My ever reliable noid Phal finally in bloom once more:

It's a great looking plant, Tarev and such a lovely color.

My Enc. tampensis has burst into bloom over night, thank you again for giving it to me, Jim!

drdawg said:@Fred, I can use your help here. Please critique these two pictures. I have reduced their maximum pixels from around 1900 to 1000, which is what I typically do with all the pictures I have in my numerous albums.

Thanks Fred.

Those pics look great. I think my problem is two fold. The smaller pictures shown as icons or whatever one might call them are pretty bad. Clicking on them produces a full screen shot which is a good quality picture - unless one is too close to the screen. I have this great big monitor and it simply fuzzies up the picture unless seen from a few feet away. More pixels would help with the full screen shot. In FB I never see a full screen picture and see everything quite sharp.

I think I've cleared this up for myself now. Now if I could add aroma to the display, all would be well.

I agree, nice looking Phal, Tarev, blooms and plant!
Elaine, Enc tampensis is a charmer, I love the many blooms.

I moved some of the small blooming Orchids on the deck so I can grab them quickly if the temperature drops one more time as it usually does in May around here.
Ascofinetia Cherry Blossom is one of them

And there is Nsd Summer Stars ( yes, a ton of name changes here....)

And there is the Dendrobium jenkinsii

the Cattleya intermedia orlata 'Sendai', the blooms got a bit speckled during the transition to outside

I am enjoying the Bletilla striata very much, here is the first group.

Amen to that, Fred. Now IF someone could put a name with the orchid.

Lovely!

I have sent my list for the orchid show this weekend. Now I am scolding most of the plants to hurry up and open and the others to slooooowwwww down.

This is part of a giant plant that I bought for $20 at a yard sale. The plant was left in a big plastic pot that was laying on its side in the backyard. Was something that the previous owners of the home had left among other garden junk and they had not gotten around to cleaning anything up back there. It filled up the trunk of my Prius! I divided it into probably 4-5 big plants. Two are blooming (there was a faded tag on it that said Blc. "Haw--" and the rest was rubbed off :

Kate, how lucky you were!! Such a lovely bloom!!
I wonder if that is one of the Blc Hawaii Stars Cultivars.

Melissa, I am always impressed when I see the growers getting a specific plant to bloom at exactly the right time. Waldor Orchids and Silva Orchids come to mind, their Spring blooming Cattleyas were always perfectly timed to bloom at the Spring time Shows.

My Laelia purpurata roxo x russeliana popped open today, I love it.

Ursula! Even and good saturation on outsides of lip, this is nice!

Thank you Roberta! I had described to the fellows at Silva exactly what kind of purpurata I was looking for and they picked it out for me. That was in 2013.
I was trying to replace my 'Treasure of Carpinteria' x 'Flamenco' which was very similar and I had lost it during really chilly and wet, slug ridden Spring - I think it was 2010, I had grown it from a small plant and I was really sad when I lost it. Here is that old plant in 2008.

I think my new plant is very similar and promises to put on nice growth too.

Old and new are both fantastic!

There must be a hundred varieties of this old favorite and I love them all.

Jim

These beauties you all have are just gorgeous! I wish Inhave the money and the time to collect these orchids.

The only orchids I have blooming are my epidendrums. I just can't get over how beautiful these blooms, I have 3 big pots now and more babies. I've given away a few with buds already and I have more babies.

Nothing wrong with Epis! They are probably the toughest orchid there is. I'm trying to increase my colors because they are always in bloom, and take whatever weather or water there is available, without complaint.

Thanks! Laelia purpurata are beautiful indeed, no matter what variety!
And I do agree, I sure love reed stem Epidendrums too! Nice to bloom and always putting on a good show.

I've only seen "orange" in our area. Yes they are so reliable and so easy to propagate. Best of all no complain on my full sun front garden.

Elaine and Jim I hope you receive that nice downpour! I'm so glad because my garden needs this liquid gold.

So far only a few short showers here, Gigi. Looks like most of the rain went up Jim's way tonight. We could really use a good downpour here, I'll tell ya. It was so hot today.

Love those Epi's too. Mine haven't done well, I must be doing something wrong with them I guess. I've had the orange ones, as well as red and yellow. I might have a start of a pink one coming along, too.

Two hours worth of steady rain last night will perk everything up and wash the leftover mulch dust from the driveway. They expect more of the same today with a high of 93. Summer is here.

Jim

We didn't have a good rain in ca 3 weeks, it is getting time for a good downpour around here!