Cool, rainy, drizzle, and fog pretty well sums up the weather for today. Gardening will have to wait.

Jim

We are so dry here, it is most unusual to have so little rain as we had the last few months. But we are supposed to get a few showers this weekend. I have enough rain water for ca 4 days!

Here is my Lc Irene Finney x, which is perhaps something in the way of Lc Miss Wonderful - I like the bloom count on this one, there is another bud hidden under these blooms.


and Cattleya Chocolate Drop 'Kodama' opened a late spike. It is a little smaller than the earlier spikes, but I am happy. The scent is great in sunshine!

Oh, how I wish one of my C. Chocolate Drop 'Kodama' would bloom! Such great flowers!

One of my plants is still pretty small, but the other is a good size, guess I haven't found the right amount of sunlight for it yet.

The 'Irene Finney' looks delicious, like strawberry shortcake. How many flowers are on there anyway? I'm counting 6 red lips, wow! Plus one more bud, that's incredible.

I like the Strawberry Shortcake description. I got it as a seedling some years ago and it was labeled Lc Irene Finney x …We decided years ago it might be Lc Miss Wonderful. You are correct - 6 flowers open and one to go.

Not sure how much light in your area is equivalent to NJ's light levels. I tend to grow most of my stuff here fairly bright all around.

Well, whether or not it is related to L. Miss Wonderful, it is certainly wonderful anyway.

Yes, it's hard to compare light levels. You have more air pollution up there, and a lower sun angle all year so your sun is much more gentle. You also have longer days in summer than we do, and shorter days in winter.

I'm gradually getting more brave about the amount of sun the orchids get. Doing ok with the Vandas and Brassavolas, but the Catts tend to get sunburnt easily. Just have to ease them slowly into the right situation, and then keep up that amount of light. It seems as if I am constantly moving orchids around to keep them in good light. I also have Aluminet shading the west facing side of the pool cage. That has worked well over the summer, but is coming down tomorrow, and I'll see how bright the light looks in the afternoon then.

As Jim noted above, today was surely not our typical sunny Florida day. Gloom and drizzle pretty much all day!

Here in NJ I have Cattleyas, Laelias, Schoms, Vandas and similar in Summer outside in as much sun as possible, grouping them in the cage/under the ceiling grid and center. I try to do the same in my sunny greenhouse during the indoor season, but that gets a bit trickier there. I always try to place them according to light requirements, but I am getting increasingly tight on room. But the glass ceiling in the greenhouse helps a lot.

Ursula, those are both gorgeous! I checked out the shade house but my Chia Lin is still in bud form. It should pop any day now! I did take a better picture of Ascda. (or are they all Vanda now?) Kulwadee Frangrance #22. The last one kind of had the sun shining through it so this is a better picture of the color.

Thanks Melanie!
Ohh I love the Kulwadee!

That'a a really cool color combo, Melanie. How's the fragrance?

I'd given up on seeing any of my purple Spathoglottis bloom this year after I divided them up and spread them all around the yard, in pots and the border. But, here's one and there are a few more making spikes elsewhere. The color is much more purple than this camera shows. Second pic with my phone shows the color better.

Shoot! I forgot to bring it down and sniff it! Ahh! Another reason to go out tomorrow; I have to check on the Chia Lin anyway. Right now, I'm watching the Buccaneers beat the Falcons (yeah!).

My Paphs have funny little froggy faces! Little bonus Onc. is nearly full-on. Last bud on the very top isn't open yet. It's incredibly fragrant, too.

Elaine: Funny Froggy Faces indeed! Also, my spathoglottis orchids put on a poor show this year too. The weather??

Melanie, yes, they are all Vandas now and yours is a beauty!

Ursula, very nice Irene Finney x and I love the Chocolate Drop.

I've been fighting a phantom stink in my computer room. It smelled like a critter died in here and we looked everywhere. When no flies showed up either, we discounted the dead critter theory. I then thought it may be electronic so I unplugged everything and sure enough the smell subsided. Turns out it was the ceiling fan. So I took it down and the smell is gone. How strange is that?

Jim

Very funny Paph face!! Nice to have Orchids blooming outside now!

Jim, that IS strange!! At least you don't have a happy Bulbo echinolabium in your computer room….

I was busy today cleaning up a couple of Mealie elephantipes pockets . I discovered them (moving the Goldenzelle to the front of the greenhouse) in my Jumellea comorensis, yikes. Had to murder the little buggers, and the plant is clean now!

Elaine, looks like that frog that sings opera in the cartoons. That Cattleya Chocolate Drop 'Kodama' is really a looker Ursula and the VAnda is another good looking bloom, Melanie.

Some things out there today

Fendlers Steli still sending out spikes and blooms

Pleurothallis species lita is keeping up with the steli

Zygopetalum Imagination 'Sparkles' First time it has bloomed in years. I have no reason why or why now. And two spikes!

Angraecum birrimense

Masdevallia Ibanez Behar 'Speckles'

Looking at the Stelis and Pleurothallis I am transported back to Ecuador! Nice!
Pretty Zygo!
I see you mounted the Masdevallia, looks happy.

Thanx. I picked up that Masdevallia on a trip to Santa Barbara at Cal-Orchid. They had these rows of boxes with bare root orchids that were young. Never could get it to do anything no matter what I tried. Finally just stuck it in a crevice in the cork I use primarily for Tills and it took off.

It sure is working for you!
Haven't found any more Elephant size Mealies today here…..

I mount tillandsia, staghorn ferns, bromeliads, and orchids, and cork is absolutely the best mounting material of the dozen or so woods I use. Unfortunately it is expensive.

I have only three Orchids on cork , I think. ( had to go through them in my mind….) They are doing fine.

Thought I take one last picture of the Ornithophora radicans before the little birds start dropping. And there are the Blc Goldenzelle 'Lemon Chiffon'. The upper plant has two more spikes to open.


and Lc Breen's Jenny Ann 'Cheng Min' FCC/AOS has a wonderful scent in sunshine.


Btw those huge spikes to the right belong to the Schomburgkia superbiens, a few more weeks to go!