Clowesia Rebecca Northen

got this seedlings as a gift. after a about two years it decided to bloom. the color does not fit for a rebecca northen. have not seen a rebecca northen this color, and yet the lip is different . 

coor isn't that great either, however would use this flower as training ground for intergeneric pollination. 

19/10/2016
manage to get in contact with the person who pass me this seedlings, she is quite sure the label was right. well i guess got to live with that label id for now.
here is the update for the pod formation, i cross all three with different catasetums using the mentor pollen technique, but two is aborting. one still developing, keeping finger cross

only one pod manage to fully ripen, the one that is cross with a fresh pollen, ie. catasetum cristatum.

however, i discarded the pod as i had full doubt regarding the id of this parent plant. 

Catasetum cristatum alba - female

most of the female catasetum flower looks almost alike, except some species of the catasetum like the incurvum and pileatum have very tall hood,

the reason i am posting this is not only to show the female flower of this species, but also to keep tract of its progress after pollination. so i guess i would have to update this thread from time to time. 

it is good to have some pollinas handy in the refrigerator. there is three of them so i thought of pushing my luck for this. 

three pollination that i had in mind, 

1. cristatum alba x self

2. cristatum alba x catasetum rectangulare alba

3. cristatum alba x catasetum denticulatum

though i am quite lazy in doing the flasking part, but i guess no harm having the seeds in the fridge handy, just in case i my hands are itchy again 

more pics to follow after the pollination if there is any 'take', (sorry for the quality of the pics, my usual camera 'retired', so i am forced to use back my old ancient camera)

10/10/2016

seems like there is 'take' in all three pollinations. now is just to keep the finger cross and hope the pods continue to develop.

19/10/2016
pods continue to develop further

23/1/2017

all three pods fully develop, only waiting for it to ripen

Catasetum rectangulare alba

this is actually the same catasetum rectangulare that i posted before, but for this season, the inflorescence color tone is different from the previous. so far the only thing i could recall is change in fertilizer. 

recently i used mainly only blooming fertilizer of the 12:26:26 instead of the usual 21:21:21 then change to blooming fertilizer as the bloom matures. that is the only variable i could recall. 

catasetum tabulare

a recent bloom of the catasetum tabulare. only with two flowers but unfortunately something bored a hole through the labellum as they were about to open.
the flowers were completely perfect before i went outstation and three days later when i came back, one with full bloom but the other one busted. both the labellum had something bored into it and must have triggered the pollina to eject in one of them,


the black coloration just above the tongue like callus is actually a hole, through and through. not visible in the pic because of the black background

the damage labellum from the back view

actual color of the flower, in natural background settung

19/10/2016

second spike that develop

twin bracts, twin flower on another bracts and without lateral sepals!

just when i thought that i would not be posting the same catasetum i posted here before multiple times but then again it did something extraordinary for a catasetum.

first it developed a twin bract and lower down the same spike, two flowers on the same bract. this is something not common for catasetums, for the 100 over spikes i had witness, this is the first time for me.


the twin flower that develop on one single bract

twin bracts that develop side by side

had to post the lip of the cristatum alba, couldn't resist the beauty of it

the two last pic is the smaller twin flower that opened up last, after all the others had wilted, but another surprise, NO LATERAL SEPALS!

This little one is just full of surprises..... =)

deflasking, part two

after sometime of 'dormant' attitude towards the catasetum due to work issue, finally held myself up to move the lazy bones to deflask some of them. unfortunately some of the flask had already 'expired' due to leakage from the corroded lid caused by the bleach solution, leaving a dry plant and media in it.

well, these are the survivors, and some of it are seedlings i deflask some time ago as well. also manage to replate another crosses done a few months back.

catasetum imperiale x catasetum socco, the lazy me chose a larger vessel and chucked all the protocorns into one single bottle, well, initially it was covering about quarter of the surface but eventually it became a mini jungle as shown in the picture below. well, took me a long time to separate the roots but eventually ended up cutting most of them off as they are too entangled to each other

 catasetum ciliatum, not as much roots as the above, but literally need not need to cut a single root to separate them

i put the deflasked seedlings into plastic bag due to the current heat wave, lost some seedling despite watering twice daily during the heat wave but did not do them any good. lost a couple of compots.

more replated protocorns, i know i gonna regret this in a couple of months

catasetum hopkinsonianum that was deflaked earlier

survivors of the current heat wave when i did not put the seedlings into 'sphag bag' method, catasetum incurvum

catasetum cirrhaeoides, too late of deflasking, some ended up dead in the flask while others went into dormancy,

procedures of in vitro cultivation of orchids are meticulous and time consuming, rather tiring as well. anyway, lessons learned and may the knowledge be useful to me by the day i retire. 

but as for now, i would say flasking is too taxing for me with my current work. 

catasetum rooselvetianum

this is the second time this plant bloomed for me. the first time, only one flower bud successfully developed.
this is the second time and all four flower buds manage to made it. the spike is erect in nature, flowers are small, about once inch in height and minimally scented.

Clowesetum Raymond Lerner

Clowesetum Raymond Lerner is a cross between Clowesia russelliana and Catasetum pileatum. the offspring flower's size mimics the pileatum, big is size and carries the green coloration of russelliana in the same time.

hard to get a good angle with this one, the inflorescence is heaving and with the long pending stalk, it is hard to manipulate the angle for photo shoot.

a close up on the labellum, showing the longitudinal striated callus

the flower started with greenish hue, turns white as it ages and eventually light yellow shade sets in as the flower wilts away.

was thinking to make a integeneric cross with this one, but had been quite sloppy in keeping up with keeping orchids due to work demand. will update if i do pollinate and make intergeneric hybrids out of them.
hopefully one fine day i will bounce back to life with these orchids and have more time for them.


bloom on 16/3/2016

from second spike, flowers gaining more white hue as it matures

21/1/2017

this bloom is from the same division, same plant actually. but the shot was taken on day one of full bloom. i am posting this because somehow the bloom looks 'more' green than usual

08/12/2017 

the original plant that i got had started to grow into bigger specimen. hopefully by the next two season, this plan t will really turn out to be a specimen plant