Blue Orchid Special

I returned Sunday from Memphis Orchid Show and MidAmerica Orchid Congress Spring meeting. The show was fantastic and I hope to have photos and reports about it later in the week. The weather was horrendous on the drive through Missouri. I drove through two tornado warnings along my route on I55 and I70 but I had no idea how bad things were in Joplin. According to Facebook updates, the relief effort is inundated with bottled water and clothes, but they need money. The Heart of Missouri United Way seems to be one of the most direct ways to help.

Thinking about the tragedy in Joplin prompted me to think about other awful things going on in the world. I started thinking about those fake-looking blue orchids. One of the Holy Grails of orchid hybridizing has been to breed or find a blue orchid. Some orchid flowers have hues of violet that appear blue, but true blue is still a dream. And maybe it should stay that way. I've noted a proliferation of "blue" orchids in my town and it's led me to rethink the need to breed blue.

Let's be clear: these "blue" orchids are an abomination unto all that is good and true. They're a pox on the plant world. Horticultural hell beasts. Atrocities, all. It hurts to look at them and I find their popularity baffling. You probably know this already, but the bright blue orchids sold at your neighborhood grocery store or popular department store are not truly blue. They are white Phalaenopsis treated under a patented process with mysterious chemicals. Unlike any other orchid, they won't rebloom in the same color. The blue will be severely faded or it will come back white. That's why they look so wretchedly unnatural; you can easily tell they weren't born that way. It's a white Phal. in a blue body, crying out for help.

I set out on the Internet to find support for my prejudice, but I learned that people love these hideous things. Cats and Catts readers know that we're big fans of Cattleya expert Arthur Chadwick, so I was happy to find him weighing in on the issue and making an argument that fans of blue should look into Vandas. 
 

So, what's next? Poinsettias sprayed with silver glitter? White carnations dipped in green dye? I don't even want to think about it.

Cat TV

by Trixie

When it comes to kitty comfort in Cats & Catts house, we go above and beyond. Always looking for places that allow them to be adorable in new and precious ways, we decided to build a Kitty TV for our cats to lounge in.

The plan was originally posted on facebook. It seemed easy enough: find an old TV or computer monitor, gut it, and hang it on the wall….Viola! Instant Kitty TV house!

Brian found the TV on the side of the road, and brought it home, full of enthusiasm for the project! He thought that smashing the glass screen with his sledgehammer was the best plan (to quote him, “When you have a sledgehammer, everything looks like it needs to be hammered!”) He taped up the front so when the glass shattered, it would not rain all over the living room.

Intervening after the first sledgehammer hit barely glanced off the screen, I suggested we unscrew the back of the TV, and remove the guts, including the glass, without resorting to violence.  Pulling out my screwdriver, I removed the screws and the innards.

Once the insides were removed, it was simply a matter of mounting the TV on the wall.  There are typically two cats on Brian's desk at any given time and that does not leave a lot of work room. I decided the best placement of the TV would be a place that we could watch and enjoy.

So, I mounted the TV in the corner of our shared office. I screwed through the plastic on the bottom of the set into some L-bars I had on hand. Then, I added a piece of thick foam in the bottom, added a kitty bed, and waited for the kitties to wake up and start jumping in.

It only took about an hour for the first visitor to be scheduled on Kitty TV! Riley was the first program, and he has become a daily Must See TV! Three of four Cats & Catts kitties enjoy the kitty TV (as evidenced by these photos) Bean pays for the cost of Kitty Cable by letting her paws dangle out of the set. 3-D glasses, Not Required! 

Enjoy!

A Tale of Two Blooms

 The first picture features Phal. Fred's Pimento, a hybrid created by Fred Bergam. Fred's Pimento is (Phal. Auckland Buddha x Phal. Dotty Woodson) and it has a varnished look and a waxy substance. I like the coloration because, from a slight distance, it looks like the red is uniform. Taking a closer view, the Harlequin-style blotching looks layered. The bright violet and orange on the lip makes for a nice contrast with the red tepals. Dotty Woodson brings a clear red color to the hybrid and Aukland Buddha brings the intricate blotching patterns. The flower count is low, but that could be due to my care or the age of the plant. There's a second inflorescence on its way up that could do great things. So, where does the "pimento" come into the picture? Viewed from the back, the flower bud looked green with a red square down the center back -- just like a pimento olive.

