Not a good day for red Catts today...I have a handful of plants in 'ICU' under the bench ..hoping for roots, or some sign from the Orchid God...
Slc. Mae Hawkins 'Newberry' HCC/AOS...one of my older plants from 2012 was taken off life support today...she never bloomed for me, but her Google Image is stunning.
Also departing this earth today is a new plant from a December shopping trip to the Krull-Smith greenhouse in Apopka...I made a bad choice in leaving the plant in the hateful gravel medium that they use..the plant never recovered..


R.I.P. sweet Slc. Andurll 'Krulls Scarlet' x Pot. ( Jim Krull x Elaine Taylor)

My heartfelt condolences!

I think I can add to this! My alba Den. nobile simply tried to decline this Winter and was successful. I tried to save a piece, but that one dimped too and I pitched it last week.

I'm with you, Lindsey having lost two 'Krull's Scarlet' plants. First one I did what you did, left it growing in that awful gravel. Second one? I re-potted it as soon as it finished blooming but . . . it petered out.

My clean up effort is on hold for the heat. I did get out early before the rain and trimmed all of the shrubs so feel like I accomplished something. I'll have several to add to the RIP list but the digbyana was really a blow.

Jim

But I'm thanking you for giving me the impetus to send some of my lazy plants to the "jungle hospice program". At my house that means they get heaved out into the jungle to sink or swim as they may. I've had a few remarkable recoveries doing this, too. The orchid hospice is out there under my big oak branch where the Enc. tampensis are getting ready to spray their seeds far and wide. I sure could use some extra space, just for air movement in the cage.

Maybe we should all be sending our digbyanas to Carol - she lives in the closest thing I can imagine to 'Savanna' conditions.

Is it possible that some crosses are just 'weaker'...seems odd to me that both Elaine and I have lost the same plant..
I may be moving some of my non performers out to one of the palm trees in the back yard..the real estate on the bench is just too valuable for non team members!

Carol has two digbyanas already. Neither has bloomed as yet, nor are they showing any signs of doing so. I have a few others that are near to being culled out to make room for my latest purchases.

I guess I'm in good company then!

Two more in the trash bag today...very sad as they were both from Palmer Orchids and bought this past January..
C. vestalis and C. amethglossa ( sp?)

Hi everyone...If anyone has any plant they do not wish to try and nurse back to health...Please send them my way. I will be glad to pay for postage. I have good luck with Digs. I can get them to grow and have had them to bloom for me. I don't have any in my collection right now. They are on my wish list again. Just lmk. Thank you and have a great night....Mike

I spent the morning out in the OC culling the collection. I must have pitched 50 plants, some that were dear to me at one time. The one that hurt the most was Big George (Lc. George Baldwin X C. Trithena). It was once the biggest Cattleya I owned and I loved the flower. R.I.P. Big George. I'll probably never find another one. In memory:



Jim

That one would hurt! The easy ones are the ones that never bloomed for me.

Oh, so sorry to hear you lost Big George, Jim. It sure was a beauty. I also lost Little George in the spring, it took nearly 2 years to peter out on me.

I had an abrupt loss of one of my Phals in the last few days, too. Just suddenly dropped all its leaves. I've looked at it under the microscope and everything, can't figure out what caused this. All I'm saying is "it's that time of year" when the fungi and bugs are at their peak.

Oh sorry, Jim, that was a gorgeous Orchid! Big George led a great life!

My Ornithophora radicans is trying very hard to kick the bucket. Most growth simply died off this month and I can't come up with any good reason. I took plenty cuttings and will take some more in the hope to perhaps restart the plant.
I think its time was simply up!

Big George had a rich and full life...always looking forward to his next bloom...he was loved by all and will be missed.
Now that Jim has cleared up some real estate in the OC..it must be time to start thinking about a trip to Apopka!

I took these follow up pics this morning. I had mentioned that my Ornithophora radicans was dying. Here is what it looked like in bloom every Fall for the last seven years or so.

Here is a look of it after I plucked off all the still decent growth.

And three attempts to get it going again.


Since it did so well for so many years after it was established in a coconut shell, one of my attempts is again in one! Hopefully some of it survives and starts up again.

fingers crossed that we can move this one from R.I. P. to 'recently in bloom'!

I just can't figure what happens to some of my plants. It seems like they start to decline for no reason and all you can do is watch and morn. I also lossed my big Grammatophylum scriptum. I won several blue ribbons with it.


Jim

Jim, I think in nature the mother plant would simply die and you would see years later another plant popping up somewhere. Or you would see the old growth dying while later rhizomes climb around and up a tree. Something like that.
Programmed cell death?

This one gotta hurt, Jim!