Yes, I took pictures in the cage yesterday and moved them to the computer as part of the second card of 4 Gb taken on the trip. I will take a look at that later on too.
I should be able to wrap up the trip report tonight or latest tomorrow. I am having a lot of fun with that.
Taking a break now....whew....

Elaine, I am not a great lover of plastic pots either, but for me, with 300-400 plants, clay is simply too expensive and too heavy. I only use clay when the plant gets too top-heavy or when I re-pot a plant for someone and they want clay. I have now started using plastic mesh-pots, starting with 2" and ultimately going to 4". When the plant needs something larger, I either switch to clay, if not hanging, or more likely to a mesh basket, 6", 8", and 10". Mesh allows so much more root growth and the ability of the roots to not only grow into "space" but also to dry out rapidly. The down-side of mesh baskets is that there is so doggone much root growth through the mesh that the only practical way to move up to a larger size basket is to leave the plant as is and just put the old, smaller basket into a larger one. There is little to disturb the plant doing it this way and I think that is a good thing. I have started dabbling in some of the terrestrial orchids and those are in solid plastic pots, with bottom drain hole(s).

Hopefully I am not cutting into your potting discussion....
Here are some blooms from this week, it was nice to come home and see everything ok in the cage.
Epic El Hatillo 'Pinta' is doing well this Summer

My mounted Neofinetia falcata always blooms a bit later than most of my "fancy ones", I love the scent!

Oncidium Sharry Baby - another scented Orchid, Chocolate and Vanilla

Dendrobium aggregatum surprised me with an extra spike

Encyclia bracteata

Vanda tesselata

Vanda Adisak Blue

Ascda Ratchaburi Beauty

And Eulophia euglossa was not happy last year with a scale invasion, but it is clean now and growing better again.


Elaine, thanks so much for your patience and all of you doing a wonderful job holding up the fort.

Ursula, that's where the potting discussion came in, I was out of pictures of anything new so . . . That shot of the two Vandas is fabulous!

Epic El Hatillo 'Pinta' is just gorgeous. I am hoping one of these years to have a huge orchid plant with lots of flowers like that. Right now, I am thrilled with one or two.

My kids are visiting this year for Christmas so I plan to 'let them' take me orchid shopping . . . for a Neofinetia falcata.

Beautiful! I would love to spend hours in that cage. Your Neofinetia falcata is spectacular!!

I agree that Epic. is fantastic! It must be nice coming home to all of your pretty, CLEAN orchids, after seeing those in the wild with their bugs and rot.

Thanks!
If I might address your interesting comment here, Carol?
Rot truly did not come to mind looking at these Orchids in the wild. Beaten by weather, chewed up by bugs - absolutely and you are totally right, at least in most places. But we were truly amazed how clean, healthy and strong most of the Orchids looked, gosh we looked at whole slopes full of strong looking Stelis and Pleurothallis, Sobralias greeting you at many turns on the sides of the highway and if you look at the Phrag besseae plants, they were downright gorgeous and perfect.
We actually were commenting a few times, that despite all that chilly rain we never saw outright Black Rot, which I would certainly see on my Cattleyas under those conditions.
But thanks, yes, I was/am happy to see my little group of Orchids happily blooming and looking healthy here !

In the wild, the strong survive! I'd bet that in those huge colonies of orchids you might find they have evolved into strains that are disease resistant. Or possibly they grow where there is some pathogen that feeds on the fungal disease organisms? There are lots of possible explanations as to why those wild orchids grow the way they do. If Ecuagenera has orchids for sale that are descendents of those wild ones, I wonder if they would be more disease resistant too?

Maybe even it's the surroundings that we give our orchids that promote the pathogens in captivity?

New one for me opening today, Lc. Renate on her second bloom this year, a nice spike with 5 buds, and there's another coming, too!

Beautiful shots, Ursula, but I need more time to digest them. The Heathrow filght was delayed so I missed my connector to Tampa. We spent the night in Houston.and arrived about 10:30 this morning. It looks like I lost a Vanda but the rest look good and I have lots blooming. I forgot to empty the potato bin before I left; enough said. Also, my yellow tabebuia tree lost the entire top and I'm not sure why. Perhaps too much rain. It is a huge tree so I may need some help. Lots to do but I promise photos tomorrow.

Jim

Welcome home, Jim. We missed you. Looking forward to pictures of your new blooms, but take it easy with the jet lag!

On the tree damage, check with your neighbors. There has been very wild weather while you were gone, incl. tornadoes and 60mph. straight line winds that have knocked down trees.

