Bath Time

Yesterday morning I got out the Physan and gave everyone a bath, except Momma Phal and her foster babies, the two antelope flasklings. The Oncidium was the reason because I thought I saw just the faintest dust of white on one of the pseudobulbs.

Good thing I did. Apparently I have been overwatering because the roots are all soft and just starting to look wrinkled, flaccid and brown where once they were velvety, grey and fat. I repotted the Oncidium with fresh new bark flakes and made a note to pick up some clean sphagnum moss. Today I checked again and the roots already look better, not quite as brown. The Physan must have cleaned off whatever was beginning to grow on their surface.

While the baby Antelopes sleep, the Dancing Ladies awaken...

The two surviving Den. Antennatum flasklings look ok where I have snuggled them among the roots of a mature mother Phalaenopsis and while I was looking at them, a change in the shape of the Oncidium next door caught the corner of my eye. There is new growth that does not look like the new leaf that is sticking saucily out of a fresh new pseudobulb next to it. Instead, this growth has a thin stem and a few layers of leaf-like greens forming a sheath. And there is another, smaller one, just two pseudobulbs behind it.

I would not have known what they might be if I had not just been reading this thread in Orchidtalk, which is full of pictures of new sheath development. Now it looks like my lovely "Dancing Ladies" Oncidium is about to sprout two new sets of flowers. I'm still not 100% sure, but about 70% sure. This is a bright yellow Oncidium that filled the window with brilliant sun when it was blooming a month ago. I didn't expect another round so soon. But I don't know how long these sheaths will take to form blossoms, if that is what they are.

Camera Issues

I have been frustrated in the picture-taking department because my old camera is married to an old toughbook laptop that has bit the dust, and the old camera program won't agree with anything newer than Win98. I just got hold of another camera to use but when I set it up yesterday, I discovered that the battery had been left attached, killing it. :( Well, I'll have that fixed very soon and then I'll able to fill this blog with the kinds of pictures required of any self-respecting orchidophile!

Meanwhile, the act of setting up involved completely re-designing part of the studio and living area where my orchids grow, and I am very happy with what I did! I pulled a couple of bookcases forward just 18" from the wall, shrinking the room a little but creating a huge amount of storage behind. Now the new media equipment has a home along with the art studio, plant nursery, & livingroom and you'd never guess it was anything except a livingroom with a lovely window garden. I have made a joke about living in an apartment that is the size of an RV, but I am really enjoying the creative challenge.

I'm also tremendously enjoying Eric Hansen's book, Orchid Fever: True tale of Love, Lust, & Lunacy. It's a hoot! I'm posting a couple of lists of the orchids he mentions, and I am going to see if I can add some of those to my collection.

Still convalescing....

Ok, I carefully and gently removed the potting medium to look at the babies' roots, and they are healthy, but not really growing much. I thought about the fact that I probably did spread these flasklings out too soon, and so I decided to pot them in with one of the healthy half-grown phals and let them have slightly more light.

Growing stronger...

The surviving Dendrobia Antennata seem to be doing well. I'm being careful to water them less and to keep them misted. The other orchids all seem to be thriving, although I'm not seeing much blooming going on. It might be just a tad too shady where they are. But they are putting out some leaves and the roots are nice and firm, so I think I will leave them alone for now.

Attrition....

My Antelope Orchid babies are not doing so well. The bigger ones are ok and there is one very strong one, but the others are withering.

I think I should have left them more closely clumped together under a dome for at least a week longer than I did. But at least some of them are still ok and growing.

Ah, rain!

We had a nice couple of showers in the past 24 hours and so I have collected enough rainwater that I'm not too worried about a dry summer. Yesterday as I was crossing the overpass near my building, I saw a beautiful rainbow suspended just over the roof.

Sometimes when I am sitting inside, the western sky is lit by the late afternoon sun and the plants in the courtyard form a wonderfully luminescent backdrop behind my two blooming phalaenopsis and my row of green shoots. There is a pale lavender crepe-myrtle on the left and a bright orange and yellow thing, I don't know the name, on the right. It has popcorn-type blossoms at the end of long chevron-leafed canes. These two plants frame a rusty brown urn that bubbles with water in the center of a pool, and occasionnaly a shiny black grackle sits raven-like on the edge, drinking and flexing its wings.

My little flasklings seem to be at a standstill and there is even a little attrition: the roots don't seem to be growing. I fear I may have separated them too soon. But a few are still going strong so we'll see how it works out. I've picked up some books and am just amazed at the variation in Dendrobia orchids. The antennatum varieties are all especially graceful.

P.S.:
after posting here I went on to work on my links and while doing that, i discovered a whole slew of beautiful orchid videos! Scroll down the sidebar to see my video-box!

Letting the antelope play...

I have to get away from fussing over these "dendrobium antennatum" flasklings or I will kill them with too much attention. They are also called "Antelope Orchids" and are native to Australia. I found some nice links to some information with images of them:
http://zanaf.dyndns.biz/Dendrobium/Den_antennatum1.htm

http://orchids.wikia.com/wiki/Dendrobium_antennatum#Naming

They are found wild in the savannahs of australia and are endangered in the wild. Their seeds are available from orchid growers who cultivate them articficially.

Here is some more information about their habitat:

Although three-quarters of Cape York is covered in various types of tropical savannah woodlands, this type of vegetation is now rare on a global scale. Similar woodlands once stretched across Africa, Asia, India and South America.
However, 70% of these have been cleared. Of the 30% that remain, most are seriously degraded. Australia has the most extensive, and least disturbed tropical savannah left in the world and Cape York's savannah woodlands are then most diverse in the country. These are wilderness areas larger than anything else on Australia's east coast.

from http://capeyork.wilderness.org.au/heritage_savannah.shtml

Right now I have about 20 of them, from one to two inches long. I will get a picture of the group, soon.