree only 9 years old - a Fraser or Balsam that age might have a trunk up to 4" across.



Abies procera (Noble Fir)


Abies procera (Noble Fir), Detail

I've used Noble Fir branches in containers and their fairly long needles and dense look make them perfect for use as a backdrop in more structured one sided designs. As a tree a quick google did not wow me like the Nordman Fir though there seem to be some nice forms that are a little more blue.


The Concolor Firs we carry are interesting... When I first heard we were getting Concolors as cut trees I was a little surprised. We sold a few as live plants and they were stunning but very open and as blue as a Hoopsi Blue Spruce (Picea pungens 'Hoopsii') ie., very blue.

Needless to say I was a little disappointed when I saw the mostly green needles arranged basically flat along the branch. Not bad trees that'll give an interesting effect with their very long Needles and soft green colour and pretty good shape.



Abies concolor subsp. lowiana, Detail

Apparently the tree we sold that I loved so much was an Abies concolor subsp. concolor characterized by very blue needles with a strongly upright curve (you can see a good picture of these needles here) while Abies concolor subsp. lowiana, the tree we have as a Christmas tree, has mostly green needles that will either be flat along the branch or angled upwards (rather than curved) on a much larger tree.


Almost completely unrelated, Fir Waves sound very cool.

Ilex verticillata 'Winter Red' & Malus 'Harvest Gold'

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Ilex verticillata 'Winter Red'



Malus 'Harvest Gold'

Phalaenopsis pictures

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Both taken on my phone today at work.

The first is exciting because I really like this one. I hadn't really seen any Phalaenopsis orchids with this sort of orange/cream colour and the faint pink blush on the two petals on the side adds a bit of depth to the whole thing. I've had my eye on this one since we first got it in several weeks ago and we finally wrote it off today since we got a new batch of orchids in and needed the space (it has a second spike that's around 8" tall so hopefully that won't be set back too much by the move).



NOID Phalaenopsis

I'm not typically a fan of Phals with stripes or spots or splotches (other than what you'd typically find on the column/lip area) but the four corners type spotting with the lighter purple towards the outside of the two larger petals really stood out for me from the latest batch. I may need to buy this one, haven't decided yet.



NOID Phalaenopsis

December - flowers & Christmas trees

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Funny, it doesn't feel like December yet.

Even though we had a pretty hard frost Sunday morning here's a quick list of plants I've seen flowering within a 2 minute walk of my house:

Perennials:

Clematis 'Rebecca'

NOID Red Carpet Rose

Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’

Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’

Gaillardia grandiflora 'Arizona Sun'

Calamintha nepeta (Dwarf Calamint)



NOID Red Carpet Rose

Annuals:

Chrysanthemum cv. (Fall mums)

Bacopa sp.

Antirrhinum sp. (Snapdragons)

Not in flower but still looking fantastic are the various Coral Bells (Heuchera) varieties I've planted around including 'Obsidian', 'Caramel' & 'Green Spice' to name a few.

Consider that even finding a tree with leaves is fairly tricky by now and we usually have at least some snow accumulation the fact that there's anything flowering nevermind this many things is pretty amazing!

Going in the completely opposite direction now!


"Yo Fraser Fir, I'm real happy for ya and I'ma let ya finish, but the Nordman Fir has the best needle retention OF ALL TIME!!"
-- Not an actual quote

Christmas tree sales are starting to pick up now, last weekend being the first weekend I'd describe as "busy" though we did sell some before that. Now about 80% of our trees are Fraser & Balsam Firs. Maybe 10% will be made up of pines, the other 10% are oddballs (this is growing by the year). Last year we had a handfull of Nordman Firs (that were stunning if a little short and stubby) and Noble Firs (nice but not a huge fan of their color - be careful of massive trunk diameters on fairly small trees). This year we have two sizes of Nordman Fir and at least 3 times as many as last year, probably similar numbers of Noble Fir and four Concolor Firs (which might make a nice tree for someone who is used to the needle length of a Scots Pine but wants the needle retention of a fir.

Anyway the Nordman Fir is probably my favourite tree I've never seen alive. The needles are dark green with a silvery underside that's clearly visible due to the curve of the needles with light green tips where the newest growth was (usually to a max of 3" around the outside of a branch. It may be the way these have been grown but they also have absolutely perfect shapes though they're a little thin on branches in the top third of the tree. If it weren't for our cats and the price of the trees I'd be all over them.

Oh, I've also taken a few more Gesneriad pictures that I just need to edit and upload and I should have a post on them soon.

Winter Container Designs

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While I'm technically now in the cut Christmas Tree department they needed help in the custom container section keeping the tables full so I've been working with evergreen boughs and the like for the past few days now.

