Latest Additions

[Shaydra]

As promised, here are my new additions! The mature plants flew home with me from Michigan and the two babies I just got in the mail today.

Beallara Marfitch



Phal Baldan's Kaleidoscope (pics did not come out as well)



My cute little babies!!!
Lc Acker's Madison 'Kyle' X (left) & Paph Red Horizon 'Red Zest' X


The Lc is about 5" and the Paph is about 3"... I think the Paph might actually have 2 plants in the pot?? The smaller one is only about half the size. And I haven't been able to find any pictures of what my blooms will look like on my new paph (in a couple years). So if anyone can find one.....

Thanks!!

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Your blooming plants are both lovely! What is the full name of the little paph?

Cheers,
BD

[JUDIUK]

The Beallara is gorgeous! Judi

[Cjcorner]

You found those in Michigan? I'm from the Flint area and never saw anything that pretty up there myself. Good job getting them home from there. Good Luck with them.
Connie

[Shaydra]

Your blooming plants are both lovely! What is the full name of the little paph?

Cheers,
BD

That's what it gave as the name on the tag. The rest was parentage, I think. I'm at work, but if memory serves: (Paph Voodoo (?) x Paph Somer Isle) was the rest. I couldn't find the parents, either, for the hour that I poked at the Interweb. I know it's a vinicolor, don't know if that will help. I don't think I've found a vini I didn't like - I'd just like a general idea what to expect! Solid red? striped? Spots? Plaid? (wouldn't that be funny lookin'?)


Connie,
I got those around the Lansing area (where I'm originally from). One from a grower, another at a general store. I was really surprised that I didn't get any kind of hassle from the airlines or TSA about bringing them onboard. I just yarn-tied the plastic sleave above the media to keep it from falling out and had them in a box narrow enough to lay down under the seat in front of me.. (then watched where I put my feet).

[Shaydra]

Ok. The Paph tag says:

Paph. Red Horizon 'Red Zest' X (Paph. Voodoo Magic 'Red Fox' HCC/AOS x Paph. Somer Isles)

Anyone think they can find a pic of what my baby will grow up to look like?

[Shaydra]

Here are 2 more newbies that I got from a different online grower! I was actually disappointed when I pulled these two from the box. The Onc Jiuhbao Gold 'Tainan' had its leaves bent almost in half and was climbing out of the pot at such an odd angle that I had no choice but to repot (back to the same pot with the same media since it was in good shape). Probably a shipping shift for the media, but the bending bothered me. It and the baby phal Ching Her Buddha 'Bedford Cutie' x Brother New Player were not looking healthy - very yellowed and dehydrated. They looked as if they'd been placed in the box 1.5 weeks ago totally dry and left to sit sealed while I was on vacation (they didn't arrive till Friday).

Here they are looking much better. (And that's my sick Slc Corona next to it - doing a bit better now with 3 eyes and leaves starting to stand higher!)

I'm bothered a little at how long the phal is holding moisture in the sphag. It hasn't dried even a little bit since Friday afternoon. Should I be worried?

[Cjcorner]

Others will totally disagree with me, I'm thinking greenhouse and "in-house" makes a huge dif. Personally, I'm forever pulling that stuff out and replacing it with a nice wood mix....right after i trim all the awful brown rotted roots off that the sphagnum moss turned into mush. Some folks swear by sphagnum, I only chop it into the bark mix, and very sparingly.
Connie
p.s. my phals are in a picture window with good air movement and roughly 83 degree temps year round....how you grow changes your mix...as well as where you are geographically....

[Shaydra]

I'm keeping an eye on it. It has a root that's poking up just behind that leaf on the left side. Root looks pretty healthy, other than a little black on the tip. I've read somewhere I should cut off bad tips like this. Is that true? And if so, should I put cinnamon on it to prevent evilness? Or will that hurt this little guy?

I have everything on a 54" shelving unit in front of an east-facing window using a humidifier to keep the humidity up to at least 45% (haven't seen higher than 63% on the readout yet). Temps run between 67 and 89 in here and my babies live on a shelf which is shaded from direct sun by venetian blinds tipped so they're about 1/2 closed. (The ones on the shelf below are my Onc and 2 full grown Catts in full sun from dawn - 11:30ish.) No light meter and I read that babies are more easily burned than adults so they all share the same shelf and the same tray (phal, paph, & Lc). Hopefully this will suffice? I'm actually experimenting with some vented plastic around my babies to keep the humidity up a bit better. So far it's only making about a 3-5% difference that I've seen so it probably won't stay this way.


... and just because I saw this one, I'll add it...

[murgdan]

I use sphagnum, but with clay pots. That way it dries out between waterings...the ones I have had in plastic/sphag have sometimes stayed wet so long that I end up with a bunch of rotten roots. So...it's either clay/sphagnum or plastic/bark in my house (for phals anyway). I'm sure humidity and temps play a role too...and I've found the clay/sphagnum mixture keeps me from drying them out or soaking them to death (both of which I've done in my 2 years of learning)