So true Elaine! And our current weather not helping again..too windy and getting cooler again..oh well..not that I hate the cool temps, love it at this time of the year, but some of my plants are delaying their growth and blooms.

Beautiful blooms! Love them all.

Tarev, at lest you have a glimmer of hope.

Ellaine, watching the Lightning and Blackhawks game too! Go Bolts! I hope I won't jinx the team and May your beautiful blooms bring good luck to Tampa Bay Lightning! Stanley Cup, we want you...again!

Thanks for all the well wish's guys. Almost back to normal. Actually got all my riding lessons taught this week. Good thing as I was too sick last week to do any of them.

Elaine I LOVE your little pink Cat. Just adorable.

I have a Chocolate Drop I picked up last year on Lowe's clearance. Not sure it's going to amount to anything. May have been too late for it. It's not grown one single new lead.

MJ, I would take a look if there are any live eyes present on that Chocolate Drop. If not, one might as well toss it. If there are live eyes, it has a chance.

My Potinara Red Heart 'Neptune' decided to put out some additional blooms this Spring. This sheath had gotten stuck and one of the blooms didn't resupinate. But they made it.

Wow, that one is a luscious color!

Glad you're back on your feet Mj. On the Chocolate Drop, I ended up with two of them, one a small 'gift' plant from Selby and the other from the orchid orphanage. I must admit both seem to be slow starters but I did finally get flowers on my bigger one after nearly 3 years. The small one is just poking along but looks like it's going to make a move this year.

I didn't know you could scout the plant for eyes - thanks Ursula!

I went out last night with the flash on the camera, to get a shot of a bromeliad and darned if those silly little 'maybe' Yellow Birds weren't just shining out of the darkness at me . . . sorry for the repeat, I just couldn't walk by it.

Those Yellow Birds look just great there in the dark! They are glowing!

The choir just left and I'm exhausted. The party was very successful but I'm glad it's over. Off to bed.

Jim

Well done, Jim. You are surely the host with the most - orchids that is.

That sounds like work!

I had spent some time today at Silva Orchids and I just snapped a couple of pics for you to enjoy.
The huge monster is their Cattleya Canhamiana and the pretty digbyana on steroids is Blc Hawaiian Green Valley.

That's my ambition in orchid growing - to grow a great big plant like that lovely purple Catt, simply covered with so many flowers you can hardly see the foliage. Magnificent.

Those are gorgeous! Thanks for the photos Ursula I will just admire those Catts..I am so lousy with them.

The Cattleya varieties were my first love and will always probably be my favorites. I am trying to broaden my experience growing others though. I love specimen plants but other than my three old plants, two Vanda and a Dendrobium, I just have no room for huge plants.

Silva is growing mainly Cattleyas. They have other stuff as well, but if I were to look for a specific Cattleya around here, Silva (and also Waldor Orchids) come to mind.
That big one was awesome!

Beautiful photos, Ursula. Thanks for sharing.

Jim

A big thunder storm is moving through just now giving us Tarev's average annual rainfall in about 20 minutes. Some of the lightening strikes are scary close.

I was out in the OC before the storm and took a few pics. First up is Rhynchovola [Rcv.] Moonlight Perfume (B. nodosa x Rl. glauca). Beautiful soft yellow blooms on this one.


Next up is a new spike on Bc. Fladosa (B. nodosa x C. crispata)


Then the big named orchid, (C. Gene May X Lc. Spoz Tabee Splash) X L. briegeri 'Corpusles' keeps on blooming.


This is the Vaughnara Fiftieth Anniversary (Bc. Richard Mueller x Epi. magnoliae) that lives in a pot, not the one that I have in the sponge. I'm trying to see if the sponge is better or worse than a pot.


Den. Chan-Chao (Den. Waianae Profusion x Den. Ly) is putting on a show:


A new flower on the C. lueddemanniana:


I see my Pleurothallis [Pths.] hamosa is now called Acianthera [Acia.] hamosa. Anyway, I'm glad it is blooming again. Edited here to say that the ATP Data Base has this orchid listed as Acianthera prolifera.


And now, moving into the enormous section, this is Den. White Fairy (Den. Singapore White x Den. Walter Oumae), or that is what Ursula and I think it is.


Finally, still in the enormous section, is my Aerides odorata. For these pictures, I have taken it from its hanging place and balanced it atop a small step ladder. What a beast!


Jim

Which C. lueddemanniana is that, Jim?

I always love that little hamosa, Jim. Looks like my mother's elegant earrings laying delicately on the leaves.

The Aerides is fantastic, and does the "odora" in the name mean it's fragrant, too?

This is the second bloom on the one I posted a few days ago. The tag reads "C. lueddemanniana var. alba X self". I gave that name the last time and you questioned the alba so I left it off this time. It is what it is.

Jim

Here's a question for your Floridians. My wife just came in and said a guy (who does a radio show every weekend here) who lives in Florida (she think's near Tampa) said that it was illegal to fertilize anything in Florida from June 1 until the fall. She said that the nurseries and big-box stores can't even stock it during the summer. I find that hard to believe. I know Florida is highly regulated, but........

Is this true?