Oh boy! Twinkles have arrived!
I was naughty a few days ago. After having a particularly bad day where nothing seemed to be going my way, I decided to console myself by ordering a couple of orchids that I've had my eye on for a while. The Twinkles!
Now, I usually peruse orchid websites like Norman's Orchids or Ebay looking at what kinds of plants are available to me in my area. I like to fill my cart with all the orchids I would like to buy one day when I have room and the proper requirements. But I did just put up some shelves in my Book Window to expand my growing area and now I have room more about a dozen new plants!
I'm trying to hold off on my orchid purchases until the Newport Harbor Orchid Expo in February. I'm so excited and from what I've read there will be hundreds of orchids in the show and lots of vendors I'm sure! I'll be making plenty of purchases while I'm there.
The Twinkles I ordered were a bit of a cheat but hey, I just lost two phals and I was feeling crummy. I'm absolutely ecstatic now! The two plants I ordered in pretty good condition and super, super fast from the seller, omi1011. The seller lives close by in Lakewood so I knew shipping time wouldn't be too bad but wow! He literally shipped the orchids yesterday, and I received them in less than 24 hours! I was assured when I ordered that the plants were all in active root growth and they would have at least 4 pseudobulbs, which they do.
The white one, Twinkle 'White Shower' is the healthier and older of the two, judging by the size of the pseudobulbs. She has four flower spikes coming in, but no new growths. There are plenty of roots growing in and she seems to be a healthy, happy plant. A couple of her flower spike branches are blasted but that's okay.
The yellow one, Twinkle 'Sunlight' has a couple new growths coming in, though one did get a little squashed during shipping. She has three flower spikes that are a little blasted but I'm not too worried. A couple of her seedling bulbs look like they are ready to go, one slightly mushy to the touch. I will be repotting these orchids as soon as I finish soaking the leca, which I didn't have time to prepare before they got here (it was that fast!)
Overall I'm very happy with my purchases and both plants seem to be healthy and happy. There are plenty of blooms that might survive the transition to s/h but as long as the plant itself does well I'm not worried about the flowers. I'm so excited to have Twinkles! I just need the red one to round out my Twinkle collection now. Who knows, maybe I'll find one at the show?