I agree with your grower, Ken. What a pain in the neck it must be for growers when the orchidiots change names that have been known for years. Then we hobbyists resist changing the familiar name, too so it gets even more confusing.

Hope no one minds a repeat, as Den. Yellow Song Canary keeps opening flowers. It has 3 more canes with buds coming along. I am just tickled with it. I also have Enc. Green Hornet (which has some other name . . .) coming into bloom again. This plant is in an EcoWeb pot, too, Bert. There are a few little roots sticking through the EcoWeb already, after about a year in there.

Elaine, personally, I never tire of seeing beautiful orchid flowers, regardless of repeat performances.

Carol, thanks for the link to 'Andy's Orchids'. I have since found out a bit more about this miniature orchid, something that Andy did not mention at all. This was information from the grower in Maui. Last week I sent the grower an email and I asked why they grew this particular orchid on cork, something I had never seen a grower do. Of course, the vast majority of my plants are the cattleya alliance, so what do I know? He just sent me the answer to the question this afternoon.

He said that the centradenia has extremely fragile and fleshy roots, and the roots are prone to rot, particularly the young plants. He said they had much more success growing them when mounted thusly, rather than in pots. Now I know the reasoning behind them being mounted.

Ken, my Oerstedella centradenia ( not huge) has very fleshy roots and mine is growing bare root on a piece of Ecoweb for some years now. Since it is bare root and so dries up quickly, I have been always watering it daily. It hangs in a bright spot, suitable to bloom Cattleyas. Minimum temperature in the greenhouse now is set to 60 degr F and ramps up to 70 degr. The fan will kick in if the temp goes over 76 degr F. It goes outside ca. from the middle of May to the middle of September here in NJ.

About the Schomburgkia - I grow my two large Schoms bare root in a clay pot/ no medium whatsoever. The roots attach to the pot and then start hanging down like large Vanda roots. I grow mine in absolutely the fullest possible amount of sun and bright light I am able to give them. Again, I water daily.

Elaine, the Den. Yellow Song Canary is great, chirp chirp!!

I was out all day - we had a wonderful time at the Deep Cut Orchid Show at Dearborn Farms in Holmdel NJ. Great exhibits and really beautiful stuff to be had at the vendors. Except - Parkside Orchids was delayed and also Ecuagenera, whose orchids were held up in Miami. But they were supposed to make it by the afternoon. I was amazed everything was set up beautifully despite the totally awful weather we had yesterday. I took quite a lot of pictures, we'll see how far I get today downloading them.
It was really great to combine the Orchid Show and a nice visit with the granddaughters after school. ( my daughter lives 15 min. away from Dearborn Farms) A fun day!

Did you know that Parkside had a greenhouse freeze?

Yes, they were telling us the details at the North Jersey Orchid show. It seems a sensor quit working and the Cattleya house had a bad freeze. The other greenhouses were ok.
We were all sad for them, but they were in good spirits and said they would bounce back from that. They also mentioned then they hadn't yet told the mother ( she was happily working at the show selling Orchids), as she would be hardbroken to find out. Surely in the meanwhile she probably knows what had happened.

So sad!

The greatest fear of all of us who house our tropical plants in greenhouses, depending on electric and even gas heaters to work while we sleep or are away.

I'm hoping they see the light and move to Florida.

Jim

Some days I wished I lived in S. FL but most days I like being where I am. After building the two greenhouses, those days wishing I were in S. FL have increased. With another fall/winter like this one, I might really consider it.

Well, bad things can happen in FL while you're asleep or away too, Ken. There's no easy out unless you just park all the orchids in the trees and let nature take its course. I can't imagine seeing a lot of blooms if I did that, though. Squirrels . . .

I'm just waiting to come back from a trip and find that the raccoons have had an enjoyable romp inside my pool cage. Or a hurricane brushes by with huge winds and rain coming down like a fire hose.

We go diving in the winter, so if there were a very cold night while we're away, there would be carnage, too. About all I can do is look at the forecast, and if cold weather is predicted, cover everything with frost cloth before I left. But if it rains as the cold front goes through, then you have wet frost cloth sitting on your plants . . . It would not be pretty.

Jim has the best of both worlds with his lovely OC. He can open the windows to take advantage of perfect orchid weather (like we've had here for a week or so) then enclose everything for cold nights, and against critter invasion. His swimming pool in the OC moderates the temperature and keeps up humidity for him, too.

Perhaps moving to the Caribbean would work. An island without squirrels, coons, or other varmints that might bother tropical plants. Then (perhaps) only hurricanes would be the problem. Oh, well, apparently there is no perfect place.

drdawg said:Perhaps moving to the Caribbean would work. An island without squirrels, coons, or other varmints that might bother tropical plants. Then (perhaps) only hurricanes would be the problem. Oh, well, apparently there is no perfect place.

Aruba has all that...and no hurricanes!

I am sure there are numerous areas that for us in the USA would be considered true paradises. Unfortunately, moving to a foreign country, regardless of its beauty and (political) stability is out of the question. My wife would never move and I don't want to become single.

Ok, I posted a new thread with lots of pictures from the Deep Cut Orchid Society Show here
The thread "Deep Cut Orchid Society Show Febr 6.-9. 2014 at Dearborn Farms, Holmdel NJ" in Orchids forum

Hope you enjoy!

A couple of blooms in the shack- Blc Fritz Nichlaus 'spring dance' and 3 spikes on Bc. Maikai Mayumi and 1 on its 3" division

A few spikes on my old faithful Cym.

Nice Carol, very nice

Beauties, Carol. That cym is really a great one, pretty color and blooms so dependably.

Beautiful, Carol! I wish I would ever bloom Cyms like that!

I am testing the camera on my new IPad right now, not bad at all! Now let's see how to upload.

The cute little Phrag is schlimii, bought in bud at the North Jersey Show in Jan, it opened yesterday. And the color on the new Blc Rugeley's Mill was actually a little easier to capture than with my trusty Nikon.

Edited "Phrag"