Mini Mark āHolmā Sharing for anyone else who, like me, ha...
Mini Mark āHolmā
Sharing for anyone else who, like me, has wanted this orchid for a long timeā¦ the blooms on these are everything I dreamed ā they are adorable and I cannot stop looking at them. The fragrance reminds me of freesia and lilac, itās light but also kind of intoxicating and it oscillates throughout the day (seems strongest in morning and afternoon). They definitely need high humidity around their roots and do not like to dry out, I had them temporarily potted in slotted pots while quarantining and after a few weeks their leaves started showing signs of being thirsty despite receiving water any time the roots turned white. They seem happy under grow lights so far, given that they have bloomed and continued to bloom as well as started producing fragrance.
They were part of a larger order from Bredren Orchidsā¦ and honestly the orchids I received from them were all in incredible shape (healthy, zero bad roots, all mature plants in spike, reasonable prices). The only thing to note is that some of the other plants (not the mini marks) had signs of snail damage (hollows on spikes where some baby buds had clearly been eaten) and I did find an empty white bush snail shell in one plantās medium during repot, so recommend repotting immediately/carefully as well as isolating the plants for a time (which is good practice in general).
(The tissue paper on top of the plants is a short-term measure to protect the medium bc I made the bad decision to order from RarePlantFairy thinking their ridiculous tissue culture upcharge would ensure a clean plant, and it came with a severe infestation of fungus gnats that escaped bathroom jail and I am working to eradicate š)
#PhalaenopsisOrchid #Orchid #OrchidLovers #Phalaenopsis #PhalaenopsisMiniMark #BloomingOrchid
Sharing for anyone else who, like me, has wanted this orchid for a long timeā¦ the blooms on these are everything I dreamed ā they are adorable and I cannot stop looking at them. The fragrance reminds me of freesia and lilac, itās light but also kind of intoxicating and it oscillates throughout the day (seems strongest in morning and afternoon). They definitely need high humidity around their roots and do not like to dry out, I had them temporarily potted in slotted pots while quarantining and after a few weeks their leaves started showing signs of being thirsty despite receiving water any time the roots turned white. They seem happy under grow lights so far, given that they have bloomed and continued to bloom as well as started producing fragrance.
They were part of a larger order from Bredren Orchidsā¦ and honestly the orchids I received from them were all in incredible shape (healthy, zero bad roots, all mature plants in spike, reasonable prices). The only thing to note is that some of the other plants (not the mini marks) had signs of snail damage (hollows on spikes where some baby buds had clearly been eaten) and I did find an empty white bush snail shell in one plantās medium during repot, so recommend repotting immediately/carefully as well as isolating the plants for a time (which is good practice in general).
(The tissue paper on top of the plants is a short-term measure to protect the medium bc I made the bad decision to order from RarePlantFairy thinking their ridiculous tissue culture upcharge would ensure a clean plant, and it came with a severe infestation of fungus gnats that escaped bathroom jail and I am working to eradicate š)
#PhalaenopsisOrchid #Orchid #OrchidLovers #Phalaenopsis #PhalaenopsisMiniMark #BloomingOrchid
5ft to light, indirect
4ā pot with drainage
Last watered 4 days ago
4
It looks incredibly healthy. Congrats on the haul. I have mine in bloom as well. Again. I'm a bit worried she is a bit of an overbloomer, additionally of the stories I've heard about them not being among the most vigorous phals (or rather them just fizzleling out after a few years with no apparent reason). So I'll be happy to hear your experiences after a while.
Also: I'm just a tiny bit jealous. Never even detected a hint of any fragrance on mine. She isn't in extremely high light but gets more than enough, and the temp range also should be alright. Hmpf š enjoy your fragrance.
Also: I'm just a tiny bit jealous. Never even detected a hint of any fragrance on mine. She isn't in extremely high light but gets more than enough, and the temp range also should be alright. Hmpf š enjoy your fragrance.
@MusicalRedmint thanks! Mine are specifically the āholmā varietyā¦ my understanding is āholmā should always be fragrant to a degree, but the original (Breckenridge?) is notā¦ I think there is another more recent variant but I donāt recall reading anything about whether or not it is fragrant.