The bloom on the left is and unregistered hybrid Dtps. Taisuco Candystripe x Phal. Candied Prism. Its parentage is just a list of names to me, but maybe someone out there is curious: Dtps. Taisuco Candystripe is (Dtps. Okay Seven x Dtps. Sun-Chen Beauty) and Candied Prism is (Phal. Razzle Dazzle x Phal. Brian Carter). I love the fine dotting on the flower. The splatter is uniform and the pinks and reds are harmonious. The touch of yellow is cute. It's a pretty face, but its substance is papery. Looking on the bright side, the flower's coloring pops out with light at its back. On the down side, the edges of the flower are a tiny bit too wavy and the dorsal lacks confidence. Stand up, proud sepal! 

 I never thought I'd enjoy Phalaenopsis as much as I have this past year. I'm learning that I can keep them alive when they're not in sphagnum moss, and it's easier to take pleasure in a plant when you aren't killing it or worried about killing it. This year's performance, I think, is just a taste of what these plants can do. It will be fun to see how they show up next year (and that I'm thinking about next year is a sure sign of orchid sickness).

Summer Camp 2011: A Process

We are having the first string of evenings with temperatures above 60 F, so it's time for many of my orchids to begin their summer vacations. I anticipate a few nights where I'll need to bring them inside due to an odd cold front or excessive rain, but the air and sun feel like it's time to start the summering process. I'll wait until it heats up before moving the Phals., but my Oncidiums, Brassavolas, and Cattleyas are in the shade house.

A lot of orchids love to be outside during the Midwest summer. The 12-16 weeks of extreme heat and humidity boosts their growth and sets the stage for their Fall and Winter flower extravaganza. At our last meeting, the fabulous leader of our Society's Beginner Group reviewed some important points about moving plants outdoors. I'm making a few modifications this year based on her suggestions and my experiences last summer.

1) First, I'm adding shade cloth on the West-facing side. I can still see last year's burn marks on my Miltassia and I'm determined to avoid a repeat scenario. On the plus side, the natural light and longer days is turning the Miltassia's leaves a lovely shade of light green.

2) I'm also making an extra effort to secure the pots to the structure instead of waiting until they blow over. I discovered last summer that a lot of my plants resent being knocked off the bench, out of their potting media, and onto wet grass. I don't know why the wildly chaotic winds and storms caught me off guard last season, especially considering that I've lived in the land of Oz, Dorothy, and Toto for almost a decade.

3) I'm going to rely less on the bench & racks and I'm going to do more mounting and hanging of the orchids. This is especially important for my Brassavolas. They had a rough 2010 summer and it took me a long time to figure out how to make them happy. B. cuculatta and B. Little Stars were healthy and carefree, but their friends (B. subulifolia, B. tuberculata, and B. nodosa) had birds or mice gnaw on their pseudobulbs, had sun-fried root, were over-watered, and generally muddled through.

For me, the secret was taking them out of their pots and mounting them on wood or cork. I did this to my Rl. David Sander (Rhy. digbyana x B. cucullata) last August and it made a massive and joyous recovery. I reasoned that the others desired liberation from their clay pots, too, and followed suit. They now require more frequent watering (spraying 1-3 times a day), but it prompts me to visit them more often and I feel like I have a better sense of their needs. One of our esteemed Orchid Society members grows his B. nodosa in South-facing sun with no shading whatsoever. I saw it last year on the Grower's Tour. It looked awesome! The trick, however, is to ease the Brassavolas into a full-sun mood, and creating that mood is a careful process that travels far into June.

4) Finally, I'm going to take better care in easing the plants into their new environment. I've been putting the large Catts outside on nice days for the past month. At first, I put them out for a few hours in the morning or afternoon. Eventually they stayed out all day when warm and partly cloudy. Now, they're getting a lot more sun.

Although the official start of summer is about six weeks away, the summering process is Now. Some plants will thrive and others will face unexpected challenges. I hope for a little luck, good watering decisions, and -- of course -- careful guidance from the four kitties.

Tulip Mania

As we barrel toward the end of April I thought it would be a good idea to review the Cats and Catts 2011 tulip experience. Riley and Bean were especially interested. I purchased a variety in September without a true bulb agenda. I planted the daffodils in front of the tulips, and the short flowers in front of the bigger flowers, and let nature take it from there.

The results surprised me. The varieties I thought I'd like were unimpressive, and the ones that looked gaudy on the label turned out to be elegant in bloom. Cats and Catts fans know how much I love white Cattleyas and Brassavolas, so it was natural that I would buy some white tulips. But they didn't really do it for me and smelled unimpressive. 'Shirley' grew on me, but I don't like its black throat. The red Darwins, however, were awesome. The Fosterianas with the smaller stems and blooms didn't impress me either. To be fair, it all impressed me, but the taller, more vase-friendly, plants were simply fantastic. Some of them opened so flat that they took on the form of an entirely different flower.

