Paph exuls are spiking

I have five different plants of Paph. exul from different sources and i placed them in different locations to see if light level affects flowering. Interestingly, one of the plants flowering is placed in very bright condition while the other plant is in the shade. The other three plants are not showing any flower spikes yet. The plant on top is given bright light while the one below is in the shade.

Bulbophyllum madusae

The medusae flowered again recently. This must be the season cos all the madusae plants i have are flowering. This time i managed to get a closer shot of the flowers.

Sotong ! (Squid ? cuttlefish?)

Well i did say i like to go fishing every now and then. Very nice and yummy squid that i caught last Sunday afternoon on Ah Yew's Kelong off Pulau Sibu in Johore. I only managed to catch another 6 or 7 of them. That night, we had a very good after-supper snack of fried selar and squid. I forgot to bring wasabi or else we could have had fresh squid sashimi. Also the Kelong's worker heard wrongly and instead of steaming the squids, he fried them together with the fishes. But it is still the best fried squid ever!!

More stories and pictures here:-http://joe-fishingtrip.blogspot.com

Coelogne fimbrata Up Close

Managed to get a close-up view of my fimbrata this morning. They are now very happily established on two coconut-husk poles. I read somewhere that a natural hybrid between the fimbata and celebensis exists in the wild with characteristics such as flower and leaf size which is intermediate between the two species. Compared to the fimbrata, the celebensis is a giant with leaves that look like young coconut palm leaves.

Malayan violacea

I purchased a few Malayan type Phalaenopsis violacea seedlings from Taiwan recently and two of them flowered. The colour is indeed intense as promised although the flower size is smaller than some of my other violaceas. Here i am showing the same flower photographed on the same day same time using different settings. This shows that one must never easily trust websites touting violacea "blue" because photographs can be misleading.

Phal. Amber Delite

This plant came from Mr. David Lim. I bought it from his house in Jalan Kayu many years back. The flower is very pretty because it has fine finger print pattern all over and even the lip has very fine spots.

Dendrobium farmeri

This very seasonal dendrobium is flowering now. It flowered at about the same time last year and i posted some pictures in December 2007. This time there were supposed to be three flower spikes but one dried up when i went to Penang last weekend. My wife says the flowers reminds her of boiled eggs.

Paph callosum

The flower bud of Paph. callosum is getting bigger.

I am looking forward to seeing the flower after so many years.

Coelogyne celebensis

If you are looking for a Coelogyne that flowers non-stop, and gives long lasting flower, this is the one. The flower can last many days if not for those pesky big black wasp which chews and eat the flower. Then the two yellow sacs of pollen gets stuck onto their back while they fly around. They look quite menacing so i usually leave them alone to complete their destruction. Anyway that's nature; and probably the flowers were meant to be eaten any way.

Paph. callosum Spiking !!!

Finally this Paph. callosum decide to produce a flower spike. I got this plant while i was still living in Pasir Ris. Although the plant could survive, the environment was a bit warmer at Pasir Ris so the plant aborted the flower spike after producing it. This happened on 2 occassions. It was frustrating to see the flower spike elongate, the bud slowly form, then dries up and dies.

This is the first time that it is spiking in the new environment so i am keeping my fingers crossed. If it can succeed this time, my conclusion would be the temperature.

This picture was taken about 2 weeks ago so the bud is bigger and longer now. I squeeze two different types of callosums into the same pot. Somehow they do better together than on their own. Don't know why but this is my observation.

This plant is easily 5 to 8 years old.

I know it looks a bit odd cos if 8 years old it should be a huge plant now. The same goes for my concolor alba. It should be a huge plant if it was grown commercially. The problem with me is that i hardly give any fertilizer and many of my plants got diseased and if they managed to survive, they are reduced to a fraction of their original size and everything starts again.

One of my good concolor recently contracted some bacteria rot and the entire pot with 4 huge growths is now reduced to only one growth. I am now putting it in quarantine away from the rest. So that's how my 10-year old plant ends up with only one pathetic growth.

Maybe i should have divided the plant while it was still big and healthy. But i am always reluctant to disturb a well growing and flowering plant for fear of killing it unintentionally.

Den. oligophyllum

My Den. oligophyllum growing beside some pachyphyllums. This plant sits in a quiet corner and occassionally throws out a couple of small white flowers. A small insect has just got into the flower.

