2016 Mega Deluxe Christmas Holiday Thread!!!!

[mrhappyrotter]

Hey everyone, I'm curious what you got from Santa this year. Did any of you get plant related gifts from your loved ones? Did you sneak in a small gift for yourself? If so, what?

I hope to be back later when I have a little more time to post photos and/or more info about my Christmas 2016 Southeast orchid tour & haul. It was eventful. I found myself at Carter and Holmes on Friday, and then today I hit up Looking Glass Orchids. Spent a little bit of time and money at both places, it was a terrific experience and I've seen the most beautiful plants. As a side note, I'd like to encourage everyone in the hobby to visit and support your local mom and pop orchid vendors. Usual story, times are tough, but these are such amazing and unique businesses that they deserve to thrive. Unfortunately I only snapped a few crappy pics on my phone that really do not do either establishment justice.

While I feel a bit guilty about how many plants I picked up, I was never the less spending money that had been gifted to me, so I was able to justify things that way. Amongst the highlights...

1. Paph. Harold Koopowitz (BS)[LGO] - It may even be in early spike!
2.Phrag. besseae (BS) [LGO] - If memory serves me correctly, this 2 growth plant is a division of one of the early jungle collected clones.
3. Phrag. caudatum x Mystic Tresses (BS)[C&H] - I believe this is blooming sized & the new growth is hopefully going to spike this year.
4. Epidendrum nocturnum (BS)[C&H] - I suck at Cattleya alliance plants, but decided to give this species a try. It is native to the USA and fragrant at night.
5. Angraecum florlentum - (BS)[C&H] - This may have a flower bud just starting, but with the change in conditions, I'm not getting my hopes up. Like most Angraecums, it's night fragrant. This species is considered small/mini.

Looking Glass had some Angraecum plants that I swear were taller than me and from the looks of it, might've even weighed more. Okay I exaggerate a bit. There were lots of interesting one-off plants nestled in between so much variety. And Russ is the only person I know that has the skills to get regular bloomings from his Paph. rothschildianum x parvisepalum hybrids. Every time I've been there, Paph. Delrosi and Paph. Dollgoldi plants are blooming.

Carter & Holmes has been around for ages, and I hope they'll continue to be around for a long time to come. A lot of their stock is seedling sized cattleya alliance plants, but they have a good variety of everything else. And a lot of their plants are very well suited for beginners. Because they generally have large batches of each orchid they sell, it's particularly fun to be able to visit the greenhouse and choose the exact plant you want from the bunch. Plus they have a beautiful blue and gold Macaw and a friendly pooch roaming the premise.

 

[Wendy]

Nothing orchid-y for me....but I did get an iPad. :clap::clap::clap::clap:

 

[abax]

The Carter & Holmes people are very, very nice. Some
friends and I stopped there on the way to Redland and
were escorted around their stud house and treated like
royalty. It was a very nice experience as opposed to being treated like we had poop on our shoes at Selby.
You're lucky to live relatively close.

I gifted myself with three Phrags., but we don't do the
Mmas thing much.

 

[Happypaphy7]

Where is Looking Glass Orchids?? I've never heard of them, but if they have regularly blooming Delrosi and Dollgoldi (why didn't you buy those? not for sale??), I would take them!! lol

Congrats on getting Harold Koopowitz in sheath, but don't be fooled.
These hybrids can fool you.
All my three Delrosi (made with dunkel delenatii) and one Dollgoldi made the sheath well over a year ago, and they never did anything.

I have a box full of Cycnoches, catasetum, paphiopedilum coming from SVO.

and I just bought Paphiopedilum Lathamianum in bud for $10 off eBay. coming from Hawaii~

and plenty of money to spend at upcoming local shows in about couple of weeks. but no more space. somethings gotta go. lol

Looking forward to your photos!

 

[mrhappyrotter]

Where is Looking Glass Orchids?? I've never heard of them, but if they have regularly blooming Delrosi and Dollgoldi (why didn't you buy those? not for sale??), I would take them!! lol

Looking Glass is right next door to where Owen's orchids used to be in Pisgah, NC which is outside of Asheville. Owen's closed down somewhat recently, and now the owner of Looking Glass, Russ, is working to build his own name. I'm guestimating that about 1/3 - 1/2 of his sales house is dedicated to slippers, and the place is big enough that even a few hours isn't enough to see everything. So, it's worth checking out for us Slippertalkers.

