A wonderful, beautiful morning to all Greggers. I know ...
A wonderful, beautiful morning to all Greggers. I know I've posted about him several times, but what can I say: I'm in love with this orchid. The fragrance gets stronger every day. It's not room filling, but.... it smells like roses. Real rose fragrance in my living room. After decades of living rose-less in the city, this is so absolutely wonderful. I never would have imagined that Pinky would have a fragrance on his first bloom, let alone one this strong. 😍 Neither was I completely certain I would love his blooms this much (his parents' colors looked a bit too intense to me). But look at that freckled lip. 😍😍🌸🌿🌸😍😍 #orchidlovers #phalaenopsisorchid #plantsmakepeoplehappy
5ft to light, direct
4” pot with drainage
Last watered 1 year ago
18
@MusicalRedmint
Pinky is fabulous!
I can't remember, what was the type of beneficial mites you ordered?
I believe I may have a mite problem based on some leaf spots/damage I'm seeing.
Pinky is fabulous!
I can't remember, what was the type of beneficial mites you ordered?
I believe I may have a mite problem based on some leaf spots/damage I'm seeing.
@UltraKoreanfir I got the amblyseius cucumeris. But others work as well, I think, depending on what you have going on. What kind of damage are you seeing? As most pests "my" mites loved the new growths on the hoyas and orchids the most. Sadly I transferred some to my mother's apartment and saw what unmitigated spread could look like there. One mini cattleya was ravaged from the center out. I really was glad that I fought them tooth and nail ( though I might have killed some orchids in the process 🤦♀️)
A real telltale sign of those mites are twisted leaves. They look like paper that got wet and dried the wrong way. With "my" mites (broad mites) the edges are mainly curling down (see pictures), with other tarsonaemidae I think the leaves can curl up. Both are great food for the cucumeris. Another sign can be very tiny beginnings of feeding damage getting bigger as time goes by (depending on how thick your leaves are), as though someone was using sandpaper on them.
Also you can even see them if your eyes are very good (or you are wearing glasses that make them good 😉) the big ones are big enough I saw them crawling around, when I looked hard and long enough. I hope you don't have any, but if you do, the cucumeris worked wonders for me. Time to visit the mite ranch. Yeehaw
A real telltale sign of those mites are twisted leaves. They look like paper that got wet and dried the wrong way. With "my" mites (broad mites) the edges are mainly curling down (see pictures), with other tarsonaemidae I think the leaves can curl up. Both are great food for the cucumeris. Another sign can be very tiny beginnings of feeding damage getting bigger as time goes by (depending on how thick your leaves are), as though someone was using sandpaper on them.
Also you can even see them if your eyes are very good (or you are wearing glasses that make them good 😉) the big ones are big enough I saw them crawling around, when I looked hard and long enough. I hope you don't have any, but if you do, the cucumeris worked wonders for me. Time to visit the mite ranch. Yeehaw
@MusicalRedmint your orchid is beautiful!
I was going to make a post and tag you and ask… if I want to get an orchid, and I have never had one, which is a good one to start with? Because I wanted to do a little research to get ready, then buy one. If you don’t mind guiding me?
I was going to make a post and tag you and ask… if I want to get an orchid, and I have never had one, which is a good one to start with? Because I wanted to do a little research to get ready, then buy one. If you don’t mind guiding me?
@Hoyaobsessed yes, they are very pretty. Though this specific one has (for a phal at least) almost razor thin leaves. Makes the mottling stand out differently. And I miss my schilleriana hybrid (killer fungus victim) with the most beautiful leaves, even more beautiful than the species I would say. It was more speckled, like freckles and silvery. 😞
@TheOddAsity on a more serious note: @MotherOfOrchids just now wrote a great post under the #orchidlover tag, that could be of interest to your search, since I imagine you have very climate controlled, mostly warm surroundings.
If you really want to shop around, in flower shops there isn't much variety (at least where I live.) Or rather, it's mostly phals in all possible pretty colors. If you want something more specialized (like e.g. the summer bloomers Debbie mentions) or more variety, a specialized nursery is the way to go.
But most people get hooked on them with "normal" Phals. And there are so many different kinds, you can fill your whole house with them. And there are no big differences in upkeep among those, it just comes down to preference.
I like fragrance, though, and experiments. And for fragrance, you need at least to stray into summer bloomer territory, (i.e. nurseries though some hybrids can be found in flower shops as well, but you would need to know what to look for, because most orchids do not develop their smell in flower shop conditions).
If you can give them lots of light you can even venture into sympodial territory. Those are orchids that do not have one stem from which they produce their leaves, but grow canelike structures one after the other from one rhyzome. Many of those are fragrant as well. Some bloom like phals (e.g. dendrobium phalaenopsis types), some have only one big fragrant flower (or slightly more, but not like phals), e.g. cattleya types.