Phal. Hannover Passion

This is a very striking Phal. Hannover Passion which originated from Taiwan. I bought this from Mr. Law MH many years ago. It is very free flowering and in my opinion looks better in real life than this photograph. The color is exceptionally striking in the morning.

Creating that "Leaf Litter" effect

Here i am trying to create that "leaf Litter" effect for my Paph. callosums and barbatums. There are plants hanging on top with their roots dangling down and i use coconut husk with lica, pumice and recently i am trying out tea leaves. Yes, tea leaves after i brew my Taiwan Alisan High Mountain tea. Hope they like a nice cuppa as well.

Phal hieroglyphica

This is a very old hieroglyphica which i bought from Mr. Tommy Sng more than 10 years ago. The plant had gone through a lot of near death experience. Luckily it managed to survive each time and now it is flowering again. It is special because the petals and sepals are greenish, unlike the recent imports from Taiwan.

Close-Up of Ventricularia tenuicaulis

This is a close-up picture of the very small flower which is only about 3 mm across.

concolors in bloom

These 2 concolors were separated from a large pot a few months back. They are now doing well on their own. (Due to lack of space, i put a few different plants of concolor into a pot a few yearrs back).

Nice orchid

This is an orchid i bought from WL a couple of years ago. Flowers very well in Singapore and usually produce at least 4 flower stalks.

Bulbophyllum limbatum

I just bought a Sony Cybershot T700 so i can now use its super close macro feature to take close-ups of some of my plants with very small flowers. The limbatum happens to be flowering now so it is a good subject. Can actually get closer than this but it is a bit tricky.

Oncidium Golden Shower?(Pure yellow)

This pure yellow form Oncidium came from the collection of Mr. Law MH. This plant is different from the recently created pure yellow oncidium from Japan. The japanese type plant is bigger and carries bigger flower sprays whereas this plant is small. The yellow tone is also different.

Three Types Of amboinensis

These 3 types of amboinensis are currently flowering. I have another plant of amboinensis 'common' that is bigger and rounder than the one shown but too bad it is not so free flowering.

Dendrobium aphyllum

This Dendrobium aphyllum came from Penang. A gift from Mr. Lim Song when i visited him last year. He has lots of Dendrobiums hanging on a tree, including an interesting Den. anosmum which does not drop any leaves before flowering.

Bulbophyllum lindleyanum

This is Bulbophyllum lindleyanum. It is very pretty and has small hairy flowers with very nice purple markings.

Dendrobium erriflorum

These are pics of the Dendrobium erriflorum that i purchased recently. I bought it becaue the whole plant is literally covered in small white flowers. Very attractive!!

Paph. rothschildianum Fully Opened

My Paph. rothschildianum opened fully about a week ago. I was out to get new stuffs so did not have time to photograph it. Now that i'm back in S'pore i finally got a chance this morning to snap a few shots. Very pretty flower although not the award quality that i saw in Mr. Zhang's home nursery in Yuan Lin (Taiwan)when i visited him 2 weeks ago.

New Stuffs From My Favourite Place

These are new acquisitions from my favourite source. On this fern bark, i mounted:

1. Bulbophyllums with leaves that are purple on the underside.

2. Bulbophyllum lindleyanum with small, hairy petals and sepals.

3. Lots of Dendrobium erriflorum with small, long lasting greenish white flowers.

4. Two types of Panisea

Phal. cornu-cervi and Hen

There is a hen under the cornu-cervi. She chose one of the pots and basically pulled out everything in her way, created a depression and started doing her job.









This is her boyfriend and guardian.








The guardian taking a look at her progress.

The reasons for all the commotion.

Paph. rothschildianum spiking!!!

The recent rain led to cooler nights (23 deg) and the rothschildianum responded by producing a flower spike. There are a few new growths but only the one at the back is spiking.

Paph. Shireen

The flower bud of Paph. Shireen begun to open a few days ago. This plant is very free flowering.





The flower opened fully yesterday. The sepal has very nice clean stripes.

New Hybrid from MH nursery

This new hybrid from MH Nursery flowered again a few days ago. Pictures of the flower from the first flowering was posted a few months back. This is the second flowering.



This phal has very strong amboinensis 'flava' influence.

Close-up of the flower.

Phal. amboinensis 'flava' in flower

Three of my amboinensis 'flava' plants are in flower recently. This one's got bigger flowers.








This is another plant. The recent cool spell may have triggered the flowering.








This plant only has a single flower.