Plant Sales Live on JuliaRedman.com
On the top is my Paph. (victoria-regina x lowii) which has actually been blooming off and on for a few months. P. lowii is multifloral, and P. victoria-regina is a sequential bloomer related to glaucophyllum, liemianum, and moquetteanum. The hybrid, registered in 1997 as Paph Sandy's Wild Turkey, seems to have inherited the sequential blooming aspect of VR, along with the giant plant aspect of lowii. Although, I suppose VR isn't exactly a mini either, but the plant looks more like lowii. I purchased it at Parkside Orchids in the summer of 2008 as a seedling. The second photo shows the plant that was the example plant at Parkside when I bought mine. I think I chose well - I like mine more. :) Score!
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Some of you may remember CatTV, the original.
Well, now we have the NEW and IMPROVED programming! IN HD (Hoppity Def)!
In the original series, we had Fritz, the German Angora (with really really bad haircut), and his sort-of nemesis, Hawkeye. In a not very exciting conclusion, they became friends and Fritz moved to a bigger cage.
In our new season, Fritz' kids are being observed by Hawkeye's compatriots.
Ha, ok. We have baby angora rabbits. For more on the babies, see November Air. They'll be ready for new homes around Valentine's Day! Please let me know if you'd like a little bunny! :)
Just for kicks, a few photos of a recent adventure in Anthurium repotting. The plant, named Anthurium 'Marie', has been in this pot for 2 or 3 years (since I bought it), and probably could have been repotted last year, but I procrastinated. The next two photos are what I started with. As you can see, it is looking a bit overgrown and under-potted.
In a fit of insanity, I thought I'd try to cut the pot away from the roots, without damaging the roots on the outside of the pot. That was slow going, and after struggling to pull back the first half of plastic on one side, I saw there was more root than media in the pot. That's about when I skipped to ripping the pot off the plant. Below is what I ended up with.
So I lost those stray roots outside the pot, but I'm not really convinced it will set the plant back any! Also, needless to say, I did not attempt to remove old media from the root ball. I then found a pot several sizes larger and reset the root ball, back-filling with a large size cattleya-type mixture of coconut husk chunks, charcoal, sponge rock, and diatomite. Results below.
It looks so happy now!
As a side note, DiatomiteUSA has shut down all sales through its website! ::GASP:: They have a note on their site that DiatomiteCanada.com will continue to serve our needs, but that of course will probably mean higher shipping. At least there's still a supplier.
This is Phrag. (longifolium x Barbara LeAnn). The first flower to open on this plant had no pouch, and no peloric petal either. I waited for a total of three flowers on two spikes to open before taking a photo, to see if this was a developmental mistake. But each of the flowers is the same: No lip! I've never seen anything like it. I think I'll call it "Frank Burns" after the MASH character described as being a "lip-less wonder".
Some of you may have already guessed this, but I love growing things from seed. This is why it is a natural progression for me to have advanced to growing orchids from seed. This is also why I covet seed catalogs. Full of beautiful photographs of obscure or heirloom varieties and ripe with possibilities, they captivate my imagination every winter. I know many other plant geeks out there can relate to this, and it was a fellow plant geek that coined the term "plant porn" for plant catalogs, seed or perennials. It also helped that she kept all her catalogs in the bathroom.
The flood of seed catalogs has begun for me. I got these three recently and I expect several more over the next 6 weeks. Every year I know a new set of gardeners will be looking to get started or advance beyond hardware store offerings. Below you'll find links to some of my favorite companies.
Seed Savers Exchange
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Pinetree Garden Seeds
Territorial Seed
Vermont Bean Seed Company
Amishland Heirloom Seeds (*online only, small, woman-owned business)
Johnny's Seeds
Totally Tomatoes
There are many other seed companies, small and large. Explore and have fun with it.
I've been keeping busy lately, making lots of crosses and flasking. The photo at the top here shows a shelf full of jars housing the 'infants'. Some of these are crosses I made, some are species grown from purchased seed.
Here's a little secret for you - most crosses fail in some way or another. Out of 26 hybridization attempts in the past two years, twenty failed to produce seed. Mainly this happens by just not making a mature pod, failing very early, but there were a couple that carried a reasonable looking seed pod for months only for me to split it and find it was empty later. Of the 6 remaining, one failed to germinate, two were contaminated (@$#! fungal spores in dry seed), and three grew nicely.
Among these three that grew nicely is Paph. (Pucks Apple x gardineri). There are 8 pots of these among the group of flasks recently potted out to community pots. This cross has been growing so fast. If they continue to do well, I'll begin making seedlings available in the spring, though I may make a small flask available before then. I'm hoping they continue to be speedy, so that we can see them bloom in a couple years.
This is a peek inside a flask of phalaenopsis seedlings, just before deflasking to community pot. These plants are living in a quart size mason jar (size of a standard spaghetti sauce jar).
On the top is my Paph. (victoria-regina x lowii) which has actually been blooming off and on for a few months. P. lowii is multifloral, and P. victoria-regina is a sequential bloomer related to glaucophyllum, liemianum, and moquetteanum. The hybrid, registered in 1997 as Paph Sandy's Wild Turkey, seems to have inherited the sequential blooming aspect of VR, along with the giant plant aspect of lowii. Although, I suppose VR isn't exactly a mini either, but the plant looks more like lowii. I purchased it at Parkside Orchids in the summer of 2008 as a seedling. The second photo shows the plant that was the example plant at Parkside when I bought mine. I think I chose well - I like mine more. :) Score!