There's plenty of room for more bulbs six months from now, and it will be interesting to see which ones come back for the 2012 Spring. With all of the mental energy demanded by the orchids and the daylilies and the cats (and sometimes the frogs), I doubt I'll be making any cut-throat decisions about tulip bulbs six months from now. On the other hand, it's not too early to look at bulb catalogs.

 

Red Riley

Riley is posing next to a Brachy complex hybrid from the Orchid Inn. You can buy your own right here. These hybrids are part of Sam Tsui's effort to breed a solid red dorsal. I bought this in bloom over a year ago and was happy to see it bloom again this month.

Its name is Paph. godefroyae (syn. Paph. leucochilum) 'Florida Red' HCC/AOS x (Bella Lucia x Sabatino) 'Red Moon.' Some Cats and Catts readers, particularly those who studied Bean's series on Brachypetalums, will find the name immediately understandable. Others might appreciate a reminder that the pod parent is species Paph. godefroyae (also referred to as Paph. leucochilum and Paph godefroyae var. leucochilum), typically noted for its strong flower stem and dark burgundy blotching. 

The pollen parent is an unnamed hybrid that Orchid Inn has registered as 'Red Moon.' Paph. Bella Lucia is Paph. bellatulm x Paph. Wellesleyanum and Paph. Sabatino is Paph. Muriel Constance × Paph. Greyi. In other words, the pollen parent is a Brachy mutt with a lot of bellatulum in the background. Paph. bellatulum typically has weak flower stems, and that trait expressed itself in this cross. Maybe the stem is floppy because I raised the plant poorly, but I'd rather blame Nature.

 Is anyone still awake? I think the genealogical heritage of my plants is endlessly fascinating, but let's talk about its prettiness. This is another gem from the Orchid Inn. The heavy blotching on the dorsal contrasts nicely with the white pouch. The pattern is mesmerizing, especially with the light at its back.

I'm thrilled with the shape, too. The lateral sepals are slightly reflexed to give it a full and round face. I might be too quick to overlook its flaws, but it had a rough start. The bloom unfolded with one sepal pulled back and the other falling forward. I was concerned during the few days it took to regain symmetry. It had nothing to do with poverty or world peace, but I can become a tad high-strung after waiting months for a single flower to open.

I trusted Riley not to harass the flower and my trust proved well-placed. He often rises to the occasion for photo shoots. Riley can appreciate a nice flower, even if he is one of the weirdest cats in the house.

Fred's Lan Lan

This looks like a cat and orchid disaster, but Lan Lan pulled back at the last moment and left the flower intact. Lan Lan was showing (too much) interest in Dtps. Fred's Redlip (Phal. Devon Ace x Dtps. Ilse of Beauty). I'm not sure the lip is, indeed, red, but we're dealing with dominant and recessive traits and the many unknowns that make up flower hybridizing. I love the sparkling white petals and the flatness of the flowers.

 

Fred Bergman is a longtime member of the Orchid Society of Greater Kansas City and he's well-known for his hybridizing efforts. OrchidWiz lists over 250 registered crosses and I know he's created hundreds more. Almost all of his plants are named 'Fred's ____.' 

Fred ran the Beginner Group for my orchid society and I always tried to attend. Fred approaches orchids like a scientist and has little patience for untested theories, remedies, and folk advice. In Beginner Group he always emphasized the flexibility of orchids' cultural needs and the necessity to find out what works with your particular growing set-up. I could see how this approach could frustrate some who want a bottom-line answer to a question like "how often should I water?" but it was a very familiar outlook for me having grown up with a father and mother in the science and medical fields respectively. Fred is skeptical of the supposed benefits of reverse-osmosis water, the power of Michigan State fertilizer, and the hottest trends in non-decomposing potting media. His success with tap water, urea-based fertilizer, and peat mix is ample evidence for his skepticism.

So, it was a great moment at our orchid society meeting when Al Clinton revealed that he had named one of his Masdevallia crosses after Fred (Masd. Fred Bergman, which is Masd. striatella x Masd. Gold Purse.). It was an extremely cool looking flower. Our Orchid Society blogger, Jami Parkinson, recorded the moment and has a nice post about the event here. All of this goes to show that the flowers might draw someone into the orchid cult, but it's the good people one meets along the way that sustains the addiction.

Winning

Orchid exhibiting is like karate. I've never done karate, but I've seen The Karate Kid a few times and I remember Mr. Miyagi scoffing at the idea that Daniel could learn martial arts from a book. I have no idea how to win at flower shows but I'm pretty sure this book isn't going to help. It's not a very good book, to be perfectly honest with you and, following Mr. Miyagi, orchid showing seems to be one of those things that you can only learn by doing.

