New Orchids

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I picked up two new Orchids today - a Den. phal hybrid of some sort and something that belongs to the Oncidium alliance. It wasn't labelled at all (anymore) so I've really got no leads other than its alliance.

The other is easy (Not that I have a name or anything. I really don't even know what colour flowers it has):



NOID Dendrobium phalaenopsis (hybrid)

From my research I should start to water and fertilize fairly heavily once the new shoots roots start to grow. Then I should let it rest (but not a complete rest rest, just reduce watering and no fertilizer rest) once the growth stops (I guess I'll figure out when that is when it happens?) and hopefully it'll bloom in the spring. Then, once even more new growth starts in the spring and starts to put out roots, water again, letting it rest at the end of the summer for a fall flowering. Doesn't sound too bad.

The plant needs to be re-potted though, as I'm sure 90% of the roots on this thing are visible in the picture and the medium is complete garbage (compacts so much when dry, really not good when it's supposed to go dry for long periods of time). Seems like it'll stay too wet the rest of the time too.

A few more flowering Saintpaulia cvv. for you

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It's hard to be too excited about an African Violet flowering because they do it so much it's really not that big a deal. I'll try though, these are some of the more interesting.



"NOID 0020" - I lied, this one is not interesting. It is pretty though. Actually a bit part of the reason I like this one is not pictured here. The leaves are large, and round, and light green. The white flowers bring it all together but they've mostly been opening under the larger leaves above. So I was really only able to get a good shot of this one flower that's decided to make itself visible. I also had to do some serious photo-shopping to get any detail in the flower without having it horribly underexposed or with highlights blown. It worked well but what you can see of the leaves is way way darker than they actually are.


Saintpaulia 'Rebel's Splatter Kake' - I've posted this one several times before. I was happy to see a large head of flowers on it... But most of them do not have the same quality or amount of spotting on them, so another closeup it is. I think the colour's closer to the real thing in this picture, and the light is softer and maybe the focus is sharper so you get to see it again.


"NOID 0006" - I think this was ID'd as Saintpaulia 'Sergeant Pepper' but we did not (apparently) update the label. I like it.

Just for fun I'll throw in a bonus:



Streptocarpus 'Sultan's Ruby' first bloom. It's dark but red, not the purple you saw here.

The waiting game: shoots and buds.

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I have a lot that will be going on sometime later. I've even got a few first blooms for some plants, and first re-blooms for others, which is pretty exciting, or at least it will be.



Unknown Aloe hybrid

Both of my new Aloes are in bud. I hope there will not be any complications from having to bring the one pictured inside when the temperatures drop too low, the other (Aloe descoingsii x Aloe haworthioides - couldn't get a clear picture of the tiny spike) is already inside and was when the bud showed up so I'm not so worried about that.



An Echeveria cv. in bud too, another first.

I've got some exciting action going on with the Orchids as well.



Neostylis Lou Sneary 'Bluebird' is in spike.


Aerangis biloba

I only just got the Neostylis this spring and usually it takes longer for me to get any results from my Orchids, so very happy with that spike. It's supposed to be fairly reliable at flowering more than once a year so with any luck I'll get another spike on it in the spring (it was flowering in February when I bought it).

The Aerangis has flowered for me before, though this year it looks like I'll only have one spike. The plant was allowed to get too dry too often this spring and I'm paying for it. The moss packed (densely) around the roots stayed wet for a long time so I removed it, and increased watering. At least, for a time. Then watering slowed, and the plant went downhill. I moved it to the plant stand where I'd have better access to it and watered more and new leaves started to grow so I've tied a looser layer of moss around the roots and it's definitely responding to the moss and the more frequent watering. Still, i didn't expect flowers after its mistreatment.



NOID Miltonia

This has been a slow grower for me, happy to see new growth though. Will keep it wetter next summer than I did this year.



NOID Cattleya

I've had this Cattleya for a long time with no results. This will be its fourth new shoot since I got it with no flowering yet. It will likely run out of pot next year and will have to be repotted. This year it spent the summer outside in full sun, which I'm hoping will get me something for my trouble. My Oncidium Sharry Baby 'Sweet Fragrance' AM/AOS is not showing any signs of spikes after summering outside, and maybe it's too early but nothing yet from my Cymbidium. Night temperatures are dropping to single digits now so I'm really hoping to see something from the Cymbidium.

Fall's come early this year

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Not much to say here, snapped this picture of this maple today showing some nice late fall colour relatively early this year. Can't see it so clearly here but many of the leaves have already dropped. This tree us usually early compared to other maples, it's in a dry spot on a steep slope in clay soil with baking sun.

Phone stuff - a new keyboard

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I was finding the default keyboard on my Acer liquid E to be a bit of a pain to type with so I've just been checking out  a few options. I did not try many (most either don't have a free version to try or just didn't seem top have anything available at all - for example the closed beta only for Swype) but SlideIT is by far the best, easiest to use and fastest keyboard I did try. It takes a little bit of practice to get used to but really makes typing on a touch screen really simple.

Problems I have had include words containing the letter "p" (presumably  also "l"?) can get interrupted if your finger slides off the screen giving you two wrong words instead of one right word (it's usually excellent at getting the right word, even if you don't hit all the letters properly). All special characters can only be accessed through a button press (if you're lucky, sometimes it can take more since there are several screens of these characters - parentheses take two clicks to get to, and apparently I use them a lot). One of my biggest problems with the default keyboard was not having any way to easily go back and edit text. You could try clicking and hope for the best but otherwise you were on your own. SlideIT has arrow keys to move through text but unfortunately they are hidden on there fourth page of special characters. It's also really easy to hit backspace when you're trying to move right, or space instead of down - a big problem if you're trying to scroll through a lot of text and can't easily see where the extra space ended up. It's a little easier to click your way to a problem spot anyway but easier access to those buttons would be nice. There are also some handy looking cut/ copy/ paste buttons but don't ask how I'm supposed to select text! (oh wait, double clicking works most of the time, but only if you only want to select one word) Also as I've been typing this I've also noticed that the enter button is much closer to the period button than I'd like.

I've actually typed this whole post on my phone with little to no problems. I'm also impressed with some of the words they've got built in to there dictionary. Like Rhododendron (would not have been fun to touch type that on the old keyboard!). Another nice feature is being able to switch to a standard touch keyboard, though trying it out I could not help but notice how many keys I hit wrong in a very short time.

I would probably say worth getting the free version, the frustrations with trying to select, edit, or even move through large amounts of text really limit the usefulness of this keyboard. The Swype/Slide mechanism is interesting and it's a huge improvement over the stock keyboard but otherwise it needs some changes to justify spending money on it.

Oh, and speaking of Rhododendrons (were we? not really, oh well), I've tracked down a Lee's Dark Purple even though we supposedly ran out of them at the start of the month. Hopefully I can get some space cleared for it tomorrow, and get the rest of my bulbs planted. I guess I also need to really start bringing plants back inside now that were hitting single digit overnight lows.

Sorry no pictures tonight with this post, I'll try to get something something more plant related tomorrow.