The scent was much more faint (like no fragrance to the faintest whiff when smelling directly) when they were still quarantining in bathroom jail, but became much more noticeable after I repotted them in glass containers and popped them on a heating pad to give their roots much higher humidity than theyād been getting in a slotted pot in bathroom jail. Now that itās nighttime, some of the flowers donāt smell anymore but some are still giving off a faint scent. With the two plants in near-full bloom together, I am still getting little wafts of scent a few feet away on my couch at night.
Since theyāve been blooming for a while now and it seemed way stronger today than it ever did when they were in bathroom jail (transferred to glass and paroled to the coffee table last night), I suspect that some combination of higher root humidity and warmer conditions (or just the plants being happier) influenced some increase in its expression of fragrance.
I also have read accounts of peopleās mini marks experiencing inexplicable rapid decline, but nobody talking about it ever seems to provide a modicum of detail about what that looked like or what their growing conditions wereā¦ so itās hard to rule out the possibility of ātrendy plant needing specific conditions + owner errorā. I can already tell they are thirsty, so I wonder if maybe one rapid decline trigger could be inconsistent or inadequate watering. Another thing that comes to mind is people growing in LECA/semi hydroā¦ there are a lot of borderline cult like voices on the internet that sing its praises (especially a few years back), but a year or two later they always seem to put out a video saying something to the effect of ā30-50% of my orchids in LECA/semi-hydro suddenly died within a few months and Iāve never seen anything like itā¦ now Iām back to team sphagnumā. So I can sort of see a scenario where someone puts it in semi-hydro and it appears to thrive for up to a year or two (especially with prolific blooms), but it declines over time as all the little moss-and-bark-loving microorganisms the orchid relies on that are living on its roots and inside its velamen start dying off or go from being symbiotic to parasitic without a bio medium like moss to help regulate the environment and maintain the kind of ecosystem where theyāve evolved to thrive symbiotically.
So while mini markās mysterious reputation + unavailability is definitely why I snapped up two of them, Iām also not too worried about it? Years back I had an orchid (phal in a planter someone sent to me via florist) for about 4 years that bloomed progressively longer every year and only took like 1-2 months rest between bloom cycles. By the time I accidentally left it at my sisterās while moving cross-country it had been blooming for 9 months straight until I cut its spikes (I had intended to take it on a plane in a suitcase). I never got around to repotting it, and I only ever fertilized it like twice. My sister (who only had outdoor plants) took ownership of it, and a few years later she sent me a picture of it doubled in size happily overflowing with blooms and said it was still thriving in her bathroom with virtually no attention. At the end of the day, orchids donāt really need much, and bloomers are gonna bloom if theyāre even a little bit happy; as long as it has enough leaves and its root system looks good, Iād just appreciate the blooms :)
The scent was much more faint (like no fragrance to the faintest whiff when smelling directly) when they were still quarantining in bathroom jail, but became much more noticeable after I repotted them in glass containers and popped them on a heating pad to give their roots much higher humidity than theyād been getting in a slotted pot in bathroom jail. Now that itās nighttime, some of the flowers donāt smell anymore but some are still giving off a faint scent. With the two plants in near-full bloom together, I am still getting little wafts of scent a few feet away on my couch at night.
Since theyāve been blooming for a while now and it seemed way stronger today than it ever did when they were in bathroom jail (transferred to glass and paroled to the coffee table last night), I suspect that some combination of higher root humidity and warmer conditions (or just the plants being happier) influenced some increase in its expression of fragrance.
I also have read accounts of peopleās mini marks experiencing inexplicable rapid decline, but nobody talking about it ever seems to provide a modicum of detail about what that looked like or what their growing conditions wereā¦ so itās hard to rule out the possibility of ātrendy plant needing specific conditions + owner errorā. I can already tell they are thirsty, so I wonder if maybe one rapid decline trigger could be inconsistent or inadequate watering. Another thing that comes to mind is people growing in LECA/semi hydroā¦ there are a lot of borderline cult like voices on the internet that sing its praises (especially a few years back), but a year or two later they always seem to put out a video saying something to the effect of ā30-50% of my orchids in LECA/semi-hydro suddenly died within a few months and Iāve never seen anything like itā¦ now Iām back to team sphagnumā. So I can sort of see a scenario where someone puts it in semi-hydro and it appears to thrive for up to a year or two (especially with prolific blooms), but it declines over time as all the little moss-and-bark-loving microorganisms the orchid relies on that are living on its roots and inside its velamen start dying off or go from being symbiotic to parasitic without a bio medium like moss to help regulate the environment and maintain the kind of ecosystem where theyāve evolved to thrive symbiotically.
