I found an Ebay seller.....
.....from Florida with a multitude of orchids for sale in her shop! I found four small onicidums for my collection that will go perfectly in the Klimt Collection. They were all in either 2-3 inch pots, so really small overall, but I wasn't expecting them to be so tiny! The package spent about a week in transit so let's see how they look! All of the plants were shipped in bark with center plugs of some sort of spongy material that came off easily under running water.
Here are two of the tinier orchids:
Nani (Leomesezia Lava Burst 'Puanani' and Carmela (Oncidesa Little Dragon 'Carmela')
Nani is just a single plant with plenty of tiny, healthy roots. She is going to have beautiful tiny red blooms so I'm excited to see how this little plant does in semi-hydro.
Carmela is not looking so good. Her smaller pseudobulbs are yellowing but the one new growth coming in seems healthy and green. The roots were looking alright for the most part and I only trimmed a couple black ones back. I'm not sure what to expect with this one. The blooms are a bright yellow with red lip and she is supposed to be fragrant!
A beauty waiting to bloom.....
One of the plants I was really looking forward to receiving is this one: Miltoniopsis Bert Field 'Leash' AM/OS which would be my first attempt with this type of orchid. I've read they are amazingly fragrant and really lovely with red, pansy shaped blooms but notoriously finicky plants which has me nervous. But the price was perfect and I was just so curious I couldn't help but order her. This specimen actually came with a spike on the way so I'm curious to see if it will stale since I repotted all these plants right away or if the spike will make it during the transition. I'm eager to find out and either way, Scarlet will be a welcome addition to my collection!
The roots were actually all really healthy, if a bit on the small side. She's in great shape though a bit younger than I was hoping. I think she stands a good chance of coming through the repot with her roots intact but since I've never had a miltoniopsis before, I could be completely wrong. From what I understand, they enjoy having their roots be moist and on the cool side so I'm thinking semi-hydro will be an upgrade from the bark.
A worrying repotting.....
.....on my new oncidium Rex's Luck 'Firefly' has me second guessing if this plant will make it. Firefly came with two very shriveled pseudobulbs and a large new growth. When I went into the pot to look at her roots, oh my goodness were they a mess! The spongy plug that I believe these seedling started out in stayed too wet for this plant and all of her roots inside that medium died off. I was left with only a single branch of questionably healthy roots.
I don't know if the plant has enough energy in those sad, wrinkly bulbs to finish growing that growth but if she does, those new roots will save her. Oncidiums in general seem to do really well with the semi-hydro so I'm hoping for the best here. Please little roots, grow!