Here are two I did yesterday that follow the same basic design:







I started with a bundle of BC Noble Fir for each container (3 boughs) placed upright and leaning slightly back (the boughs curve so it's tricky to do any other way but this works well enough). BC Cedar (not sure if it's the cedar we sell (Thuja occ.) or maybe another Thuja or maybe a cypress/false cypress or whatever but that's what it's shipped to us as) makes a nice skirt for the pots - I used 3 bunches split between the 4 containers.

In the first container I used 5 pussy willow branches per pot. A large ornamental ball on a stick and large gold snowflake made a nice focal point while the "everlasting" berries and white tipped pinecones toned it down a bit and added a more natural feel.

In the second container I used 5 Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea) branches per pot (note - these can root - from last year I spent less than $10 on dogwood branches and got two shrubs out of it just by sticking them in dirt in November - actually I'd be surprised if the willow didn't also root). A large sugar cone pine per container paired with a few more or the same berries in a bed of Magnolia leaves with small red grapevine balls for balance completed the more natural looking container.

Now these all came to a retail price of around $69.99 per pot - I will post my own that I will make out of Ontario greens (mine stayed green into April last year while the BC stuff browned by March) for $20 to $30.

New Streptocarpus

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My mom bought me a Streptocarpus 'Ink Blot' on Sunday - very small plant with only 3 leaves and not close to flowering I'd expect, not for a while anyway but so excited! I love finding something online, that elusive (by that I mean not common - won't ever find it in a grocery store, rare in a store that knows their plants) species or cultivar that's just amazing and then actually getting that plant. Hopefully recent success with Streptocarpus will stay with us long enough for this plant to take off.

I will have a few interesting pictures coming up of other gesneriads in flower (it just happens that that is the largest family of plants represented in my house at the moment) including something I've never seen that promises to be strange and unusual.

I also have another batch of November colour pictures from work and took a trip to the Toronto Zoo on Saturday from which I've got a few more pictures of Grasses and whatnot.

November colour pictures

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Wandered around at work today taking shots with my phone of things that caught my eye. Problem with writing a post after a day away from work at this time of year is that you can come back to find plants that looked great have now lost their leaves but new plants will usually be there to take their place. Sorry for the crappy shots but as mentioned I was shooting with my phone. They get the point across though.



Malus (Crabapple) 'Red Jewel'

Very nice Crabapple - stays fairly compact and has nice white flowers & green leaves. A refreshing change in a world of dark pink on purple crabapples. There are few plants that can compete with a mature crabapple in November, especially one like this.



Hamamelis virginiana (Common Witchhazel)

I'd never been a huge fan of these. Noticed some wire-basket sized shrubs maybe 6' tall in full flower though and they certainly got the point across fast. Nice plants.



Cornus alba 'Elegantissima' (Silverleaf Dogwood)

Very common variety but I'd say it deserves to be common. You've got true 4 season interest from this plant - variegated leaves, flowers in spring, berries in late summer, nice fall colour and red stems that will look great all winter.



Cornus alba 'Bud's Yellow'

More dogwoods. What can I say, I'm a fan. This is slightly less exciting through most of the year but looks great through winter.



Acer platanoides

Again not a huge Norway Maple fan and was disappointed this morning to see that almost all of them actually had dropped their leaves... Found this one on my way home from work though - I guess maybe it's a little more sheltered from the wind than many others?



Euonymus fortunei 'Emerald N Gold' (and sometimes hot pink)

Nice colour. Don't like this one during the summer (more a fan of the larger leaved varieties like 'Canadale Gold' & 'Country Gold' but I've yet to see them come close to the colour of 'Emerald N Gold.' Apparently these are delicious for deer.

More pictures to come later in the week probably of more similar but fewer leaves. Maybe Friday. Things are winding down outside and I can't say I've got much going on inside either right now so I'm going to pace myself a little more but still aim for a decent number of posts.

November!

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Well I suppose this will be a brief update but something anyway. It is November now and some strong winds a few nights ago have knocked the leaves off almost all trees and a good number of shrubs are looking pretty bare now too.

A few trees and shrubs I've noticed still going strong for leaf colour:

Pyrus calleryana (Ornamental Pear) - Will get a picture tomorrow.

Quercus robur Fastigiata (Pyramidal English Oak) - some have already turned their winter brown but others are still showing off their yellow fall colour.

Acer platanoides - (Not a fan of this tree) Norway maples are still holding onto their yellow leaves while most of the more attractive A. rubrum, A. x Freemanii, & Acer saccharum have already dropped theirs.

Viburnum spp. - Have noticed good colour on V. plicatum 'Marisii,' V. lantana, V. judii, V. x juddii & V. x carlcephalum (Fragrant Snowball). V. trilobum is slightly more confusing - at work they all dropped their leaves long ago but one planted near my house has barely changed colour but when it does it will be great as well. Most Viburnums seem to look great fairly late into fall.