That said, the new issue of Orchids magazine has a number of articles about AOS awards and judging that are worth reading. These articles discuss the history of the AOS judging system, how it compares to other judging systems, and the considerations judges take into account when making their decisions. As one of the articles points out, previously awarded clones -- except in the rare instance when it improves substantially on the original -- aren't going to be selected by the judges for AOS consideration. It all starts with the collection.

Orchid shows also seem to be a lot like little league baseball. I've never played baseball, but I saw Hardball once or twice and I remember Keanu Reeves praising the disadvantaged inner-city youth for showing up. Half of the battle is having the orchids show up. I've learned that plants in which you have little faith might be big winners. The judges might see something you don't. In fact, they're very likely to see something you don't because they've spent nearly ten years of their life training to be an orchid judge. Beyond that, your flower might be the only one in its class. It's all about showing up.

Perhaps the comparisons to karate or baseball are stretching things too far. It seems to me that growing good looking orchids is the fundamental key to successfully exhibiting them. Growing what you love is its own reward, but I want more ribbons and glory. I need to focus my collection for that to happen. I need to make sure the flowers show up to the orchid shows. And I need to learn that special crane kick from Mr. Miyagi.

Epiphyte Day: The Secret Life of Oncidiums

Onc. cornigerum, Curtis's botanical 1836

-- An April Rainforest Garden Epiphyte Day Post --


My first successful orchid experience (after slaughtering a couple of Phals.) was a Miltassia Charles M. Fitch 'Izumi.' I've written about this plant several times and it continues to be one of my favorites. If someone were to ask me to recommend a first orchid, I would steer them toward something in the Oncidium Alliance.

The genus Oncidium comprises over three hundred species, most of which are epiphytes. The Oncidium Alliance includes related genera like Miltonias, Odontoglossums, and Tolumnias. Oncidiums, at least the ones we see for sale, produce sprays of flowers on long, arching inflorescenses. They want more light than your Phalaenopsis, but can tolerate less light than Brassavolas and Cattleyas. Most Oncidiums are happy in warm temperatures and appreciate a 10-15 degree temperature swing between day and night. They like to dry out between watering sessions, but are forgiving.

For me, the appeal of Oncidiums is the effect created by the mass of flowers crowding an inflorescence. It's a big, colorful show where the whole of the display is more than the sum of its individual flowers. That said, the individual flowers are very cool unto themselves and, like snowflakes, have slight differences in the color patterning. A second advantage of an Oncidium orchid is its lush foliage, providing visual interest all year long. Dark green leaves are an indication of insufficient light. Yellow leaves suggest too much light. Dark spots on the leaves -- speaking from experience -- are usually signs of sunburn, but they could also point to a fungus problem if sunburn isn't a possibility. Finally, many Oncidiums have an amazing scent. The best known of these is probably Onc. Sharry Baby, which gives off an awesome chocolate smell (specifically, Swiss mocha with a dollop of vanilla).

Oncidiums are a perfect starter-orchid because Oncidiums tell the owner in a variety of ways when they’re unhappy. My beloved Brachypetalums show few red flags when they're in trouble; the leave might have a nice gloss while the root system rots away to nothing. Oncidiums, by contrast, are like a Tall Flags Pageantry Corp. When an Oncidium is unhappy the psuedobulbs will wrinkle, the leaves will develop pleating, and the visible roots will start to resemble straw. 


I'm not an expert on Oncidiums, and I only have three (including a de rigeur Sharry Baby) but I think I've discovered a secret to their care: dragging them into the shower. I know some people take their orchids into the bathroom to give them a humidity boost. I propose something a little more radical. I take them into the shower and let them experience a full blast of water. The leaves seem to love it, staying perky all through the dry Midwestern winter. I've stopped worrying about the effect of soap, the heat, and the volume of the water -- it doesn't seem to matter. It's a poor substitute for a rainforest, sure, but it's the best we can do in Zone 5.

Separation Anxiety

My limited experience with orchid shows has taught me a few things. First of all, as Dalton from Roadhouse would say, "expect the unexpected." Orchid damage is the biggest fear, so I've packed them with utmost care. The Paph. was easy enough, but the Phal. needed elaborate consideration. I could have used more pillow stuffing, I think. 

These two spent last weekend in Springfield Missouri and are headed to Omaha this weekend. Expecting the unexpected, I didn't know what to think, but both did really well in Springfield. Our society exhibit also rocked.


I wasn't there to see our exhibit, the show, my plants, or the competition, so I had some separation anxiety. I knew they were in expert hands but I was still relieved to hear that they didn't spontaneously immolate or something. Wish them luck in Omaha!