Friday, May 8, 2009

More Vanda Orchid Pictures

Here are some of my Re-Bloomers from the past few weeks.

Vanda Rasri x denisoniana



{Ascocenda Aroonroj x Vanda coerulescens} x {Vanda Tessellata x Vanda Mimi Palmer}

Orchids Mounted on Palm Tree Slabs

I have been growing a variety of orchids on pieces of palm trees that I have collected. I have found that the orchids thrive on the palms. Some have attached themselves in as short as 30 days, and others 90+ days. As of right now the first mounted orchid is growing 2 spikes. This Encyclia tampensis was laying on the ground at my property. An old branch had fallen and I grabbed it before any of the hogs could get them. That was a few months ago. And it is growing like crazy. Already attached to he palm it has lots of new growth and the 2 spikes. And I also have a few others that have some new growths but no spikes yet. 1 is another Encyclia tampensis and the other is an unknown waiting for a flower to ID.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

The Life of an Unusual Bottle Palm Tree

The Life of an Unusual Bottle Palm Tree

I have learned in my few years of growing stuff to snap a lot of pictures. I have been sorting through all of my 1000's of unorganized pics to put this together. This is the life of an unusual Hyophorbe lagenicaulis or Bottle Palm Tree beginning 12/17/07, that I did not realize was unusual until this past 2/12/09. So here the story begins. On 12/17/07 I was purchasing joey seeds from a guy in Thailand and still had space left from shipping quote so I also ordered some bottle seeds. On Feb 7, 2008 I received the seeds from Thailand, the 20 bottle seeds I ordered came with 43 seeds which I though was a score.


After a short 24hour soak I sowed the seeds on 2/8/08.


On 4/16/08 I plucked and planted 3 sprouts out of the 43seeds, and that is all I have still to date. These pics will show the special 1 growing up. He is the 1 on the left.


4/18/08


4/28/08

And here again on 5/9/08


This is him getting bigger. 6/19/08


And on 9/13/08 the 3 seedlings were up potted to 1gals. Even at this point I still did not notice anything. Are you seeing anything yet?


I can't find anything until 2/12/09, I know I have some more somewhere. I was carrying the palms and orchids back outside after a cold snap when I noticed the unusual bottle palm.


a little closer, wait......is that


this bottle has developed a double trunk


So after almost 2 months I decided I had to check out what was going on an this is what I found on 4/7/09


and the old leaf removed to see the trunks


This is my current pic from 5/3/09