Last gasp of my big NoID catt, with a soft, purple-ish cast to the petals now and David Sander getting his first bit of sunlight.Two days in a row without rain here!

Welcome home, Jim
Strangely enough, when you mentioned Heathrow, I thought that hopefully you are not getting stuck there. I am not surprised!!
Oh and it takes a week before you are truly home after a vacation like that.

Looking good Elaine! Loving Renate and the noid Catt.

Just when I got used to 52 degrees in Norway, I come home to this heat. Wow, is it ever hot out there. I took a walk around the OC with camera in hand and, clockwise from the left :lol:, this is what caught my attention:

Encyclia Lee Ward:


Brassavola nodosa


NOID Dendrobium


Enc. atropene, var. alba 'Jim' X Bepi. Bradly's Judy 'Spots'


Psychopsis Mendenhall, alba form


Psychopsis Mendenhall 'Hildos'


Psychopsis mariposa 'Green Valley'


Dancing Ladies Oncidium


Phal. Mancervi


NOID Dendrobium


Epi Mabel Kanda 'Miyao' X Cordigerum 'Paradise'


Bc. Hippodamia (B. nodosa X C. aclandiae)


Bc. Maikai 'Louise' AM/AOS


Tetratonia 'Dark Prince'


Grammatophylum scriptum


NOID Oncidium


(C. Gene May X Lc. Spoz Tabee Splash) X L. briegeri 'Corpusles'


Rhynchovola David Sander (Show this to your little guy, Kathy)


Bl. Mem. Bernice Foster


Blc. Mem. Vida Lee 'Limelight'


Blc. Chia Lin 'New City' (aka Queen of Floof)


Ctna Maui Maid X Mcp Brysiana


Schomburgkia tompsoniana


Bc. Mermaid 'Janice'


Gerberara 'Snow Ballet'


Brassavola Memoria Bernice Foster (plant 1)


Brassavola Memoria Bernice Foster (plant 2)


Brassavola cucullata


I probably missed a few but that pretty well catches me up. Gotta get ready to go sing at the nursing home. Btw, I took 1068 photos on the trip.

Jim

Oh my, Jim is back!! Beautiful blooms!!!
I love the Bc. Hippodamia and the Tetratonia is a beauty! I am amazed your Chia Lin is already blooming!

Jim, we had similar temperatures in Ecuador, I really wore my Polartec to pieces and coming home, the next few days we had very humid days in the high nineties. The heat broke yesterday and it is more comfortable here today.

Looking forwards to your trip report too!

Okay, we forgive you for your long absence, Jim. What a fabulous reward all those blooms are for your return.

Elaine, your Lc. Renate is lovely!

Welcome home Jim! You were missed but we really enjoyed the updates of your tour. Too bad the weather wasn't warmer, although it sounded like you coped.
What beautiful flowers to come home to!!

OK, between Ursula and Jim I am on sensory overload. Just an outstanding array of photos

I am amazed how much your Bernice Foster looks like my Yellow Bird. Some of the same genes floating around there, huh? Update on Bl. Renate as well.

Elane, the 'Foster' and 'Yellow Bird' look like the same plant to my "old" eyes.

Both Brassavola 'Yellow Bird' and Brassavola Mem. Bernice Foster have Bl. Richard Mueller as a parent. The difference is Yellow Bird is crossed with B. nodosa while Bernice Foster is crossed with B. cordata. Technically, both are Bl., not Brassavolas. Nice Bl. Renate.

Going through Email, I discovered there was a Tampa Orchid Club meeting at 10:00 this morning. So, I went out in the OC and grabbed 5 bloomers for the bloom table. I couldn't believe it when the Ctna Maui Maid X Mcp Brysiana won the Member's Choice ribbon. An official pic should be forthcoming.

On the plant sale table, I found and bought a Habenaria medusa about 14 inches tall and in spike for $25.00. Last fall I ordered one from Andy's Orchids and paid $65. It arrived both tiny and dead looking. I was told it was the end of the season and good things would happen in the spring. They didn't, so I took it to Redlands and showed it to Andy himself. He pulled out the rhizome, said it was good and good things would happen soon. Now it is mid July and still no sign of any growth. So much for Andy.

Jim

Woo, hoo what a score, Jim! Can't wait to see those pretty little fringe-y blooms.

I have both Bl. Richard Mueller (see pic) and B. nodosa and neither of them have dots on the lip like Yellow Bird does. Wonder where the dots came from?