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.