An Oncidium in Spike!

I was just misting my orchids with water when I noticed that my Oncidium Twinkle ‘Fragrance Fantasy’ is in spike!! Apparently I haven’t been paying close enough attention to this one, because the spike is already about one and a half or two inches tall. You can kinda see the spike peeking up out of the center of the plant in this photo (click to enlarge):

Oncidium Twinkle 'Fragrance Fantasy' in spike
My first Oncidium is in spike!

This is the first Oncidium that I ever bought. I got it from Trader Joe’s in Manhattan just about a year ago. It was in bloom when I bought it – and had a bunch of mini, uber-fragrant flowers:

Oncidium Twinkle 'Fragrance Fantasy' in bloom
The Oncidium in bloom when I brought it home

I’ve sometimes wondered if this little guy would ever bloom again. Now it’s looking very, very promising! Since I bought this plant, it has sprouted three new pseudobulbs, so it’s definitely been growing. The orchid did have a slight snail problem awhile back:

Booooo! We don’t want you!

The snails nommed on some of my orchid’s roots, but I think I eradicated all of these critters awhile back. The plant is clearly doing just fine at this point:

Oncidium spike
Flower spike!!!

As I’ve said before, PATIENCE is your friend when it comes to growing orchids. The sight of this new spike is almost reward enough for having waited a year on this one. And when those sweet-smelling little flowers come, I will be even more thrilled.  🙂

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7 comments

  1. I hope your’s is one the nicer scented Twinkles. One of the parents, the beautiful Oncidium ornythorinchum can be variable in scent, some are very sweet scented while others smell more like cat pee. I’ve been fortunate wih my species, always extremely powerful sweet scent.
    Bill.

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