In the past week, THREE of my orchids have bloomed, starting with this adorable harlequin orchid on Valentine’s Day:
Blooming Bonanza, a Rescued Orchid, & an RIP
Orchid of the Week: Phalaenopsis White Dream
I missed posting an Orchid of the Week yesterday because my boyfriend and I made a trip to Spa Castle, a really awesome and affordable Korean Day spa in Queens. I’m posting today instead, and my visit to the spa got me thinking about how some spas use white Phalaenopsis orchids in their advertising. And in movies/on TV, a lot of spas and massage places have white orchids as part of their decor. I suppose these orchids with long sprays of giant, pure white blooms are synonymous with relaxation and pampering in the spa world. So…this week’s orchid is the Phalaenopsis White Dream, apparent spa orchid of choice:
Amazingly, I don’t have one of these in my own collection, though they are popular and sold almost everywhere I go to buy orchids. However, my friend recently received a big white orchid (actually 2 plants potted together) at work from a vendor, and I’m going to pick it up from her office so that I can pot the plants separately and care for them at home. I will be the proud owner of these “spa orchid” beauties very soon! 🙂
Brooklyn Orchids Bloom & Spike Report
I totally missed my Orchid of the Week post last Friday, because I was hard at work on a freelance project. Whoops.
I also missed my Sunday morning orchid watering session yesterday, so I watered them this morning instead. And I discovered that a pretty bloom on one of my Phals opened up overnight!
There are also lots of beautiful blooms on this orchid’s side shoot:
A couple weeks ago, I noticed what looked like not one, but two side shoots from this orchid’s growing spike:
I thought the growths had that flattened-at-the-tip mitten shape that is characteristic of spikes, rather than the fuller shape of a bud. And I was right! Here’s what the spike and side shoots look like today—you can really see the difference between growing buds and side shoots in this pic (buds on top, shoots on bottom):
Yet another one of my Phals is starting to grow a side shoot. It stopped blooming a month or so ago, so I cut the spike to try and force it to bloom again. Doing this really works! Here’s proof:
A couple of my other Phals in spike have swelling buds, so I’m going to have lots of blooms in the near future. It’s so very exciting to see my patience paying off!!
The Terminator…Spike.
I was just doing some daily inspection of my orchids and noticed that I have what appears to be a terminal spike starting to poke out from the crown of one of my Phals. A terminal spike is one that grows from the center of the foliage of a monopodial orchid, meaning that the plant will no longer be able to grow leaves from there. Healthy Phals usually put spikes out from the base of the plant or in between older leaves. According to chit-chat on orchid forums, a terminal spike on a Phal may signify that the plant is not healthy but is trying to find a way to keep on truckin’. Sometimes Phals that do this will end up growing a basal keiki to try and replicate themselves, but other times they won’t survive.
The Phal with the growing terminal spike hasn’t been in great shape for awhile, and in fact was quite near death about a year or so ago.
Orchid of the Week: Phalaenopsis Amboinensis
Yikes, I’ve been seriously shirking my orchid blogging duties. I don’t even want to look back and see when I last did an Orchid of the Week blog. Well, because today is the last day of 2010 I figured I should get in one final blog post this year. And I’ve chosen to feature Phalaenopsis amboinensis, one which I have in my personal collection—and mine is beginning to spike!!
This orchid is native to Indonesia and has small, star-shaped waxy blooms with tiger-like striping. Take a look at this specimen (not mine):
Precious Little Jewels & Spikes
Whoops…I forgot to do an Orchid of the Week post last Friday. For shame!
After my Lowe’s orchid shopping extravaganza last week, I’ve been waiting with bated breath for my new tolumnia’s blooms to open. I did my regular Sunday morning orchid watering session yesterday and noticed that one of the buds was starting to open!
And this morning, I got up to discover the fully opened, gorgeous bloom:
How beautiful is that?? A couple of the other buds are beginning to open, so in the next few days I’ll have several little beauties. Woohoo!!
Also on the Woohoo!! front, I noticed that yet ANOTHER one of my phals is starting to put out a spike. I guess phal blooming season is coming up—they do generally bloom in the winter. So I currently have three phals that are throwing spikes. The newest one that I discovered is the one that I bought at the Union Square Greenmarket about a year and a half ago. This will already be the second spike that it has put out for me—it spiked and bloomed earlier this year. You can see the very beginning of this orchid’s spike in this image: it’s the small light green bit in the middle:
And just for fun, an updated photo of my peloric phal’s spike:
That’s all for now. So much orchid excitement in my house these days! So many exclamation points are necessary!