Russ managed to figure out the roth x parvi blooming for sure and I make it a point to compliment him on it each time I see him because I know it's quite an accomplishment. I can resist Gloria Naugle and Delrosi. They're pretty, but I know they're tough to bloom, and the last thing I need is yet another pink flower. Dollgoldi takes a bit more work to resist, and perhaps I'll be going back in a few months for one. He had a Dollgoldi in bloom with 2 spikes, was neat to see. Another thing I find interesting is that a lot of his slipper orchids are crosses he made himself, and I really like that I'm getting something unique!

I opted for the HK because I love malipoense and its hybrids so much. And truthfully, it's the roth x parvi cross I see the least of. I know about the fake-out bloom/bud issue, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much. Even if the plant doesn't bloom for me, the foliage is beautiful, and it has 2 new growths.

Trust me, it was hard not to buy a car load of plants, but budget and space are limited, so I've kept the spending and splurges at a minimum. There were fields of Phrags (literally), with a ton of besseae and besseae hybrids in bloom. There's a good variety of Paphs from seedlings to enormous multi-growth awarded and selected divisions. Much of his stock is multifloral paphs, lots of roth influence.

And to top it all off, the prices are really good. I don't know what else to say, I probably sound like a paid ad at this point, but each time I visit, it's been a wonderful experience, so I would encourage anybody to go visit or call.

 

[mrhappyrotter]

Also I meant to mention, another thing I like is that a lot of the slipper orchids are from Russ's own private breeding program, so I feel like I'm getting something unique when I buy from there.

 

[orchid527]

I went to Orchid Inn yesterday with my Christmas money and purchased 7 flasks of orchids.

Rolfei (bellatulum "Perfecto" x roth "Giant Wings" GM/WOC)
henryanum, a sib cross of third gen plants selected for improved spotting
roth "Giant Wings" GM/WOC x hangianum
roth ("Giant Wings" GM/WOC x "Canadian Club" GM/JOGA)
concolor alba
tonsum alba, a selfing of "Left Fuji" BM/JOGA
kovachii, a selfing of "Full Moon"

I'll take photos and will post when I pot these out next week.

Mike

 

[Happypaphy7]

Thanks for all the explanation.
Sounds like a great place to visit! a few hours of looking at paphs.
I wish it was closer or I had a car. I would definitely go for a long drive when I felt like it on a long weekend. Oh, well...

Back to roth x parvi/brachy, so what's his secret? or you're saying that?
We had this topic covered before, but I don't think there is a way to make these hybrids bloom. One has to be lucky to have clones that bloom.

The more you have, the higher the change of ending up with such clones naturally, I guess.

We hear from both hobby growers and nurseries that these are tough to bloom.

We also hear from some members who are lucky enough to have easy and regular bloomers of these hybrids.

I'm acutally very tempted to throw them all out. I never wanted to have them for exactly this reason, but I took a gamble game. Apparently, my luck was terrible. They grow well fast and take up quite a bit of my precious space. Perhaps one more year.
I might just keep the rotation of buy and toss until coming up with "the one" but then I also heard from others that their plants flowered once and then never flowered again for you know how long.

My Woluwense is in sheath. but of course, I'll have to see if it will actually develop flowers out of it.

Malipoense, pretty much all my malipoense hybrids are in bud with the exception of Harold Koopotiwz (two growths and getting larger and larger in width) and Envy Green, which is showing a tiny tip of either a new leaf or a sheath. It was a seedling, so it might still be too young.

Looking Glass is right next door to where Owen's orchids used to be in Pisgah, NC which is outside of Asheville. Owen's closed down somewhat recently, and now the owner of Looking Glass, Russ, is working to build his own name. I'm guestimating that about 1/3 - 1/2 of his sales house is dedicated to slippers, and the place is big enough that even a few hours isn't enough to see everything. So, it's worth checking out for us Slippertalkers.

Russ managed to figure out the roth x parvi blooming for sure and I make it a point to compliment him on it each time I see him because I know it's quite an accomplishment. I can resist Gloria Naugle and Delrosi. They're pretty, but I know they're tough to bloom, and the last thing I need is yet another pink flower. Dollgoldi takes a bit more work to resist, and perhaps I'll be going back in a few months for one. He had a Dollgoldi in bloom with 2 spikes, was neat to see. Another thing I find interesting is that a lot of his slipper orchids are crosses he made himself, and I really like that I'm getting something unique!

