About a pot

Was repotting some orchids in the backyard and placed this on the ground. LB jumped in and his son Noodle followed suit.

"Nice and cosy!"


Soon, the queue for the pot bed started forming.


Peanut to LB: "Scoot over a bit for the wife!"


LB to Peanut: "Nice little cheek rub but ya still gotta take a number cos I ain't moving!"


"Fine, I'll wait my turn..."


Then it began to drizzle so I shifted them but little Noodle jumped out.
"Hey! What happened to the sun??"


Here comes Maggie, tired of waiting her turn.
"Oi!! Get out! My turn!!"


"Fine, I'll sit on top of you till you budge!"


LB is finally evicted!


"Ha-ha!"


Maggie's kid doesn't see what's so great about that pot, she chooses to laze openly in the sun.


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Tags: cats, pets

Bulbophyllum reticulatum

This is one of the most difficult bulbophyllum species I've ever encountered because it is highly unpredictable! I could do everything I can think of to get its growing conditions right such as using forest humus such as that found in its habitat and giving it plenty of cool shade and it would still die off slowly. On the other hand, I could also just hang it up without any media at all but a misting of water daily and it would keep all its leaves for a very long period. It's as if it chooses whether to live and grow or to die slowly, regardless of how well we care for it. I've got a friend who got tired of losing somany he just hung them up tied to fern tree pieces and let nature take its course and they are all thriving! He's also got some growing on his trees (with mossy trunks) in his shady garden. But when I tried tying it to a piece of fern tree, it died after a few months!


Side view

And now I've got two pots which are flowering or spiking. The one pictured above used to be part of a clump that looked similar to this one:


But it slowly dropped all of its leaves till only this was left!


I did not even have to pull this out of its pot, I simply lifted it out as all its roots have died away.It is probably flowering as a last farewell! Imagine, all the buds had big beautiful leaves just a few months ago! They can be healthy for a few months and then just suddenly begin to die off for no apparent reason.


This one I am experimenting with a different way of planting, by using only pieces of fern tree and the chopped fiber in a long pot and without any other media. After removing it from its original mount to place it in here, it started to drop a few large leaves and now it is producing 4 or 5 spikes. There are also new leaves and new growths on the rhizome. I just hope no more older leaves are shed. Hope I get some success, otherwise I'm going to try and tie it again to fern tree then hang it above a small pond or something.


Flower buds - the buds are sometimes attacked by bugs which bore a small hole in the developing buds. This causes the bud to turn a deep red and drop off. I checked on one suchbud and found tiny bugs (larvae?) inside.

Vanda scandens

The flowers may be small (relative to plant size) but the fragrance is most agreeable.


Very easy species to grow and propagate. Top cuts root in about 3-4 weeks and the bottom cuts will begin producing new growths in about the same time.


Sometimes, even short, throw-away stems will produce new growths so keep all your cuttings.

Tags: Vanda, orchids, species orchids, fragrant orchids

Phal bellina, fruit flies and leaf rot

Losing the battle against those damn |=king fruit flies so have had no choice but to move all my blooming bellinas inside. Why'd you have to be so fruity fragrant anyway and attract this pest? I'd never had a single bell pollinated by these pests, they just destroy! It's so frustrating. Many of the flowers wilt or rot in a week or two once they have been stung by the little bastards!
Hanging them all together like this is a little overwhelming though... the fragrance I mean.
That's a Vascostylis Veeraphol in the middle, itself very fragrant as well.

This also helps shelter them from the rain which can cause leaf rot on the young tender leaves such as the one below.


The fruit flies also sting and leave pock marks on the shiny, succulent leaves which then get infected and become highly susceptible to rot. The one below, for example:

Notice the black parts on the tip of the leaf? That part was stung by insects when the young leaf was emerging.

I have to check the plants daily and quickly remove and remedy any rot I see. This is also why my bellinas do not have perfect foliage... there's almost one or two leaves cut in half on almost all my phals.


Even though the flies fill up my fruit fly traps quickly:

More come every single day to terrorize the phal bellinas (and only bellinas!). If any Bulbo macranthum is in flower, they will quickly cause the flower to close as well by pollinating it.

*sigh* they look so much prettier outside, but gotta do it to protect the flowers and young leaves.