Goodluck Jim!

Beautiful plants, Jim! You should do very well at the Show.

You ought to come home with a handful of ribbons, Jim. Good luck!

Every time I see Little Stars I want one more more. My house is just not suited well for orchids and it is better for me to just ogle everyone else's right now. I do have a couple of little ones and have had many beauties over the years and should be perfectly satisfied but, darn it, I may have to break down and find a Little Stars (and I don't care what Orchidwiz says, I'll call it little hearts.)

Elaine -

Little stars (or hearts ) has to be one of the easiest orchids to grow and bloom, Alice. It's a relatively small plant, and pretty undemanding as orchids go. Blooms a couple or 3 times per year once it gets going.

If you've got any window with morning sun, I would think you could grow it indoors just fine. Put it out in the summertime, and keep it in the house the rest of the year, so you'll enjoy the fabulous perfume of those flowers at night.

Been looking a lot like a Pacific Northwest morning today. It has finally stopped raining so I ducked out to get a picture of my newly-opened David Sander. This one has a lot more pink going on in the petals, and it really shows in the 'profile' shot so it is stronger on the backs of the petals/sepals. The bud was very pink.

That is just elegant, Elaine. What a beautiful orchid!

Jim

It is! with its pink touches it looks a lot like mine. (which is surprisingly still open.)

Hi Y'all...I'm baaack! For a minute anyway! I've been so busy lately getting ready for the Pumpkin Festival in October (my first attempt at being a vendor!)

Anyway, that David Sander is beautiful, Elaine! And thanks for the heads-up about Tropiflora's fall show....I may just pass that one up to save my pennies for the Apopka trip (plus it's the last weekend before the Pumpkin Festival and I may be going even more crazy by then!). Are you still planning on coming to the October Orchid Society Meeting? I hope you make it to this one...I'm so looking forward to meeting you in person!

Jim, it amazes me how many plants you have in bloom all the time! I love ALL of them! But that Fairy Den. is one of my favorites...I think I bought that once and promptly killed it! So many of yours are SO gorgeous, I want a piece of each one! I think when we go to Apopka I'm going to shadow you and buy one of everything you buy!

I braved the rain to check out my plants this morning with camera in hand, and here's what I came up with:

4th (yes, FOURTH) inflo on that Stan. of mine (and you can clearly see the 5th inflo amid these blooms):



This one is just starting to open:


A few NOIDS:


These have ID's but I wasn't going to drag out a ladder to see them, just took the bloom photo's:


My Purple Splash is making seed pods! What do I do with them?????


This is NOT an orchid, but it's the first time I ever got a "fairy circle" so I had to share....

Nice blooms, Patty. I love that Stanhopea of yours and you are surely doing something right to get so many blooms. Good growing!! As for the fairy rings, Effective fungicides include azoxystrobin, flutolanil, metconazole, pyraclostrobin, and triticonazole. There may be some old wood buried under the lawn that feed these things. They may be poisonous so please don't eat them.

Jim

Ewwwwww Jim, why do you want me to kill my fairy ring? It's so pretty! I wouldn't think of eating them, but I thought this was the coolest thing ever when I spotted it! There is nothing buried there....it's right next to a Live Oak (you can see it on the right side of the first picture) and there has never been anything there except whatever grass would grow! I did recently hang a Staghorn almost directly above the ring though, and wondered if that had something to do with it. Is it harmful? Do I HAVE to kill it? I don't want to...I LOVE it!

I don't know why that Stan is doing this! I think it was saving up all it's energy for the last 3 years just for this show, cause it's the first time it's bloomed in at least that long! I DO love the smell of those little 'birds' though! This time it only had three flowers, and the dark spots are back!

Thanks, Jim!

Beautiful photos everyone! My orchids are still blooming nicely. I promised them am taking care of them better so instead of just bare root attached to plumerias I wrapped them with stockings and added orchid barks.

These are orchids on the Dwarf Pink Singspore plumeria



My orchids on the Divine Plumeria






And my orchids on the oak tree, more buds to come.