And some produce an abundance of graceful little flowers, like the oncidium (genus) . I think we had an overview poster under the orchidlover tag a while back that listed the different species. It's a vaaaaast own little world. If you seriously want to take a look, I would look up miss orchid girl's youtube channel. I bet, somewhere on it she has a specific video, listing all different genera and their traits. If not, at the very least, you can find separate videos to the main categories, of that I am sure 😀
If you really want to shop around, in flower shops there isn't much variety (at least where I live.) Or rather, it's mostly phals in all possible pretty colors. If you want something more specialized (like e.g. the summer bloomers Debbie mentions) or more variety, a specialized nursery is the way to go.
But most people get hooked on them with "normal" Phals. And there are so many different kinds, you can fill your whole house with them. And there are no big differences in upkeep among those, it just comes down to preference.
I like fragrance, though, and experiments. And for fragrance, you need at least to stray into summer bloomer territory, (i.e. nurseries though some hybrids can be found in flower shops as well, but you would need to know what to look for, because most orchids do not develop their smell in flower shop conditions).
If you can give them lots of light you can even venture into sympodial territory. Those are orchids that do not have one stem from which they produce their leaves, but grow canelike structures one after the other from one rhyzome. Many of those are fragrant as well. Some bloom like phals (e.g. dendrobium phalaenopsis types), some have only one big fragrant flower (or slightly more, but not like phals), e.g. cattleya types.
And some produce an abundance of graceful little flowers, like the oncidium (genus) . I think we had an overview poster under the orchidlover tag a while back that listed the different species. It's a vaaaaast own little world. If you seriously want to take a look, I would look up miss orchid girl's youtube channel. I bet, somewhere on it she has a specific video, listing all different genera and their traits. If not, at the very least, you can find separate videos to the main categories, of that I am sure 😀
@MusicalRedmint oh thank you!! Yes, I will definitely narrow down my search by smell! I will go look for Debbie’s post now!
@Hoyaobsessed Not at all. Depends on what you call finicky or what surroundings you have. Many of them (among phals at least) are species or relatively new hybrids. I have no experience with paphs, so I cannot speak to those. The ones I have are relatively young and fresh in my home so I play it by ear. The fact that they are species or closely related to one makes it easy to look up specific care suggestions, e.g. in orchid forums. And I am nerdy enough that I do. For example I've heard that the sanderiana and the schilleriana are oftentimes not very happy in their pots and stagnate after some years. So I just gave them very, very chunky barkmix and will see what happens, but who knows, maybe it will work out. Right now there are no issues.
The hybrids were happy like normal phal hybrids. So, no issues there as well. As for the rest, I will just wait and see.
The hybrids were happy like normal phal hybrids. So, no issues there as well. As for the rest, I will just wait and see.
@Hoyaobsessed I do not have variegated ones. I would say that the mottling on the leaves is different from variegation. They still photosynthesize normally, I'd say, if that was what you meant
Ok so I actually have grown Phaps I call them lady slippers. They are fairly easy to grow and very easy to get to bloom! They do require a bunch more humidity than phals and more demanding watering schedule. Grown mainly in lava rock. I moved to texas and had to give them up…. Even when grown indoors texas is just tuff on most plants! I love the bloom of them. Phals are easiest for me to grow. Intergeneric orchids have been a challenge for me was well. I’ve got one I’m waiting to harvest the pup and I’ll probably have to toss the mother plant. She has a bacterial problem and honestly I am tired of trying to get rid of it but the pup looks great !!
@TheOddAsity I thought as much. 😅 I again can point you to miss orchid girl. She has videos in which she talks about fragrant orchids she likes 😀
@Hoyaobsessed I can only imagine. With your your hot climate anything with oncidium heritage must be tough. I have only had 25 degrees for some days and some of mine are more than a bit peeved. Fingers crossed for the pup (and mother). I mentioned paphs, because mottled leaves are more common with them, as I understand it. But really I have no clue. For some reason I prefer non-terrestrial orchids. No soil, just joy. I have some in just rocks and on mounts and I just love watching their roots grow like that
@MusicalRedmint No damage to my orchid, but some of my other plants have curled/deformed leaves. The dragon skin Perperomia has had perpetually curled leaves since shortly after I got it, and nothing I've tried from a substrate or humidity perspective has fixed it. I now have it under a bright Barrina and see some new tiny leaves that aren't deformed (yet?). My PPP has never looked very robust, and has bite marks (ignore the dog hair). And my Ring of Fire Philo has similar marks on the leaves, although I treated this one with Neem for about 4 weeks and the newest leaf is not damaged.
@UltraKoreanfir I agree these curly leaves look weird. I am not sure they look like my mite damage, though. The feeding damage you have... for me the main damage is too far up on the leaf. The main damage (not the curling) was really on the softest parts of the leaves, I.e. the edges or the center of the new growth. But orchid leaves are thicker of course, so who knows. So you have a good magnifying lense or app? What is the surrounding humidity and temperature like?
@Chevysgirl11 Thank you. 😊