Last Monday, the Fraser Valley Orchid Society began meeting after a brief summer break. We had a few new members join, so I wasn’t the newest person (yay!), and we had an awesome speaker. Glen Decker from Piping Rock Orchids was our guest speaker.
He had amazing photos, and gave lots of information on Paph and Phrag cultivation. It gave me the motivation I needed to begin repotting my paphs. Honestly I should be repotting all my plants, but I’ll just start with the paphs and work my way through the rest of them.
He brought so many nice plants to sell, I was tempted! And my enabler-friend wasn’t helping. But I stayed strong and didn’t purchase any, even though he had a beautiful multi-fan Paph. spicerianum that I really wanted to get.
One might ask why I’d pass up the chance to get some plants from him. Well that enabler-friend of mine had given me 5 plants that were all sitting in her car, waiting for me to get them home and inspect them. I figured since I already had 5 new plants, I could afford to leave without any more. Plus… our society show/sale is the beginning of November, where I’ll be getting a few more plants.
The five new plants are a Paph. Avalon Mist, a Paph. sukhakulii x (Double Deception x Red Glory), a Blc. Haw Yuan Beauty ‘Hong’, and 2 divisions of Lc. Floralia’s Azul x C. intermedia.
The Paph Avalon Mist was in spike, and the bloom was just beginning to open, it has 2 more blooms to follow behind as well. It’s a well grown Paph, I really like it. The mix of green and purple is quite striking.
I was unable to find any pictures of the Paph sukhakulii x (Double Deception x Red Glory). I could find individual pics though, and from those I think I’ll enjoy this paph as well. It was in the process of spiking, but the spike was aborted at some point, and is now drying up. But there is still hope! Since it isn’t spiking anymore, it is well on the way to making a new growth. Hopefully I can give it the right conditions, and will be able to coax it to bloom for me.
The Blc. Haw Yuan Beauty ‘Hong’ is a well established division, it seems. There are a few nice roots that I can see and it is growing a new growth. This one will need repotting soon though, because the mix it is in looks like it needs to be changed.
Of the two divisions of Lc. Floralian’s Azul x C. intermedia, one looks to be growing amazingly well. It’s roots are growing out of the clay pot, and growing around it. The second though, seems to be struggling. It does not seem to have very many good roots, and many of the growths are shriveled with yellowing leaves. I’ll be repotting this one fairly soon, to see if maybe I need to move it to a smaller pot.
Our next society meeting will be discussing how to prepare plants for a show. I don’t know if I’ll have anything to submit for the show though. We will have to wait and see!
Rebecca's Orchids 