I am so taken with that Rojo, Ursula. Obviously I'm not alone. It took blue at the Atlanta show. Yours is equally gorgeous. The Asc. is enviable. A poster mentioned Asc. 'Yip Sum Wah' somewhere earlier. This orchid was my intro to Asc. many years ago and I adored it. I'll need to add that to my replacement list. In the meantime, is your Asctm. curvifolium doing anything? Mine's just beginning a nub of a spike.

Why can't you grow Paphs or Vandas Carol?

Thanks Laurel! About the Asctm curvifolium, so far I haven't noticed a spike yet, but it is still early in the season. Have to take a closer look.

(Btw the golden Ascda x came from Natt 's Orchids.)

Ursula, I thought your Asctm curvifolum was ahead of mine with blooms in early April (?). Mine came from Fuchs, in bud last year, and bloomed in late April/May. I suspect mine will be delayed this year as we are further north and west of homestead, FL, but the plant looks great!

Kathy, do we have a list of useful abbrevs. anywhere on the site? Here's one. http://www.notsogreenthumb.org... I'm running into new ones with the nothogenus listings. I now own a Yamadara (Yam.) Queen Adelia rescue and a Dagamoara Skywalker 'Red Star'. I think that one is Dgmr. Who would know those orchids would be having intergeneric tete a tetes while I was away for all those years?

Laurel, yes. Last year it bloomed (early?) for me in April. But in 2008 it bloomed in May and in 2007 it bloomed in June. We shall see....

Laurel, I'm not sure why. I have adopted 1 paph , 1 asctrm, and 1 vanda, that were all in bad shape when I got them. I did get 1 bloom spike on the vanda, but I think that was it's swan song...now it is barely hanging on. Low humidity? Cold winter (no place for it in the house)? Same with the ascotrm. I killed the paph while trying to get rid of the ant's nest in it, but it was in sad shape already. My nursing skills are not as good as yours!

I think you just diagnosed it yourself, Carol: "that were all in bad shape when I got them". I would say, it is not YOUR fault.

Look who is opening a flower.

Phrag Noirmont today.

Vanda lamellata var boxalii. (Ursula, I remembered to answer you.)

Slc. Memoria Alvin Begeman 'Poem'.

Thanks Kathy! I like this Vanda very much. If I see it at offered at the SEPOS it goes home with me.

Looking good Kathy!

Ursula, speaking of SEPOS, did you post pics of Longwood somewhere?
I think I need a Vanda tricolor!

Hi Todd! I've posted about your article on Twitter last night.

New stuff. I've also put a few more links in the sidebar for abbreviations, Jay Pfahl's species encyclopedia, and basic pronunciations. I've posted a new article in orchid News and there's a great gallery of maxillarias in the Identification forum. Ursula, do you think it would be okay to post a link to huiray's neofinetias? Busy, busy.

Kathy, this year's SEPOS starts this Friday and goes into Sunday.
I just posted my links to the 2008 and 2009 shows into "orchid shows we have enjoyed".

Thanks. Going there now!

My Aerangis citrata is now open, whatever buds didn't abort.
The single flowers are really cute.

from the side

The shorter spike of the two -

- and the plant established on Epiweb a couple of years ago. I almost lost the plant ( and another smaller one) as it was potted up.
The longer spike was most promising. Unfortunately most of the buds aborted. Perhaps the plant simply needs to grow a bit more to be able to support more spikes?