I opted for the HK because I love malipoense and its hybrids so much. And truthfully, it's the roth x parvi cross I see the least of. I know about the fake-out bloom/bud issue, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much. Even if the plant doesn't bloom for me, the foliage is beautiful, and it has 2 new growths.

Trust me, it was hard not to buy a car load of plants, but budget and space are limited, so I've kept the spending and splurges at a minimum. There were fields of Phrags (literally), with a ton of besseae and besseae hybrids in bloom. There's a good variety of Paphs from seedlings to enormous multi-growth awarded and selected divisions. Much of his stock is multifloral paphs, lots of roth influence.

And to top it all off, the prices are really good. I don't know what else to say, I probably sound like a paid ad at this point, but each time I visit, it's been a wonderful experience, so I would encourage anybody to go visit or call.

 

[Happypaphy7]

How exciting!
I've been thinking of getting a couple from Sam ever since he updated his website in October, but never have.

I still have to part with some plants, but flasks for first one year or so is not an issue for me as I normally put the whole thing as a compot.

Looking forward to seeing your photos and see the size of his seedlings out of flasks.

I went to Orchid Inn yesterday with my Christmas money and purchased 7 flasks of orchids.

Rolfei (bellatulum "Perfecto" x roth "Giant Wings" GM/WOC)
henryanum, a sib cross of third gen plants selected for improved spotting
roth "Giant Wings" GM/WOC x hangianum
roth ("Giant Wings" GM/WOC x "Canadian Club" GM/JOGA)
concolor alba
tonsum alba, a selfing of "Left Fuji" BM/JOGA
kovachii, a selfing of "Full Moon"

I'll take photos and will post when I pot these out next week.

Mike

 

[Chicago Chad]

My most recent damage from Popow plus some unlisted gems :clap: Not a big Christmas person but we can blame the holidays for my compulsion.
Mike I would love to buy some more compots from you. You always do such a nice job with them!

Paph javanicum
Phrag fischeri
Onc. coloratum
Bulb comosum
Phal speciosa 'C1'
Paph sukhakulii alba `SM-D.O.G´
Paph barbartum nigritum `select´
Paph ciliolare `Pink´
Paph sangii
Paph javanicum alba x self
Paph helenae alba 'GM-Berlin 2014'
Paph hermanii
Paph henryanum alba
Paph can x sukh
Paph hangianum x godefroyae
Paph NOID Indonesia
Paph wilhelminae Dark type
Paph charlesworthii mini type
Paph jackii album

 

[Happypaphy7]

How do you order from Popow? or do you do that via middle person and pick up at Florida show??

What is miniature charlesworthii? They are already quite petite I thought.
and dark wilhelminae?

My most recent damage from Popow plus some unlisted gems :clap: Not a big Christmas person but we can blame the holidays for my compulsion.
Mike I would love to buy some more compots from you. You always do such a nice job with them!

Paph javanicum
Phrag fischeri
Onc. coloratum
Bulb comosum
Phal speciosa 'C1'
Paph sukhakulii alba `SM-D.O.G´
Paph barbartum nigritum `select´
Paph ciliolare `Pink´
Paph sangii
Paph javanicum alba x self
Paph helenae alba 'GM-Berlin 2014'
Paph hermanii
Paph henryanum alba
Paph can x sukh
Paph hangianum x godefroyae
Paph NOID Indonesia
Paph wilhelminae Dark type
Paph charlesworthii mini type
Paph jackii album

 

[Happypaphy7]

Ok, I just placed an order with Orchidweb.

Paphiopedilum Dolliroth
Paphiopedilum Translie
Neofinetia Shutennou 'New World' HCC-CCM-AOS.

I'm a bit worried about the first two as they are 2.25pot size, but not common hybrids and would love to see how they turn out down the road.

 

[Lanmark]

This holiday season I was the lucky recipient of several orchid-growing-related gifts:

Keiki-Power-Pro Orchid Cloning Paste
A package of AAAAA (super long) NZ Sphagnum Moss strands for mounding Neos
25 black plastic Neo pots
OSRAM SYLVANIA PAR38 17W LED 25° Grow Light with Full Spectrum

 

[abax]

About Looking Glass, might Russ have a website and do a
little shipping? It sounds like an interesting operation and
I like buying from locals, so to speak.