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The thread "Our Orchid blooms in November 2017" in Orchids forum

Another month blew past with lots of gorgeous Orchids and fun discussions and today we have December 1. and with that a new thread for the month.
Starting up with my Coelia bella which is right now my star in the greenhouse, it blooms so nicely and smell so deliciously of Marzipan. Maybe I should call it the Advent Orchid!

And this Guarthrolea Judy Congdon opens another cluster on the old, spent spike.

The Tolumnia's label got washed out, but here is now the noid.

I am so jealous of your Coelia bella, Ursula. If mine was ever a "star", it is now a fallen star. I have been back and forth about putting mine outside and subjecting her to lows in the mid to low 40's and highs only in the 60's-low 70's. She is now cozy in a greenhouse but shows no sign of happiness. The greenhouses get no colder than around 60 F.

Perhaps she will do better next year, Ken! Sometimes Orchids need a few years to find their voice?

Thanks Ursula for the new thread for December. Last one for 2017.
That Judy Congdon has some intense color! Any chance that Tolumnia is a Golden Sunset clone? It is a fairly diverse hybrid producing lots of varieties and I think it has been remade as well. Usually they have more spots in the lip but that can be very variable.

Bill, regarding the Tolumnia, I honestly don't know! I seem to remember some names like yellow panther and similar.
When I look at the Judy Congdon or Sacramento Rose I really wish Hoosier Orchids would still be around. Some years ago ( around 2003) we visited them in their Greenhouses in Indianapolis and had the pleasure of getting a tour by the knowledgable Leon Glicenstein. It was very enjoyable! Both Orchids mentioned here came from their final sale.

I hope so, Ursula. Yours looks so good and mine so bad. I am not used to having "unhappy" orchid plants.

Another stunning start to the month , Ursula... how wonderful to have the greenhouse smelling of Marzipan during this holiday month! Do your Tolumnias bloom multiple times a year for you?
This one seems to have been cranking out spikes non stop for months...here's the latest on Rth. Golden Chieftan 'Akukii'.




Joshua, thank you for the new name on my festive red Rlc. Lebenkreis. I have totally given up on searching for crosses...I have yet to get a positive result. Which is sad, because at least half of the beautiful flowers I run into at the University are crosses.

Ursula, the colors of the coelia are just beautiful! I wish I could smell it, too!


I've been collecting some pictures of my blooms but just haven't had the time to get on-line much. It's been sort of slow but I've had some cool blooms recently...

This is Bulbo. fascinator. It hasn't bloomed for years but must like it's new basket, 3 blooms!


Bulbo. medusea put out a second set of blooms!


This one also hasn't bloomed in years, but seems very happy with it's new spot in the yard (more sun)!
Isn't it an odd shaped lip? Reminds me of a squid!



The real star in the yard right now (from Ken)...I can't stop taking pictures of it! I love the color changes as the blooms age!

Yeah, finally some flowers!
The first is Den. Fire Wings which is Big Alex by Silver Wings. These are the first four buds with more coming.





My plant is in a 5" plastic pot, aliflor mix and I water it once every 8-10 days. Twice as often during the warmer months. This is a Phalaenopsis type times a Latouria type. Lots of water then I make sure it dries off. Four canes have spikes or flowers at the moment. These are 3 1/2" flowers with the most intense coloring of my three clones. Other two are paler and pinker!






Forgive my nomenclature here but this is Blc. Booth Lee, dislexic Aardvarks watch out!
It is Blc. Maikai by Lc. Jalapa. So there is nodosa, bowringiana, millerI and guttata in the background. The spots are from Maikai via B. Nodosa and the intense color from Jalapa. I have a large plant in a teak basket and in blooms a few times in succession. Flowers are faintly fragrant and 4" wide. Growths are popping out all over with 7 or 8 more inflorescences coming. I treat it like a typical Cattleya, three to four hours of sun, water itcweekly now, twice per week when it is warm. It is under 50% shadecloth.

A T-Mail is coming your way, Patty.

Bill, did your Fire Wings bloom in the spring/early summer, or is this her first flowers? All my Fire Wings bloomed in May/June (6-8 wk. for most of them), but nothing is going on now (perhaps I need to go out and check ).

Bill, I love that Booth Lee or whatever it is called.

Patty, your baskets are complimenting the flowers beautifully.

The other Fire Wings bloomed in the Spring, around April I think. I don't remember seeing one bloom quite this dark.
I have marked the tag as a dark clone and I like the form of the flower so I will take it to judging after I move.

great job on all your blooms , Patty! The Maikai is surely a super star!...and the Medusa is a spectacle!

I'm still looking for the right spot for my Fire Wings that Jim gave me...it's growing like crazy but no buds in sight. Booth Lee is one of my favorites, Bill..the flowers seem to look fabulous for weeks!

Bill, when my Den. Fire Wings bloomed (starting in May, 2017), they bloomed in basically two color patterns. The last photo shows the flowers after being in bloom almost 2 mo.

Oh wow! I stepped out for a couple of hours and come back to a Show!

Lindsey, yes - the Tolumnias don't seem to have a regular blooming season, they pretty much bloom whenever.

The Booth Lee is just gorgeous - color, shape, the works!

Patty, I love your selection! Nice job on the medusa! Happy 'Mayumi'!

Boy Ken, I love that color on the middle Fire Wings. The horizontally held, rounded petals remind me of Phragmipedium kovachii hybrids!! Very nice.
Man, December is off to a great start!
What would we call a Dendrobium/Phragmipedium hybrid if that were even possible?? a Denpedium?? A Phragobium?? The vegetative parts would be weird beyond explanation.

Uh, oh Bill. You're channeling the goofy boffins with those combo names - I kinda like Phragobium. Did you notice the different shapes of the petals on Ken's first and second pictures - the first one has petals that do look like wings, but as you noted, the second more purple flower has more rounded petals too. Or . . . is it just the camera angle?

Anyway, I also found a bunch more blooms out in my pool cage today, mostly on my Apopka treasures. The little NOID purple Dens are popping open lots of buds now, and I'm going to have to hurry up and give away all those four Sharry Baby plants because it's beginning to smell a lot like vanilla and chocolate out there.

Little Tolumnias coming into bloom now, looks like I got a 'Red Sunset' like yours, Lindsey. There's also a darker red in the background, and another that hasn't opened yet. I like them all, don't care what color. The huge plant of "I'm not Lulu" is just perfuming up the whole cage and the last flowers to open have a distinctly yellow/cream color which I'm really liking.

I will leave it to you experts to figure out that name. It is bad enough that I have or have had orchids labeled Tsubotaara, Ianclarkara, Neodevereuxara, Maccorquodaleara, and Myrmecophila. There are hundreds of genera, many of which I couldn't begin to pronounce their names, much less remember the spelling. Perhaps the simpler method is to do what Fred Clark and Hausermann did, just name it their own names.

Elaine, it is partly the angle but also the cupping of those petals that make them look more rounded. But we know that seldom will you see identical flowers on any two plants.

Looks to me like Messirs Tsubota, Devereaux, MacCorquodale and Ian Clark were following along in those footsteps, though. Just take off the "ara" and there you have some guy naming an orchid after himself. Honestly, the conceit of it. I could make myself dizzy rolling my eyes over those names. Let alone trying to then pronounce them.