Juniper spp. - Mainly spreaders such as 'Blue Chip' (Blue spreader turns blue-purple in fall/winter - most blue junipers take this colour on to at least some degree which looks good on spreaders but not so great on upright junipers) and 'Compact Andorra' (Green spreader turns reddish in fall).

Euonymus alatus (burning bush)/E. fortunei ("Euonymus") - The former may or may not have lost its leaves depending on how much wind they've gotten but the latter should (being mostly evergreen) still have their leaves... in their case though they may or may not have fall colour. Have seen some nice pinks and purples on some of these though.

Spirea spp. - depends a lot on variety but most are looking their best now - 'Thor' and 'Snow Storm' which I wrote about earlier have list their leaves but others are still going strong. Recently added to my personal favourite list for Spireas is 'Snowmound' for its upright/arched branching and good fall colour.

Will follow up with pictures + Plants with berries & bark.

Wish list addition: Phalaenopsis schilleriana

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P. schilleriana
AOS Page
IOSPE Page

Make sure you scroll down on each page for the pictures, this plant is stunning! Flowers are fantastic but check out those leaves as well. I think at multiple branching flower spikes up to or exceeding 3' in length the amount of awesome is matched by limited space. This one I think is for the drool over but not likely buy anytime soon category.

A. biloba fully open + C. wendtii again

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Aerangis biloba



Aerangis biloba

At night it is fragrant - sort of a generic floral/hyacinth smell. Not bad but I'm generally not a huge fan of hyacinth. I suppose it's nice that it overwhelms rotting meat smell of my second C. wendtii flower (sometimes you wait two years and then you get two flowers almost at the same time I guess).



Cryptocoryne wendtii


I've added a foliage picture to my previous post for comparison. Both were bought as Cryptocoryne wendtii 'green' though I now know that "green" "bronze" "red" and "brown" are all useless as names because they refer to multiple plants and because the same plant could be each of these colours depending on growing conditions. Instead I call the previous C. wendtii 01 and this 02.


C. wendtii

Gesnerids in bloom

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Saintpaulia 'Rebel's Splatter Kake'



Streptocarpus 'Canterbury Surprise seedling'



Streptocarpus 'Silver Dust'



Chirita 'Stardust'



Chirita 'Stardust'



Chirita tamiana

Fall highlights

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Mostly the classics here. I may have missed the boat on some of the less common ones which have already dropped their leaves - I'll see what I can do for something more interesting for another post.



Spirea betulifolia 'Thor'

'Thor' Spirea is a fantastic plant. Grows about 24" tall by 24-36" wide, white flowers on moderately large blue green leaves through the summer turning intense orange/red in the fall. Similar but larger is Spiraea x media Snow Storm™ - also has white flowers on blue green leaves but turns slightly more purple in the fall but gets around 3-4' tall, 4' wide. Probably my prefered spirea but with limited space 'Thor' is an easy alternative.



Acer sp.

Honestly haven't taken a close enough look at this tree to figure out what type of maple it is... I'll basically though just use this space to say that if you want a maple it's not a Norway Maple! Here at least they rarely get any fall colour to speak of (sometimes yellow-brown) and are always plagued by Tar Spot. Instead look for a nice Acer rubrum cultivar, Acer x freemanii 'Autumn Blaze' is always stunning, or Acer saccharum for a slower growing but also beautiful tree.



Miscanthus sinensis 'Graziella' & Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster'



Miscanthus sinensis 'Huron Sunrise'

Ornamental grasses are not only great in fall but some such as Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' are really nice during the summer as well. Most will look good through the winter as well. My Miscanthus purpurascens did not turn red last year or this year or I'd love to say it's nice but so far it's been a disappointment. Nicest Miscanthus in my books probably goes to 'Graziella' for nicest texture, 'Morning Light' wins for best leaves in general having a similar texture to 'Graziella' but with white margins on the narrow leaf but has been moderatly slow to establish and has not yet flowered this year (the flowers are very nice on it so I wish it would bloom!), 'Huron Sunrise' is my favourite for flower colour, though there are many others with similar colours. Mostly I'm just not a fan of Zebra-type or broad leaved variegated Miscanthus cultivars ('Cabaret' etc).



Sedum

Not sure which one this is. Don't really care. They're generally nice and new varieties are popping up all the time. I use them in landscaping but don't know that I could dedicate that much space to one... Maybe a more dwarf purple leaf one like 'Xenox' (I've grown and really like this one!). Biggest thing I like about them is that unlike some of the fall plants like the hot season grasses Sedum will be one of the first plants growing in the spring.