Yes, it does sound lovely!

I have a few miniatures here in bloom right now -
This one is a nice clump of Platystele stenostachya and although it is in bloom year around ( for many years now, its main flowering seems to be the indoor season for me.

And as I was going to hang the mounted plant back into its spot, the whole mount/wood disintegrated! So here it is tied to a new mount with some phone wire.


I have two plants of Pleurothallis tripterantha, the leaves on both are always light green under my care, no matter what I feed them ( Magnesium sulfate doesn't help). They are probably getting too much light. But both bloom easily.


The blooms on the second plant are lighter colored


Ascocentrum pumilum is so tiny it fits into the palm of my hand, and it is loaded with buds right now. If there is one Mealie bug floating around, it will find these tight spikes. Doing good this year with preventive measures.


Here is the first of many spikes on my B Little Stars


Barkeria melanocaulon starts up. This one will bloom until Spring as the spike eventually branches


Bc Princess Teresa 'Princess Michiko', it smells lovely!


The first of two spikes on Blc Chia Lin 'New City', love that scent too!!


and a parting shot of Gongora armeniaca

Holy cow, Ursula. All that information makes my mind swim!

Ken, I like that website. Once you get past the gibberish, which one can sort of ( mentally) filter out, it is a gold mine! And then click on the "gibberish"
Here is the home page -
http://www.orchid.or.jp/orchid...
and from there to
http://www.orchid.or.jp/orchid...

If you click on the links on the left side of the page, a whole world opens up!
The first link is Cattleyas and alliance, with pictures too!
http://www.orchid.or.jp/orchid...
The second one lists Dendrobium hybrids and so on!

Have fun!!

Wonderful information. And I thought I was doing good just knowing the "proper" name of each of my plants.

Cleaning up a bit this morning I realized the Angraecum distichum was loaded with tiny blooms today.
So I took it downstairs to give the Rajasthan fellow some hair….

I love the sparkly blooms on that one!

You know, they are supposed to be fragrant too. I have sniffed them at different time of day, I never caught any scent.

That's a really pretty plant, Ursula, and those blooms sure do sparkle! Maybe the scent starts once the flowers are getting mature. Some of my cattleyas take a few days to start putting out their scent.

I have a great big Angreacum sesquipedale Crestwood that had a fading flower when I got it nearly two years ago. It grew a lot this summer, appears to have two keikis, but still is not looking like making a flower. Guess I should bring it indoors and try keeping it warmer, maybe?

I guess I have to sniff some more….

Regarding the Ang sesquipedale - they sure do like it warm with lots of moisture. Your plant looks great, perhaps now keeping it warm might remind it to spike quickly for the season!

My plant lost the whole bottom of the stem in the Spring, but it didn't have any leaves ( or really good roots) that low in the pot anyway, so I took heart and chopped my plant pretty much in half. I was holding my breath, but it stabilized and now has a spike. I really would have hated to lose that plant. It will surely take a few years to get back to its old blooming habits, but I am happy with any blooms here, as long as it survives. Btw, your plant looks a LOT better than mine!! It will surely bloom for you!

Were there roots further up the stem? I'm having trouble visualizing cutting it in half if there weren't roots.
Jealous of your Angraecum distichum, Ursula. I get one flower a year (a few weeks ago). But it's growing branches slowly.

This is the 'Diamond Jubilee' after six weeks. I don't think I have ever had a cattleya alliance flower hold up so well, so long before. The "mother" plant and all of her divisions have bloomed numerous times, but never have the blooms lasted more than 2-3 weeks. Perhaps you with far more experience than I, can tell me why a flower lasts so long. The first picture was taken six weeks ago and the last several days ago.

P. S. I have a dendrobium that was in constant bloom for 4-5 months, but that was because it continued to put up stem, after stem, after stem. My phalaenopsis may bloom for 2-3 months, but again, the flowers just continue to form along the stem and sometimes there are several stems, blooming at different times.

Kathy, the upper half had lots of good strong roots, otherwise I wouldn't have cut the plant. I am growing it now essentially like a Vanda/ roots are free and watered daily, but in lower light than Vandas. So far so good!

Regarding the Angraecum distichum, I got this in 2004 or 2005 from Hoosier Orchids at a visit to their greenhouses. Sometimes I think you get just lucky to pick up a plant which grows for you. I don't ever remember a bug landing on this one either.

Ken, we overlapped. Your 'Diamond Jubilee' sure still looks wonderful and "fresh as a Daisy"! Perhaps its longevity is due to cooler temperatures this time?

I just don't know. I am sad to say that this plant, which is the "mother" plant, has just sold and will be shipped out. This was my wife's favorite plant and one she loved to paint. She's an artist and does a lot of water colors and colored pencils of my orchid flowers. It broke her heart when I told her it had just been sold this AM.

Hm, some lucky person will get that beauty for a gift, I'll bet! I'd agree with the cooler temps keeping the flowers fresh for so long, Ken. My big NOID catt only lasts about 10 days in the summer, but the last blooms kept going over 3 weeks, and that was in October. Still warm, but cool nights.

Here is my other plant of Bl. Yellow Bird bursting into bloom. It lost a lot of leaves over the summer to black rot, but seems to have recovered - 3 flower stems with buds, Yay!


Another victim of the black rot, and still going on, sadly. My 'Little Stars' has flowers coming on two pb's that also have the black creeping up the leaves. Just hoping they survive to open the flowers.

What causes "black-rot" and what's the preventive and/or cure?

It's a fungal infection that spreads like crazy when the weather is wet, and warm, Ken. The pathogens are Pythium and/or Phytophora according to my book.

Good cultural practice, and most important, good air flow are the best preventatives. When the plants don't dry out between waterings, that's when it goes crazy around here. Needless to say this summer was a killer for black rot, with all the rain we had. Since my orchids live outside, I have less control over the wet/dry cycles than someone with a greenhouse.

My book says "at first sight, sanitize the leaves with a fungicide and then keep them as dry as possible." Physan has been my weapon of choice this summer, and seems to be helping, but not a cure-all.

Next year when it starts to warm up, I'm going to start a regular Physan program to see if I can prevent more of it than I was able to do this year.

Elaine, I'm with you as far as black rot. I lost my fair share of orchids before I figured out what was going on and how to treat. I used Physan 20 all spring/summer long, as well. When I cleaned out the orchid house earlier this year, I even sprayed down all the benches and the floor (I have that weed-block stuff down on the ground). Didn't want to take a chance that it was left on any surfaces. It can kill a plant so fast!

I'm going to have to go inspect my vandas soon. I found a tag on the ground when I was hanging them back up so somebody lost a tag! All my vandas are tagged so it should be a process of elimination to find the one that's missing its tag. I still have a fear of mis-tagging a plant, though. Luckily, this vanda is a distinctive one that doesn't look like the others (and I have pictures of the blooms) so if it ever blooms and I see the tag doesn't match the flower, I should know.

Physan is a great preventative but not much for treatment itself. I use it some but since I have so many fans going, I don't seem to have much of a problem. About the only thing affected(now that I know what it is called) are a few my really tiny plants, those with 1/2" leaves. Those were grown from flask. All my orchids have to grow as a community, so when I water, I water it all. Strong survive - weak perish.