Beautiful flower shots, Patty and nice going on that Stanhopea. It's a champion bloomer!

I don't think you need to kill off your fairy ring, if you like it. But do be aware that if you let the little shrooms mature, they will spread and next year the fairy ring will be a lot bigger! They can make walking on your turf slippery. So maybe once they are shriveling up and turning colors (mine usually go black and slimy) you might want to rake them up into a bag.

It was nice and cool outside today, so it's almost getting to feel like gardening weather again. Florida style, that is. Yes, I'm going to try to make it to the October meeting at Selby.

Added later - Gigi, beautiful shots there, too. I still have not consigned my Dens to the Plumeria but they're going out there pretty soon! Yours look so very pretty together.

Beautiful flowers, Patty and Gigi.

I'm just taking a break from unpacking...I can get the car in the garage now...but can't get out of the car while in the garage...
Interesting reading all your posts about fungicide..I've only used the Bayer 3 in 1 when I lived in NC . The plants summered outside and wintered in the greenhouse. Now that I am in the rainforest here in central Florida, I guess I will need to change up my routine.
Gigi, that's an amazing display of dens you've got going on there!.. love the combo with the plumeria!
Patty, your stanhopea...gorgeous! You've got all your plants just hanging in the trees? I'm trying to figure out what to do with mine...
Elaine, David Sander is going on my wish list! Love the bloom on this one!

Patty and Gigi, you have both lovely shows!!

Patty, that is a really neat Fairy Ring, so nice and pronounced. You might want to pop those pics into the Fungi forum? Pictures like that are welcome in the Fungi and Lichen photo thread!

I am busy bringing in my Orchids. I see a lot of nice growth and many good looking sheaths on my Cattleyas, this sunny, hot and fairly dry Summer brought very little Black Rot. The only plant having a couple of black blotches, which I treated with Cinnamon and turned these new growths into the sun, is my Schom/Laelia superbiens. I can't hang up the plant any longer since it is too heavy, and it really needs to be always in good sun to avoid that.
So now, get all these Catts inside before the chilly rains come. I actually had to use the AC yesterday in the greenhouse, since the temperature hit 90 degr F again. But it will cool down by next week.

Does anyone have experience in growing Bulb. rothschildianum? My plant is mounted on cork, seems to grow actively, but after the new leads get about 3" long, they just turn black and die. No other plant does this and I just don't know what's going on with this Bulb.

I used the Bayer 3-in-1 for a couple of years, too. But it seems to have stopped working, so my beasties might have developed tolerance for it. That's the danger with systemics, both with bugs and fungus. They stay around so long, and gradually diminish in the plant's tissue as the plant grows new. So instead of a steady supply, the baddies see a smaller and smaller dose, which actually makes it easier for them to develop tolerance.

I like the surface-applied stuff much better, even though you need to keep re-applying it.

Lindsay, you're 60mi. north of me, and inland as well so your winter temperatures will be colder than here. This just means you'll have to be prepared to move orchids into shelter, or cover them up for a good bit of December and January at least. You probably don't have all that many now, but you will . . . we know. Especially if you come for a visit to Apopka with us.

Lots of people use what's known as a "hoop house" if you have a space. It's a very inexpensive way to put up a temporary greenhouse for the winter. If you site it in line with the prevailing winds in your yard, you can just open up the ends on good dry days for air flow, then shut 'er down for cold nights. Here's a youtube video on how to do it simply: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

If you do this, definitely get the good quality greenhouse plastic, though. The cheap stuff from Home Depot really doesn't last in our strong sunlight. (we used it here for solarizing the beds at our school garden and it completely disintegrated in 3 months!)

thanks Elaine...I remember the pictures Jim used to post ( pre OC ) of him with the wheel barrow running the entire collection around to the garage...the Vandas with the 12' long roots...

Elaine, I do agree! I treated the whole cage about 2 weeks ago with the Bayer 3 in 1 and as I am moving the Cattleyas inside, I still see some Scale here and there, and some ants. I just spot- cleaned a few plants with the All Season horticultural oil, things look fine now.