Tiny beauty

Here is my Schoenorchis fragrans, blooming right on schedule. Last year, the first flowers opened on June 22.  This year, the first flowers opened on June 22.



It's so tiny and so very cute.

I got this at the 2017 Portland orchid show and this is its first rebloom for me.  Last year it came to me with three spikes, but only made one this year; this isn't too unusual, since it had to acclimate to an entirely new location.  It did grow a lovely leaf this year.

Trisetella hoeijeri

I have a repeat bloomer in my big orchid terrarium! 

This is Trisetella hoeijeri, a delightful little mini-miniature orchid. The leaves are about 1.5" tall, and the flower has a 3" spread. (This particular flower is facing the back of the terrarium, so I had to turn it for the pictures.) This is the second blooming for me since I got it a year ago.



The flowers are so cool looking, with their graceful sweep of whiskery sepals.



Even when it's not in bloom, it's a very tidy, pretty little plant.  It seems very happy in its hole in the log.



Compare that picture above to the next one, and you can see how much the plant has grown since October.  And look at the moss!  I will need to trim it back soon, it has really taken off!

Five months of blooming orchids

I've had quite a few orchids blooming over the past few months.  Pretty pictures!

First up is a delightful little mini-miniature orchid named Trisetella hoeijeri, native to the cloud forest of Ecuador. The leaves are about 1.5" tall, and the flower has a 3" spread. I got the plant from Ecuagenera at the Portland orchid show in spring 2017, and in October it gave me two flowers.





Next up is Masdevallia strobelii big form (with an unknown hitchhiker) on the left and small form on the right.  These two pots are doing great on my kitchen windowsill, and in November they bloomed profusely.

When they bloomed in December 2016, the the big form (on the left) had five flowers and the small form (on the right) had seven.  This time around they had 26 and 10 flowers, respectively!  Wowza!  Added bonus, they are intensely sweetly fragrant and I could smell them all over the first floor of the house.  I look forward to watching these plants grow.



This is the flower of the big form, smaller and more white.



And this is the flower of the small form, larger and more yellow.  Confusing, I know, with the big/small, small/big!  I love the sparkly glandular hairs inside the tubular flowers.



A super extra special bonus this year was this:



The big form pot has a hitchhiker!  There is a little clump of leaves that are slightly smaller and bloomed these gorgeous flowers.  Quite different from what the pot is supposed to be.  I haven't figured out what species this is yet (it might be the glandulosa x strobelii hybrid named Masd. Confetti), but I love it.  When I repot the plants next year, I'll split this out and put it in its own pot so it doesn't get overrun by the very vigorous big form.



Next to bloom, in December, was this Odontocidium Wild Willie 'Pacific Bingo'. It's mildly fragrant, like lemony plastic.  Big waxy flowers, very pretty.



Then there was the Gastrochilus somai, which bloomed for about a month in November/December.  I didn't take a picture until it was almost gone by, but there were about 12 flowers on two spikes.



This is Dendrobium Enobi Purple 'Splash', blooming in January on a small three-flower spike.  This is such a striking flower.



Next was Odontocidium Brennan Scott Barfield ‘Mother’s Day’.  No fragrance, but lots of pretty flowers on tall spikes.



This is a Paphiopedilum that I got in bud in December, which finally opened this week.  This cross hasn't been named yet, so it's just Paph. (Hidatsa x Nulight) '1-10' x Kaylight '2-09'.  I'm not normally a fan of this type of so-called "bulldog Paph" with the big round flowers, but this one is pretty and Emma likes it so it can stay. I do like the speckling on the dorsal.



I also have had a bunch of Phalaenopsis blooming. They're pretty cheap, and extra color in winter is always good.  'Nuff said.

This is a new one, no name.



This is also a new one, a pretty no-name yellow that Emma got me for Christmas.



This is a re-bloom, Phal. Liu's Triprince.  This is it's third spike for me.



Another new one last fall, Phal. Ox Surf Song.  This has been blooming since September, and the flower in the picture is somewhat old, hence the brownish tones.  Younger flowers are a lovely clear pinky-peachy-yellow.



Another re-bloomer.  No name but pretty waxy green with purple speckles.



This is Phal. Sogo Berry x Dtps. Fuller's Cheese '3496'.  Who names an orchid "cheese"?  Weird name but very pretty.



And this is Phal. Ox Lucky Boy.  Mini white phalaenopsis are so simple and pretty.



There have been at least a couple other phals in flower over the past few months, but apparently I didn't take pictures.  Oh well, I'll get them next time around.

Last up for now is this Pleurothallis niveoglobula, which has been in bloom continuously since I got it in January 2016.  It literally never stops flowering. The tiny white flowers aren't flashy but very cute.



Whew.  If you made it all the way through this enormous post, thanks for reading!

Angraecum didieri

I have had another special orchid blooming this month, and it's another first-bloomer for me.  This is Angraecum didieri, native to Madagascar.  I got this about three years ago, as a small seedling.

I got a second terrarium last spring because I had several orchids, mostly Angraecoids like this one, that were not doing well at all.  My climate is just not humid enough for them, and they were showing severe stress from their roots drying out so fast and often.



