Expanding My Orchid Collection…Again

This morning when I was still in bed, my boyfriend texted me with this photo of mini oncidiums that he saw for $9 while running an errand at Lowe’s:

Well, that got me out of bed pretty quickly. I ate yogurt and cereal and gulped down some coffee, then went on the orchid hunt. Conveniently, this Lowe’s is only about a 10 minute walk from my house. And suddenly, I was in orchid heaven…

I have never seen this many nice-looking orchids at Lowe’s, not to mention the amazing variety. There were Brassias, Oncidiums, Dendrobiums, Miltassia, and a lot of those orchids that are sold in netting – Cattleyas, Epicattleyas, etc. I must have looked like a crazy person inspecting all of these orchids, trying to decide which one to get. Haha…which ONE. I walked out after buying THREE.

The mini Oncidiums were actually Tolumnias (aka Equitant Oncidiums). I have one Tolumnia that I ordered from Hausermann’s, but it’s not in bloom yet. So I picked out a Sun Bulb hybrid that had two spikes, one with several nice buds on it (unfortunately, I lost a few buds on the walk home *sad face*). I can’t wait to see what these little blooms look like when they open!

So then, I saw that they had what looked like spider orchids, which I recently wrote about in an Orchid of the Week post. I found one with a tag and it turned out that it was a Miltassia Kauai’s Choice ‘Tropical Fragrance’ AM/AOS, not a Brassia after all. I don’t really care what it is, I had to have it.

Into the basket the Miltassia went. And then I saw a really unique orchid, sitting way in the middle of the display table. I had to take a closer look so I managed to pull it out without wrecking the display, and when I got a better look I knew it was going to be mine. The tag reads “Mtdm Rosy Sunset ‘F'”, so it’s a Miltonidium, also in the Oncidium Alliance. This one is just amazing:

This plant has probably around 40-50 blooms + buds on two separate spikes, and the blooms are DIFFERENT COLORS. Some are pink, some are more rosy, and some are greenish white and almost translucent. It’s pretty spectacular. I guess the blooms change color as they age? I will see what the deal is once more of them start to open. But here, take a look at the bloom color variety:

The two bigger orchids were each $27, which is more than what I normally spend on orchids, but I’ve actually had a bit of work lately so I can justify the purchase. Plus, they give me joy and I get to write about them here, so they are worth it.

These three orchids bring my collection to a total of 29. Holy crap! Crazy Orchid Lady Alert!