What a nice find indeed, Ted. Is that a cool or a warm grower?

good things happen to good people!
Ken, mine that I got last year seems to be doing well with our heat and has a nice spike in progress...so I'll take
a guess and say it's an easy going plant.

Thanks, Lindsey. I have never seen one for sale, not even through my Hawaiian growers/hybridizes. But that doesn't mean they weren't available. I might have seen them and just passed them over, not knowing what in the heck they were.

Does anyone grow the Oncidopsis (Burr.) Nelly Isler orchid? I got one in trade and though the plant has some new growth, overall it looks to be in decline.

Nice one Ted!

Thanx all. And Jim, I am proud that you were able to restain yourself
Ken, all I could find was that it is the same culture as most Odontoglossums.
Here's what I found. I plan to keep it near my Tahoma

Odontoglossums tend to prefer cool temperatures. For the best results provide nighttime temperatures 50-55°F and daytime temperature 60-80°F. Place the plants near a cool window in the home. In temperate regions, the plants may be grown outside under protected patio covering.

Thanks, Ted. There's my problem, way to hot, even in the AC (nighttime anyway). Our house hasn't been below 72 F in months. Maybe, if the plant survives long enough, it will perk up when fall comes. I'll just leave it outside, under the oaks.

The Tahoma I have does well and the temps here are outside those boundries, though I do keep it under the shade cloth

Mine gets the same treatment as my Catts.. They do live in a shadier nook on the bench though.


This one came in bud from Lowes last September. It's too early in the spike development to get a bud count.. But I'm taking any kind of spike as a positive sign.. It certainly hasn't been in the 50's here for 3 months..

From April till October/November, you can just forget about seeing any 50's here.

Yep, we got all the way down to 77 last night - good cooling thunderstorms yesterday.

My Miltassias have been blooming happily for the last couple of months and I have another spike coming, too. This is from July.

I was getting cabin fever so took a drive over to Everlast Orchids. They are about 40 minutes from my house.. They grow mostly Phals and Dens.. It looks like it's one of those places that puts planters together for florists.. But they did have a handful of Catts in bloom .. I asked if they grow them.. Could I look at what they have that's not in bloom?



At 2 for $35. These 7 came home with me.. Most are in bud.
Blc. Melody Fair

Blc. George King x Lc. Maxima' s Effect

(Blc. Tokyo Magic x Toshie Aoki) x ( Blc. Willette Wong 'The Best')

Blc.( Erin Kobayashi x Hemlock Pass) x
(Green Tamiami x Rsc.Kat Green Power)

Lc. Mini Song 'Petite' AM/AOS x Blc. Long life Rainbow

Rth. Orchidom Brassy Luck

C (Motte Spot x brabantiae 'Nancy' x Ene. Nursery Rhyme ' Pedregal'

Our speaker this month was Dennis Olivas - a man with a serious orchid problem.

He's also a good cook. Some of our speakers want to have dinner with us so we treat them to a home cooked meal at our club president's house. It is always my job to cook the fish but Dennis said "have you ever tried..... ?" He ended up cooking, me assisting. We had fresh coho salmon slathered with mayonnaise and coated with furikake. I will definitely try this at home.

Anyway, Dennis owns 15,000 orchids. He keeps them in three 3,000 foot greenhouses in Daly City, CA. He's got all sorts of credentials but he is the most lay back orchidiot I think I have ever met.

Question: What do you like to use as a planting medium.
Answer: What do you have in front of you?

Question: What fertilizer do you use?
Answer: Anything with equal numbers mixed at quarter strength.

He also added that if you bought the pink, blue and yellow fertilizers, mix them all together and next time, don't bother. And that Miracle Gro was originally invented for orchids.

He brought orchids for sale of course. It looked like a feeding frenzy but I came away with:

Masdevallia Bella Donna x Masd. Infracta

Stanhopea nigroviolacea species 'Black Tiger' x self

Cattleya Quinquecolor


Cattleya Penny's Dream 'Tri-lip' (flowers just starting to open)


All for $75.

I love Dennis' approach to growing.. And anyone that loves to cook .. Is OK in my book!
You got some real beauties there Daisy!

Sounds like a great attitude!
Sounds like you both made out well. Those sure beat show prices!

I repotted them all today..they were growing ( well !) in sphagnum...I guess it's an art that I haven't mastered yet. Nice roots on all of them. Most of them are crosses that I couldn't find photos of, so it will be interesting to see what actually blooms.

Lindsey, and Daisy, I would think you both lucked out! Dennis sounds like a fun person!
Interesting peloric Cattleya!

For any of you that aren't familiar with Ca. here is Daly city. We're not all on the beach. https://www.google.com/search?...
I had to look it up.

But it is on the ocean side of the mountains so summer fog and winter sunshine. My husband is from Daly City. His Dad gave me my first orchid back in the early '70's - a cymbidium which I immediately killed. He left his outside year 'round so I thought that's what I would do. It froze.

He kept giving them to me though. In 2002, my mother in law and her siblings gave me 3 orchids as a thank you gift - I did their family history in photos called '101 years in America' I have managed to keep one of the orchids alive - a shockingly purple/pink cattleya with huge flowers.

Father in law also gave me my first lessons in the art of Bonsai. My mother in law taught me to cook (my Mom did NOT cook) and make tsukimono and umeboshi (I am the only one in the family who can make any of this stuff).

My mother in law died a couple years ago at the age of 97. We just celebrated Dad's 104th birthday. This is a photo of his yard and house I took at the party.. It was July 9th and the fog came and went all day long. Luckily we didn't have to light the yard heaters. Dad's father came in the 1950's and built it - took him 6 months. About 20 years ago, I put the whole yard on drip.

Hmmm.. I'm on my tablet. I'm going to have to edit pictures in.

I find it interesting that most of the Ca. orchid growers are in that same type of environment, whether in San Diego or Santa Barbara areas. There are a few in the inland empire areas, that don't get any of the marine influence, but not many, and of course none on the sea level areas because the land is too valuable. I think most expect something like Malibu when they think of the Ca. coast, but there isn't much of that. I'm at the south end of the LA basin, a former flood plain, and 10 mi. inland at about 47' elevation, but growing up in Corona del Mar, we were about 100' above sea level, and 5 blocks from the ocean. It was a lot of steps up and down to get to the beach.

Daisy..I LOVE that yard...an oasis and so peaceful looking!