Phalaenopsis Violacea, the first flowering!!!

Phalaenopsis violacea  coerulea, orchid species,
adult flower detail
var. coerulea Malaysia x Dark red "Norton"
(picture of 10 September 2012)

Phalaenopsis stuartiana, a mini seedling

Among the overflowing benches of my faouvorite orchid seller, Orchids & More I can not stop to be amazed. You can find all kinds of surprises, such as cattleya plants only 12 cm high with beautiful flowers intermingled to huge Bulbophyllums!
In my last tour I bought a beautiful Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi in bloom and a vase with three seedlings of Phalaenopsis Schilleriana. At the end of the visit, which lasted always too short, I continued to go around, even if I would not have to take other plants since space in the house is small and already a bit crowded ... but my attention was caught by a group of seedlings of Phalaenopsis Stuartiana, they were all small, more or less the same size of the young Phalaenopsis Schilleriana, but looking closely there was a tiny seedling completely out of the vessel substrate.

Phalaenopsis stuartiana, orchid species,
seedling with new roots growing
(picture of  31 August 2012)

Phalaenopsis Schilleriana, new seedlings.

Phalaenopsis Schilleriana,
orchid species,
seedlings just purchased
(picture of 1 September 2012)

At Orchids & More, or the paradise of orchids, as I call it, every inch is full of wonders! I never know where to look! There are thousands of plants, from giants Dendrobium with more than a meter long steams, to super miniatures such as Macroclinium Aurorae of 3 cm. Inside the last greenhouse there are often young plants, sometimes come from their own sowing! This time I was captured by these tiny Phalaenopsis Schilleriana. It took me about half an hour to choose the vessel that promised better, they were all very nice but these have nice new leaves and roots, and they are three instead of two!

I love the color of the leaves of this phalaenopsis, that you see already they are so small, in fact higher pages are silver speckled with dark green while the lower ones are tinged with a dark purple. The flowers, though it will take a few years for them, will be a delicate pastel pink and if I'll be able to do everything well they could appear like a waterfall, up to 250!
By now I just have to cultivate and watch them grow, if I'm able, is already a satisfaction! I brought it out of the pot to check the roots below the surface because the vase was black and I can see nothing inside. I found a principle of black rot but it was dry, thanks to treatment with systemic fungicides given in the greenhouse, and I do not think that will give much trouble.

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi on flowering, repotted!

Phalaenopsis Cornu-Cervi
orchid species, detail of flowers
(picture of 2 September 2012)

Energy-saving lamp to grow orchids, self-made.

Energy-saving lamp DIY, on the new mini orchidarium

Before I make decisions on how and how much light give to the mini orchidarium I studied a lot. Unfortunately, there are no universal answers, each plant has different light needs and every terrarium is in a location in the house that has, or not, the day light. For sure we have to know at least  the right "color" that light must have to be useful to our orchids, in fact using a wrong light even 2000 W would not have an significant effect! The light that activates photosynthesis, and is therefore useful to our plants to grow and flourish, is in the spectrum of blue and red, in short, it is recommended that you choose lamps with a color temperature of around 6400 K, combined with others around 2400 K, but the first would seem to be more effective. I finally decided! I bought 2 Philips Tornado cool daylight 6500 K, enlightening power 1450 Lumen.

Mini orchidarium, a glass case to set up

Phalaenopsis species and primary hybrids, seedlings:
Violacea coerulea , Bellina Ponkan, Equetris Apari,
Mariae, Pulchra, Hieroglyphica x Mariae,
Equestris aurea x Cornu-cervi flava,
Lueddemanniana x Fasciata

When I started growing orchids I didn't have a clear idea of the variety of species in this family of plants, only after reading everything I could find on the net, I started realizing it. The earliest species that I dared approach were phalaenopsis, I found on Ebay very interesting auctions and I attended. I won! I managed to have some young specimens of phal I studied for a while: violacea var. coerulea (Krulls Smith x Dark red Norton), bellina Ponkan, equetris Apari, mariae, pulchra, I also got interesting primary hybrids  : hieroglyphica x mariae, equestris aurea x cornu-cervi flava and lueddemanniana x fasciata.

First plants in my mini orchidarium

Phalaenopsis Violacea,
orchid species,
roots with fungal disease.

Buy on EBAY can be beneficial but it all depends on the seriousness of the seller, even if the percentage of positive feedback is the maximum does not mean that everything will go as you hope ...
I participated in a series of open auctions from a seller who seemed very trusted, I won almost everything that I had fixed and so I paid a single shipment for up to 5 young phalaenopsis species. The ads said "vigorous young plant," there were also photos and plants seemed healthy.

When the courier rang I was not in my skin, I was elated and could not wait to see my new awaited plants to populate the mini orchidarium just set up. It seemed to me on Christmas morning! The first impression I got was that the leaves seemed grown in the dark, were thin and very pale, I was afraid it would break. Then I started looking into the vessels to check the roots. A disaster!