January update

Finally, this horrible darkness is over and days get longer every day. January truly is like spring to me even though, the coldest month is still to come. Nevertheless, there is more sunshine and both I and hopefully also my flowers have a tiny bit more energy.

Speaking of cold, the temperature inside our house has risen drastically. When I returned from my mini.vacation on the 28^th of December, the thermometer surprised me with a striking 27C degrees and a humidity of 35%. I almost fell over with surprise and started to decrease the temperature. The humidifier was also switched on immediately, the humidity rose to 43%, which is not exactly rosy yet but definitely better than 35%.

All of the flowers were watered before I set off but when I got back the pots were as dry as desert (psychopsis, onc. sotoanum, promenaea, onc. tiny). I’m not even going to mention the state of vanda and tolumniafor whom my heart ached the most.

Let’s address the recent progress. Rapid growth of autumn has somewhat slowed down but something is still going on. The new growth of the oncidium I talked about in the December update is starting to deserve to be regarded as a separate plant by now. She is now long enough and getting bigger each day.

The promenaea growth has also grown pretty well but for some reason or another, she likes to grow horizontally. The plants are so tiny that they can’t be directed in any way. I cannot wait for the orchid show to bring a proper promenaea to accompany my own. If everything goes well, there is hope for another new growth.

I have not killed my rescued cattleya growth and it is out of her “nubbin-state” – each day she stretches herself more and more towards the light. Her tiny root needs extra humidity each day but it’s not much of a problem to make a small round with a spray bottle once a day.

The big cattleya has two growths and it’s great! She is recovering from her sunburn and I will make sure to be smarter next summer. I am also really thinking about where I should place my flowers when summer does come around. Last summer’s cherry tree project gave me an awesome present of burnt flowers. As you can see from the picture below, the growth is already opening its leaf.

My little Psychopsis papilio has succeeded in growing a growth and I have not (yet) messed her up.

I found another growth on my Encyclia during a (not entirely) random observation.

Up next are the cambria who I promised to just give away in a big fit of anger, for they were not doing anything. Not that I have anything against green but who are we kidding, every orchid grower wants to see blooms. Especially if the plants have been doing a wonderful job at acting as a bush for two years. A few weeks after this promise had been proclaimed out loud, both of them started growing new growths and there is a definite hope for them to bloom at some point. Here is a bunch of pictures of the growths. Which growths belong to whom? I can’t remember anymore….

Zygo eem to enjoy winter. Can’t see any flower spikes but the growths are doing a good job growing. The zygo brought from Mileedi has grown ESPECIALLY big and its growths are growing especially fast. I still don't k’ow what is going on in her pot but it seems that whatever is going on there works for her. The zygo I got from the orchid show in the spring, is growing her growths over the edge of the pot, not sure whether I should repot it in upcoming spring or let it be for another year.

And this is it for this time. There hasn’t been much progress but enough to notice. Days are getting longer and then I will hopefully have more news. Oh! About masdevallias, I went to measure the conditions when there was -15C degrees outside and here is the outcome

I was a little bit thrown off by this but the plants themselves don’t seem to mind, they are not wrinkling or yellowing.

Happy growing everybody! :)