So while mini markās mysterious reputation + unavailability is definitely why I snapped up two of them, Iām also not too worried about it? Years back I had an orchid (phal in a planter someone sent to me via florist) for about 4 years that bloomed progressively longer every year and only took like 1-2 months rest between bloom cycles. By the time I accidentally left it at my sisterās while moving cross-country it had been blooming for 9 months straight until I cut its spikes (I had intended to take it on a plane in a suitcase). I never got around to repotting it, and I only ever fertilized it like twice. My sister (who only had outdoor plants) took ownership of it, and a few years later she sent me a picture of it doubled in size happily overflowing with blooms and said it was still thriving in her bathroom with virtually no attention. At the end of the day, orchids donāt really need much, and bloomers are gonna bloom if theyāre even a little bit happy; as long as it has enough leaves and its root system looks good, Iād just appreciate the blooms :)
Aaah. Thx for the info. That also explains the slight difference in looks. Mine was not a deliberate buy (though I've had the Mini Mark on my "maybe sometime I want one radar" for a while). It was a bonus plant from my nursery on one of my bigger hauls, I think, or part of a "botanical phal. surprise" packet. In any case I didn't expect it and never read up on it specifically, apart from what I already knew. Given that my blooms look different from yours (not that you can tell going by that abomination of a picture š
), it's just a different clone, I guess.
Don't you just love sitting on your couch, relax, read a book or whatever and unexpectedly get hit by the fragrance of one of the orchids around you? I rotate mine when they are in bloom for that very reason to certain areas around me.
Good call on the spare plant.
I don't really recall all of the sources for the rapid decline stories (apart from MOG), but there were some I remember from from experienced growers, which led me to at least not dismiss it. I don't know, if it were the LECA issue wouldn't at least the more experienced people somewhere mending root damage in their rapid decline mystery stories? (And repot in time as a first measure when they've noticed slowed growth, see the damage and manage to save them?)
And if they were two inexperienced or two uncritical to question the LECA, it still would not explain why the MM specifically is mentioned so often. wouldn't they have noticed more plants that the same "mysterious decline" was happening to? Or so we think it's a urban legend type of thing that's happening here?
In any case, I thought it was intriguing, even if it held me back from spending money on it. So in a way, those stories almost made getting gifted the Mini Mark more interesting for me. I notice myself watching it more than other phals and looking for signs of inhibited growth, kind of curious if something mystifying will happen. š
As for the overblooming thing in general: I'm definitely on the side that there are some phal hybrids that just don't know their own strength. Never read up on this, but purely anecdotally, I've had some. And enough for me to keep an eye on some of them. Mostly, when I say they overbloom, I don't mean "that is 100% the only reason for decline", but I've had some I wanted to shake and tell them "at the very least now please stop. You're sick, get some rest. An acquaintance I regularly visit has one right now. Over the course of a year, I've never seen it having more than two limp leaves. I've offered taking care of it (repot etc), but stopped short of cutting the spikes, because that's really not my decision to make. The roots were a mess, she has some thrips sunburn damage. and still: she just finished blooming (after months with two spikes and huge flowers), only to grow three secondary spikes very soon after. Ridiculous. Not sure it will make it like this.
My mother had one she repotted into pure bark without considering what that meant for water retention. A huge specimen with several basal keikis, almost receiving no water in the middle of a heat wave. Leaves suddenly half the size. Of course that wouldn't have fixed everything, but maybe two flowers less might have helped.
One very old orchid of my own that almost never stopped blooming got severely damaged by clumsy me during a messy repot in the height of the worst mite and fungal battle I ever had in my collection. But it just continued blooming until it was gone (I even tried to put it in the best temperature controlled environment I could offer and cut the spike at some point.... only to have a new one sprout almost immediately.) Winston was a beast. RIP, he will be missed.
And even now I have a fairly new one.
