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.