New Orchid: Rlc. (Port Royal Sound 'Big Red' x Chia Lin 'Shinsu #1' AM/JOGA

Rlc. (Port Royal Sound 'Big Red' x Chia Lin 'Shinsu #1' AM/JOGA)

     My giant orchid order from Hausermann arrived yesterday.  Since there are so many orchids (6), instead of one giant post, I will introduce each individually.

     So, without further ado, here is my new cattleya hybrid: a seed grown cross.  The tag says "Blc." for "brassolaeliocattleya" but a search on the Internet Orchid Register indicates that both parents were reassigned to the genus "rhyncholaeliocattleya" sometime around 2009.  Both these genus names are obscenely long, so I will refer to the orchid either as a 'cattleya' in general, or as 'Rlc'.

     The orchid has 4 single-leaved pseudobulbs.  The longest leaf is 5.5" and there is one new growth.  According to the vendor, it is 3 years away from blooming size.

Rlc. Chia Lin 'Shinsu #1' (source: Owensorchids.com)

Rlc. Port Royal Sound 'Big Red' (click for larger photo original link)

     The picture above are hits on google image search for the parent names. Both seem to make large showy red flowers.  I expect and hope that my resulting hybrid will come out looking similarly.   

Bare root Rlc. Port Royal Sound x Chia Lin

     Since the orchid looked like its roots were trying to crawl out of the pot, I immediately went to re-pot.  I soaked the orchid for a while in water+superthrive to loosen everything up.  Then I pried the whole thing out of its 2.5" pot.  The roots inside were better than I had expected, actually.  Compare my Tolumnia Genting Orange, which arrived similarly with tons of roots outside the pot: the roots from inside the pot were mostly dead.

     I trimmed back a few of the dead and broken roots, and repotted into a 4" clear plastic pot with medium orchid bark.

Leaf damage on Phal Memoria Audrey Meldman 'Mendenhall'

Mysterious leaf damage on Phal Memoria Audrey Meldman 'Mendenhall'

     I was out of town this week, and when I came back, I immediately noticed the leaf damage on my Phal M.A.M.  It looks like sunburn to me, but I find it odd that the leaf would burn up so suddenly after being fine for almost two months.  Perhaps the added summer heat was the trigger.

Close-up of leaf damage

     Regardless of the cause, I cut the yellowing leaf off.  Since it was by far the largest leaf on the phal, the remaining plant looks substantially diminished.  Still, there newest leaf is still growing, and hopefully will reach the size of its predecessor.

A suddenly diminished phalaenopsis

     I moved the phal down to the lower shelf, where it is now certain to not be overexposed.

     

Dendrobium victoria-reginae II goes back in pot

Dendrobium victoria-reginae

     My new dendrobium victoria reginae started losing leaves.  I can think of two possible reasons why: either at 90+F my apartment is too hot for this cool-grower to handle, or its mount was drying out too much.  I can't do anything about the heat until my air conditioner arrives in the mail, but I did reconsider my original decision to mount the plant.

     I know that this species likes lots of water, and in this heat, the mount was drying up within hours.  While my tolumnias have been thriving under these conditions, the den victoria reginae probably needs a more even amount of moisture.

     When I took the dendrobium off its mount, the roots seemed in good condition.  I kept the sphagnum moss around the roots, and potted the whole thing into a 4inch clear plastic pot.  I filled out the rest of the pot with oncidium potting mix.  Depending on how the roots fare in this mix, I may decided to switch later to small bark pieces, or something else like that.

Edit (11/16/12): This orchid died not long after I wrote this post.  It lost all its leaves and the canes shriveled up. I'm guessing that it could not tolerate the unairconditioned heat of NYC summer.  Since this is my second failed attempt with Den. victoriae-reginae, I have now given up on trying to grow this species.

New bulb growing on sophronitis cernua

New growth on sophronitis cernua

     My sohpronitis cernua has been producing many new roots, and what looks like the start of a new pseudobulb.  I've been waiting for the growth to get big enough that I'd be able to take a decent picture of it.  Since the new roots show up with salad-green tips and this bud is a deep green, I am pretty confident that it is a pseudobulb.

A slightly closer view

     The image above is about as close as my camera can get before all focus is lost.  The image does show that the mature pseudobulbs seem to have smooth unwrinkled sides.  I'll take that as indication that the orchid is doing well.

New growths on tolumnias

Tolumnia Red Berry

     While my Tolumnia Genting Orange has been claiming all the spotlight with its blooming, my other two tolumnias have been producing new growths and roots.  Tolumnia Red Berry (above) has one new growth, and a couple new roots poking out among the mostly dry moss.  

Tolumnia Pink Panther

     Meanwhile my Tolumnia Pink Panther has added yet another new grow, in addition to the three that I noticed back in May.  This brings the total number of growths up to 14.

(Note: I just installed Photoshop CS6 on a new computer and have been messing around with various settings such as the HDR toning menu.  As a result, my photos may be a little bit wonky until I figure out what is a good idea and what I shouldn't mess with)

Cattlianthe Jewel Box 'Scheherazade' done flowering

Cattlianthe Jewel Box 'Scheherazade' after blooming

     Today, the last of my Ctt Jewel Box flowers was wilted, completing a blooming cycle that lasted just under 5 weeks. There is another sheath, but it is undeveloped, and I have no way of guessing when (or if) those flowers will open.

Leaf damage on cattlianthe

     There is some damage on several of the leaves.  I can't quite tell if the cause is bugs, or sun or cat.  Nonetheless, I moved the orchid back from the windowsill and onto my top shelf under the lights.  In its place, I have both of my oncidiums at the window instead.

Ordered six new orchids today

Dtps. Gold Tris 'Desk Pot'
Phalaenopsis gigantea (seedling)
Dtps. Jungo City
Phal. Yu Pin Burgundy
Blc. (Port Royal Sound 1 x Chia Lin) (seedling)
Paph. (Adam Hausermann x Duncan York)


This is the biggest orchid order I've yet made, though in my defense, it's actually not the most expensive.  Many of these orchids were under $10 each, and all under $20 per plant.


Something tells me I may be doing yet another expansion of the orchid growing space, come winter.