Having them in the enclosed area helped a lot, and when I added an automatic misting system in mid-July, they all exploded with new roots and leaves.  All the side root branches in that picture above have grown in the two and a half months since the mister was added.

I noticed the bud developing around the middle of September and was so excited!



New buds are always exciting, and even more so when it's a species I haven't bloomed before.



This species is in the same group as the Aerangis punctata, Aerangis fastuosa, Aerangis citrata, and Aerangis mystacidii that I have shown on here before.  In general, this group has white star-shaped flowers with a long nectar spur that are large for the size of the plant, and most are fragrant at night to attract moths, their pollinators.

This one is no exception.  It opened on September 25.



The plant is about six inches from leaf tip to leaf tip, the bloom is two inches across, and the nectar spur is six inches long.



It is powerfully fragrant starting at about 7:00 at night, and smells of Stargazer lilies and gardenia.  It's a similar fragrance to A. mystacidii but a little less rich and honeyed, and not musky like A. fastuosa.

My third Masdevallia

Guess what!  I have successfully bloomed another Masdevallia orchid!



This is Masdevallia Maui Lollipop, a hybrid between Masd. Angel Frost and Masd. mendozae. I got this plant in the fall of 2015, and it's been a good grower, especially considering I have it in my north-facing bathroom.  I expect if I found it a sunnier spot it would flower better.



It has such cool tubular flowers.  This one isn't as bright orange as some I've seen pictured, but it's very pretty. This particular flower is a little wonky because it got stuck behind a leaf as it was developing, and I didn't rescue it in time.  Normally they are held slightly taller than the leaves.

Tiny bouquet

From the big Zygolum flowers yesterday, to tiny flowers today.  This is Schoenorchis fragrans, a species native to India, Myanmar, Thailand, and China.

I got this one at the orchid show in Portland in April, and it had little nubs of bloom spikes barely visible between the leaves.  Now each of the three spikes has nine buds/flowers just starting to open.



It's so tiny, so very tiny.  The whole plant is just over an inch across, and each flower is about 1/8 inch high.



As the name suggests, this is fragrant.  Not strongly so, but if you hold it close it's a light sweet floral fragrance that also reminds me of something fruity like freshly peeled green grapes.



Tiny plants make my heart sing.

Zygolum

A strange sounding name for a very pretty orchid.  Zygolum Zygolum my preciousssss...

This is Zygolum Louisendorf, an intergeneric hybrid between Zygosepalum labiosum and Zygopetalum Artur Elle.



This is the first time this plant has re-bloomed for me since I got it about four years ago.  And not only is it blooming, it has FOUR spikes!



The flowers are huge, and scented like peppery hyacinth.

What can I say...

I am weak.  I am helpless when confronted with mini-Phalaenopsis orchids.



They are just so small and perfect.



This white one is called Phal. Liu's Fantasy.



Plus, the pink one is fragrant.  Now really, how am I supposed to leave that on the shelf?



Its name is Phal. Jiaho's Pink Girl.



(Do you see the birds in these flowers?)

White slipper

Here's another pretty one, Paphiopedilum Greyi.  This is a tropical slipper orchid, and is a primary hybrid of Paph. godefroyae and Paph. niveum, both native to the Thailand/Malaysia area.



This is a relatively new plant for me, and when I got it about three months ago it came with an itty-bitty bud in the center of the leaf fan.  So I can't technically take credit for the flower, but I can take credit for keeping it going until it bloomed.



It's so pretty, with the delicate red stippling on the pouch and in the center.



Plus, this is a nice compact plant.  That's a 2" pot, the widest leafspan is only about 10", and the flower itself is about 2.5" across.  I'm running out of room, so compact is good.

Rosy

Another beautiful orchid to share today, called Miltoniopsis Lila Fearneyhough 'H624'.  This is a hybrid, with a lovely pattern of magenta purple petals and sepals and a darker waterfall on the white lip.

The best part?  It's heavily scented, and smells just like roses!



Miltoniopsis orchids are notoriously tempermental, liking cool-ish temperatures (60-80 F), moderate light, and constant moisture with good airflow and high humidity.  Not really the climate of eastern Oregon.  However, I feel triumphant that this bloomed for me!

I've steered clear of Miltoniopsis in the past after killing several, but I couldn't pass this one up.  It was 75% off with no flowers left, but the one next to it on the shelf with one flower left had that amazing fragrance.  The plant with the lone flower was in very poor shape, but this one looked good so I took a chance for $5.  Four months later here's my reward.

Phal rebloom times two

I have two more Phalaenopsis blooming today, and both are rebloomers, hooray!  I love it when plants rebloom under my care.



These are both Phal. Chingruey's Goldstaff.  I got the one in the terracotta pot last June, and the one in the white pot in August (for half off because one of the leaves is damaged and the flowers were finished).

Both grew two new leaves over the winter, and are reblooming on their original spikes, which have sent out quite a few new buds over the past couple months.



So pretty, and this variety is fragrant on sunny afternoons.  Lemony-minty, which sounds weird but is nice.