It's blooming non-stop, the roots are great, but the leaves are already getting significantly smaller. I would remove it from the windowsill to give it more stable temps, but I've noticed some concerning color breaks in the petals during the last blooms, so no way I will place it even in the same room with one of my other orchids until I'm 100% certain it's not a virus. It's pretty much wait an see for now.
Of course you can anyways argue those spikes were death spikes to propagate last minute, but all of those cases were also blooming like this before. They just didn't change the pattern in their weakened states.
As for the MM, for now the leaves are still doing great in spite of the continuous bloom, so no worries there. I just noticed that it was really easy to spike and entertained the thought that overblooming might just be a possible suspect for the MM mystery deaths.
Sry. I'm going on again. Appreciate all the input. Enjoy your two new Mini Marks, especially the fragrance (will let go of my envy now and do over to my bellina relative to get a whiff. Apart from one brassia it's the only fragrant in bloom right now, but at least she is delicious š )
Have a great evening
Don't you just love sitting on your couch, relax, read a book or whatever and unexpectedly get hit by the fragrance of one of the orchids around you? I rotate mine when they are in bloom for that very reason to certain areas around me.
Good call on the spare plant.
I don't really recall all of the sources for the rapid decline stories (apart from MOG), but there were some I remember from from experienced growers, which led me to at least not dismiss it. I don't know, if it were the LECA issue wouldn't at least the more experienced people somewhere mending root damage in their rapid decline mystery stories? (And repot in time as a first measure when they've noticed slowed growth, see the damage and manage to save them?)
And if they were two inexperienced or two uncritical to question the LECA, it still would not explain why the MM specifically is mentioned so often. wouldn't they have noticed more plants that the same "mysterious decline" was happening to? Or so we think it's a urban legend type of thing that's happening here?
In any case, I thought it was intriguing, even if it held me back from spending money on it. So in a way, those stories almost made getting gifted the Mini Mark more interesting for me. I notice myself watching it more than other phals and looking for signs of inhibited growth, kind of curious if something mystifying will happen. š
As for the overblooming thing in general: I'm definitely on the side that there are some phal hybrids that just don't know their own strength. Never read up on this, but purely anecdotally, I've had some. And enough for me to keep an eye on some of them. Mostly, when I say they overbloom, I don't mean "that is 100% the only reason for decline", but I've had some I wanted to shake and tell them "at the very least now please stop. You're sick, get some rest. An acquaintance I regularly visit has one right now. Over the course of a year, I've never seen it having more than two limp leaves. I've offered taking care of it (repot etc), but stopped short of cutting the spikes, because that's really not my decision to make. The roots were a mess, she has some thrips sunburn damage. and still: she just finished blooming (after months with two spikes and huge flowers), only to grow three secondary spikes very soon after. Ridiculous. Not sure it will make it like this.
My mother had one she repotted into pure bark without considering what that meant for water retention. A huge specimen with several basal keikis, almost receiving no water in the middle of a heat wave. Leaves suddenly half the size. Of course that wouldn't have fixed everything, but maybe two flowers less might have helped.
One very old orchid of my own that almost never stopped blooming got severely damaged by clumsy me during a messy repot in the height of the worst mite and fungal battle I ever had in my collection. But it just continued blooming until it was gone (I even tried to put it in the best temperature controlled environment I could offer and cut the spike at some point.... only to have a new one sprout almost immediately.) Winston was a beast. RIP, he will be missed.
And even now I have a fairly new one.
It's blooming non-stop, the roots are great, but the leaves are already getting significantly smaller. I would remove it from the windowsill to give it more stable temps, but I've noticed some concerning color breaks in the petals during the last blooms, so no way I will place it even in the same room with one of my other orchids until I'm 100% certain it's not a virus. It's pretty much wait an see for now.
Of course you can anyways argue those spikes were death spikes to propagate last minute, but all of those cases were also blooming like this before. They just didn't change the pattern in their weakened states.
As for the MM, for now the leaves are still doing great in spite of the continuous bloom, so no worries there. I just noticed that it was really easy to spike and entertained the thought that overblooming might just be a possible suspect for the MM mystery deaths.
Sry. I'm going on again. Appreciate all the input. Enjoy your two new Mini Marks, especially the fragrance (will let go of my envy now and do over to my bellina relative to get a whiff. Apart from one brassia it's the only fragrant in bloom right now, but at least she is delicious š )
Have a great evening