Impressive Japanese collection

I don't know who owns this site, but there are some amazing Cattleyas in there!

Cattleya intermedia

This is a cross of sanguinea x 'Nancy' from H & R a few years ago.  The color is nice, but you can see the petals are deformed.  I suspect this is environmental.

Still here

Well, posting has been light.  This is a combination of our 3 month old daughter, the fact that I'm trying to get some work done, the propane debacle, and a generally slow time in the greenhouse.  But, there is some stuff that will bloom soon.  Here are some shots of two C. intermedias, a C trianae, and Oncidium splendidum.

Neostylis Lou Sneary 'Bluebird'

Been thinking about getting one of these for a while - finally saw one for 9 bucks so I couldn't pass it up.  I don't have many Vandaceous plants - humidity is a bit low - but what the heck, we'll see.  This plant is a mericlone of a primary hybrid between Neofinetia falcata and Rhynostylis coelestis.  It generally meets all the conditions for making it into my collection.  1) Heat tolerant, 2) Species or primary hybrid, 3) fragrant.

This plant also stays very small, which is nice, though I don't pay much attention to that criterion with my Cattleyas.

It came in a pot - these plants are usually grown in baskets, often with no medium.  I will move it to a 4 inch wood basket when new roots start.

Dealing with rot

This is a C. mossiae coerulea that dropped a few leaves due to the evil known as propane.  Today I noticed some rot below the abscission point on one of the bulbs - whether this is connected to a dying leaf is hard to say.  In any case, to avoid the spread of these infections and death of the plant one has to undertake radical surgery.  I took a clean razor blade, sliced off the bulb well below the brown part, and then sprinkled cinnamon on the wound.  Cinnamon is known to have effective anti-microbial activity.

Video blog entry

I saw no reason to not start posting short video entries - and with that, here is the first in what I hope to maintain as a regular feature.

The state of the collection

Below are a few photos of plants experiencing significant amounts of leaf abscission - this is FAR in excess of what I ever seen (at least half my plants have yellowing leaves) and I strongly suspect at this point that I am seeing the delayed consequences of ethlylene production associated with the use of propane - the same thing I suspect caused the recent bud blast.

At this point, I am hoping that the damage doesn't become any worse - it would really hurt to lose a significant part of my collection.

C. purpurata

C. Quinquecolor

Two Laelia anceps

L. anceps (left) and L. gouldiana (right)