dyzzypyxxy said: Abigail, that's a picture of Queen Elizabeth, looking very grumpy indeed. The US having declared independence from Great Britain on this day in 1776.

Oooh my goodness. thank you, Elaine. I had no clue that was Queen Elizabeth. Every picture I've seen of her has always been her smiling with her head uncovered.

I'm with you Abigail I didn't realize that was her majesty the Queen!
Elaine my cute little C. Valda X nodosa is mostly open now




It definitely has no nodosa fragrance at night ( a little fragrant in the morning though)


I took this the other day of 3 plants that all share Richard Mueller as a parent and one this morning


Bc. Golden Glory

Lindsey, they all look gorgeous and happy! It will be nice to see the color changes on the Richard Mueller plants!

Beautiful, Lindsey

They're all wonderful, but the C. Valda X nodosa is just a perfectly gorgeous little plant. Graceful flowers, nice foliage, beautiful pot, the works.

I don't know where they're coming from, maybe the orchid fairy is coming around at night . . . the flopsy bunny C. gaskelliana coerulea x self has popped another pair of lovely blue-ish flowers. I now have two plants of these in bloom at the same time. How can I be so lucky? This is the fifth set of flowers I've had since they started up at Easter.

It could be an Orchid Fairy, I don't know for sure however it sure is a beautiful plant with gorgeous flowers!

I see fairies all the time but typically Jack Daniels is close by!!!
Oh wait, maybe they are Leprechauns!!!

Just lovely!

Encyclia Alanthum blooms on a long spike!




and Onc Sharry Baby keeps opening spikes! The deck smells great!



Vandachostylis Charm 'Blue Star' blooms in the cage

Boy Elaine, your gaskelliana is a real over achiever!
Ursula, what a spectacular display on your Sherry Baby…and the fragrance can't be beat, can it?
This cute little Ctt. Busy Bev 'Blue Jewel' opened up the other day, if you look at it just right, it sparkles in the sunlight.


And Bc. Golden Glory


I got this one in sad shape a couple of years ago and it's just starting to bounce back

Spathoglottis never really stopped blooming, but I have a bunch of new stems popping this week. There are two plants here, and the smaller one seems to have decided to be a very pale ivory instead of yellow blushed pink this time.

They're usually this color, and gradually fade to ivory with purple blush. But I'm not complaining. Both were re-potted with fresh soil a couple of months ago.

Does anyone grow Phaius in pots and how do you think they would do as (winter) indoor plants?

Yes, I just re-potted my Phaius, which have always been in large clay pots out in the shady border. Not sure about keeping them indoors, to be honest but can't see why not. They're pretty much cold tolerant here, but we are always warmer than you. I'd think you could just plan to protect them in cold weather and grow them outdoors in pots. Unless you move to the mountains, of course.

I neglected to re-pot them last year, so they're not really robust looking now, but are putting up new growth, and hopefully new bulbs that will flower next year. I only had a few flowers this year, too.

I grew Phaius quite some time ago in a greenhouse over the winter. I found them to be scale magnets! Not so much Boisduval scale, but the brown armored scale. They go everywhere.
Phaius have those large, plicate leaves so I imagine that one would need to be careful about mites as well.
Mine just got smaller and smaller year after year and the new growths became just covered in scale.

But you all are better growers then me!!

I think they do need a bit of a winter dormant period, so possibly keeping them consistently warm, such as growing indoors or in a greenhouse would do, might cause them to decline from not enough sleep. (don't we all?)

Mine come to life, and bloom anywhere from late March to early May here. Depends on how warm the springtime weather is. They put up fresh new leaves before the flower stems show up.

I've never seen any insect problems on mine, but of course they've been out there in the jungle all their lives, so I may not have noticed. But when I re-potted them recently, there were no bugs, or signs of anything. Then the day after I put the pots back out, the local bunny showed up and had to be dissuaded from nibbling on the Phaius leaves. (they're up on pedestals, out of reach of Peter now)

Can't believe there's another flush of bloom on Den. crumenatum. Last bloom was June 10th, so less than a month's turn around here.

We've had rumbles of thunder but no rain almost every day last week, until today we finally got some rain. But this baby was already in bloom then. So I'm guessing it does respond to the storms, not just the beneficial nitrogen bath from the rain.

Lindsey, pretty! I love the 'Blue Jewel'!

I sure wish I could grow Spathoglottis here outside! They put on such a nice show!

Elaine, your Den crumenatum is amazing!

Two of my Phaius in the ground did fine through the winter then that late freeze we had in March took out the buds and some of the leaves. They came back fine and one is pretty large but I am thinking of potting them up and IF we ever move I would take them with me.

For those who just want to see some pretties, this is from the show table at the St. Augustine Orchid Society this month. I wish they had labels on them
https://www.flickr.com/photos/...

Alice, you just have to hold your mouse over the picture and the name shows up.

Wonderful pictures, beautiful orchids - that big C. gaskelliana var. coerulea, Wow! I hope mine grows up to do that one day.