The Devil's Excrement

Top:Left: Cattleya Gaskelliana semi alba. First flowering, the shape
of the flower is not great, but the colors are fantastic. Top right:
Cattletonia Why Not bunch, a repeat visitor to this pages.

The two pictures above are for the same flower Miltonidium Super
Spots “Everglades” . I could not decide which background looks better,
so I though I would show both. I love this flower!

Flowering is winding down except for the Laelia Purpuratas which are still going strong

Above left Phalemopsis Ruby Dark, one of the darkest I know. Above left: Potinara Hoku Gem Freckles

Laelia Purpurata Werkhausery I love the purple “Nazarene” color in these flowers

Another nice Purpurata delicata with lots of nice flowers.

Not much new this week, mostly the same plants with more flowers,
one virus suspect and these two plants. On the left is a Sophornitis
Cernua from Barzil, these flowers are beautiful, but small, they are
less than half an inch in size. This is the second flowering after a
while of trying to get consditions right. On the right is Cattelya Hot
Pink “Lulu” which I have shown before. This plants keeps growing and
each time it has more flowers. These are about two thirds of teh
flowers, it still has buds that have not opened.

I have four adult plants of Cattleya Aclandie, a Brazilian species, which is one of my favorites. I find it stunning and it has an amazingly strong fragrance. These plants are better grown in my experience in cork slabs. They do very well here in my house, they flower three or four times a year and other orchidiots are always impressed at the roots of my plants, they look like Vandas. I am not sure why they do so well in my home, I suspect that I grow them close to the roof of my orchid room which is glass with wire mesh and it is quite hot up there and they like that. They are also close to the sprinklers I have to keep humidity above 45% and they probably like to be sprayed often.

Right now I have three of the four adult plants in flower (I have other seedlings), so I thought it would be educational to show them all:

Above left, all three plants. the two in the bottom have two flower and the one on the top has three which is rare in Cattleya Aclandie. Above right is Cattleya Aclandie G. I put the G there to distinguish it from my other plants, it stands for Grande, since it is the largest of the three. This would probably be considered the better of the four I have. It’s flowers are large, it opens well and it has a nice lip. It is also probably the freest grower of the four.

Above left is Cattleya Aclandie Equilab x self. This is a seedling of whta is considered the best Aclandie. Notice how dark it is. Howver, it does not open completely and is smaller thatn G above. Fionally above right is Cattleya Aclandie Chocolat Chip x self. It has a nice shape, it opens well, nice lip, but it is very small. It does like to flowers in threes, which is rare.

I haven’t made crosses in a long time, but in March I started making some with these plants. Today I crossed “G” with itself, Equilab x “G: and Equilab x self. Basically, the ideal Aclandie will have the size of the “G” with the darkness of of the Equilab. Let’s see what happens.

Aclandies are not too common among vendors. People find them difficult or don’t know about them. I love them!

Wonderful laelia Purpurata Delicata from Brazil, there are seven flowers in this bunch. Close up of one of them.

Rare alba form of Shomburkia Thomsoniana from Jamaica    Dendrobium Pololo, the plant was too large to move for picture.

I once said that Gaskelliana Coeruleas grow like weeds in my house and somebody thought it was an exaggeration. Well, on the left are three plants, two of Cattleya Gaskelliana Mimi x Aida and one is Cattleya Gaskelliana Blue Dragon x self. Between the three of them there are 38 flowers and nine buds which should open momentarily. On the right is a close up of three Cattleya Gaskelliana Blue Dragon x self

This is a species from Australia called Dendrobium Cucumerinum. On the left picture you can see the leaves that resemble cucumbers, thus the name. Now. I have to clarify that while the leaves look like they should, the flowers are different tha  the ones I found in books or the Internet. Maybe someone from Australia or familiar with the plant can clarify. On the right, a close up of this strange flowers

My frined Bruni is always asking me aboutthe difference between hybrids and species. On the left is a Cattleya Hybrid that I like. It resembles a pink Cattleya Gaskelliana, but it is bigger with much wider petals. Notice there is some flaring. On the right is a hybrid of Equitant Oncidiums or Tolumnia, as they are otherwise known. The original species comes from the Caribbean. This is called Pepper.

This is Cattleya Gaskelliana Mimi x Aida a free bloomer. This plant (I have three) hasthirteen flowers right now. On the rightis a close up. Once I took the best one of the three to a show and some peopel thought it would win. However, it turns out some people think its a hybrid, not a true cross of two species. My friend Armando who bred it says it is two species. I believe him.

Above one more of my Laelia Purpuratas from Brazil

Ascocentrum Ampucellatum from Nepal a member of the Vanda family. Each flower is like 3/8 of an inch in size, very pretty

A while back one of Grammatphyllum Marhtae began dying. When it was almos dead I moved it into the sun and left it there. All of a sudden lots of little plants began coming out of it. I thought it was reviving, except that when I looked closely, these were little plants growing on the dying bulbs, roots and everything!. Above left is the plant as seeing from the top. On the right, you see the dead bulbs and the plants growing on them.

Aboveleft you can see the plant, I tried but it was hard to see the roots out of the new plant. What I ahve been doing succesfully is taking out the old bulb and the new plant and pootting it like the pot shown on the right. I already have about seven new ones and growing! Not one has died.

Flowers are really coming out now. It is Laelia Purpurata time
again, the Queen of teh Brazilian Laelias. Above two of these wonderful
flowers. More to come in the weeks ahead!

Above
Left: Cattleya Aclandie, also a species from Brazil, very frangrant..
Right: A plant I took from my aunt’s house when she died, I have no
idea what it is, I think it is a Coleogyne, its frangrance is not very
nice, smells like overheated car brakes.

Cyrrpetalum Pulchilatum on the left and Oncidium Ansiferum

Dendrobium
Crumenatum on the left, each flower is about ahlf an inch in size. On
the right the tiny flowers of Stelis Argentata. Each flowers is maybe 2
mm. in size.

The flower above is called Dendrobium Thyrsiflorum, a species from Asia (India, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and China). I still remember the firts time I saw one, like a beautiful chinese lantern hanging down. Moreover, that particular plant had like six lanterns. I had to find one! I bought one from a grower in a 2 inch pot and the plant grew fast and started flowering regularly. Then it started doing badly and I thought it would die. It had not flowered in like four years and is recovering very nicely. This year it has a total of five bunches. One already flowered, this one and three more will be flowering soon. Each flower is like one and one quarter inches and is shown blown up on the right.

On the left a Brazilian species, Cattleya Schilleriana. the lip is not as nice as it could be, but the flower is very well shaped. On the right an Oncidium hybrid, but I have no idea what it is.