Spring is definitely on the verge of busting out here in Brooklyn, and there’s plenty of growth taking place in my little orchid room. First, I want to share a better photo of my Phal amboinensis Phal bastianii:
And loads of lovely blooms have opened on the NOID Phal that I bought at the Union Square Greenmarket last year—the spike even threw out a couple side shoots and those have blooms as well!
On the new growth front, I have three updates. First is the “mule ear” Oncidium that is apparently now known as Trichocentrum Ollie Palmer (thanks to reader Stefano for pointing that out!).
The mule ear isn’t the healthiest-looking plant in the world, but if it’s putting out a new growth it can’t be in terrible shape. I’m thinking about switching it to a bark mix because the sphagnum stays moist for while and I don’t want to encourage rot.
My mystery Dendrobium is putting out TWO new growths:
I want to note that the new growths on both the Onc and the Dend are really pale whitish-yellow rather than green, and I don’t know what that means, if anything. I think I’m going to post the pics on the Orchid Board and see if anyone there has any insight as to why the sprouts aren’t green. Maybe it has something to do with the amount of light these plants are getting…we shall see.
I do have a nice grassy green new growth on my Huntleya heteroclita, which you can see down near the base of the plant in the center of the photo:
Last but certainly not least…my NOID Zygopetalum from Trader Joe’s is spiking!!! You can see the thick spike shooting up from the left side of the pseudobulb in the front of this picture:
I am soooooooo excited about this one. Of course I’m super excited any time any of my orchids starts to spike, but Zygos are some of my favorites and this particular one has incredible-smelling blooms. Confession time: I have never even repotted this orchid! I usually make it a point to do so when I first bring the plant home, bit this one has been doing so well that I’ve let it be. Obviously the time will come where I’ll need to repot it, but for now I’ll just wait for it to bloom. 🙂
4 comments
Congrats! Good to have fertile orchids. Can’t wait to see them in bloom.
How long have you had the Huntleya for? i was tempted to get one but i read that they are difficult and die easily. do you grow it in just moss? I saw one I liked the leaves…
Yours looks happy
I’ve had the Huntleya for less than a year and I got it from Orchids by Hausermann because it was inexpensive and related to Zygos. I pretty much got it without knowing anything about how to care for it—one of those impulse purchases that won’t set me back a lot of $.
It’s actually potted in bark mix, but just this past week I put a layer of moss on top to try and keep some moisture in. The plant has been looking happier more recently, so hopefully it will continue to thrive!