Spring is here with a vengeance!
With signs of winter rains behind us here in southern California, it looks like springtime is getting ready to settle in with warm weather and blue skies ahead of me. With the change in weather, I decided to stop by Orchid Fever, a lovely family-run orchid shop in Culver City where I've gotten orchids before. Here are the ones that caught my eye:
A scented sweetheart.....
This gorgeous beauty is a Miltoniopsis Noid. Saffron came looking bushy with a multitude of plump pseudobulbs and three flower spikes, one already in bloom. She is so lovely with creamy yellow petals and a red splash on the lip that reminds me of watercolors. Her fragrance was light but sweet and I'm hoping it will come in stronger over the next few days.
When I went in to repot her, the roots were not that great. Despite the healthy bulbs, the sphagnum moss this orchid was packed in had completely broken down and caused massive root rot. I was able to save about 30% of viable roots and I'm praying it will be enough to save this plant. My other miltoniopsis is doing okay so far with the adaption but its still too early to tell. I hope this orchid recovers from the root loss and eventually rebloom but these orchids are notoriously finicky. I was thinking that the cooler temperature of the semi-hydro setup at the root system would be enough to keep the plant happy but only time will tell.
A striking scarlet lip.....
Now I'm trying to only buy oncidiums that have a fragrance but I could not resist this amazing bloom once I saw her at the flower shop. This is the Colmanara Masai Red, with petals that are a very deep burgundy and a lip that is a velvety shade of true red. Masai was so striking with that I couldn't take my eyes off that bold, contrasting lip against the dark, almost black petals.
The blooms make up for the lack of fragrance and I was excited to find a plant with two new growths maturing off the newest bulb. The repotting went well with only a few dead roots that needed trimming. Overall, this orchid looks really healthy and I can't wait to get her to rebloom. Those flowers are just so vivid and striking.
A charming bloom.....
My very first paphiopedilum addition to my collection is this lovely little noid. He was one of two paphs that the flower shop had and I liked the little spotting on the flower's sepals. I read on the forums at paphs seems to like semi-hydro and adapt quickly to it, much like oncidiums. I wanted to try and care for one to see if this would be true here in my environment.
This is the only one of the three that didn't have any sign of new growths so I am holding off on repotting this orchid until I do. I'm going to wait until Maude is done blooming before attempting to repot in hopes that I'll get a new shoot before then. But since this guy is in sphagnum moss, a medium I'm not too familiar with, I might end up repotting sooner than later. Either way, I'm excited to watch this plant grow and hopefully rebloom. The mottled leaves are just so beautiful and the large flower is so charming, I'm enchanted!