Today I bought a few new carnivorous plants.

• Cephalotus follicularis
• Darlingtonia californica
• Nepenthes jacquelineae
• Nepenthes ramispina
• Nepenthes singalana
• Nepenthes vogelii

Am extremely happy I finally found 2 that I’ve been looking for (the Cephalotus and Darlingtonia). All of these plants are still very tiny – the Cephalotus’ pitchers are about 9mm in height, and the Darlingtonia pitchers are about 25mm high. Photos of these 2 follow (no photos of the Nepenthes yet)

Cephalotus follicularis

Cephalotus follicularis close-up

Darlingtonia californica

Darlingtonia californica

Darlingtonia californica

Today I was given a small Dendrochilum filiforme with 6 pseudobulbs and 1 new growth on the way.

As you may (or may not) have noticed, I’ve added a new page to the blog regarding the organic control of pests. You can find a link to the Pest control page at the top of this page, or click here to open in a new window/tab. Understand, I’m not completely anti chemical/synthetic poisons, and I will (and do) use them in the greenhouse, but it’s more a matter of being careful and not using unnecessarily.

The Satyrium odorum‘s first buds opened yesterday, so I took these photos this morning. Today I also noticed the Holothrix villosa has only just started growing an inflorescence. Both of these are grown outdoors in full sun until midday or so. Here are the photos:

Satyrium odorum (close-up)

Satyrium odorum

Satyrium odorum inflorescence

Holothrix villosa

I took this photo on the 4th of August. I grow all my Cymbidiums outdoors under trees. They get sun until just a short while before midday. Most of the inflorescences have been damaged in some way, but somehow this Cymbidium Ran made it without any noticeable damage.

Cymbidium Ran

Here are a few winter-flowering plants I took photos of 2 days ago:

• Aerangis hyaloides
• Dendrobium nobile var. Tanaka
• Dendrochilum wenzelii
• Oerstedella centradenia
• Phalaenopsis NOID

Unfortunately this winter has been harsh on my plants as I don’t have any heating in the greenhouse.. I’ve also learnt I should probably install a couple of fans in there to help the plants dry off a bit. You can see the damage caused to the Aerangis hyaloides below – there’s a dead inflorescence in the background. Actually, there are 5 dead inflorescences – all buds lost due to staying wet

Aerangis hyaloides

This Dendrobium nobile var. Tanaka was actually a keiki off a larger (potted) plant. The keiki fell off during autumn, so I decided to mount it. The remainder of the larger plant in the pot had started flowering, but snails/slugs got to the buds before they opened. This one was saved thanks to it hanging well out of reach of any molluscs.

Dendrobium nobile var. Tanaka

Just buds on this Dendrochilum wenzelii, but they’re coming along quite quickly. Will be sure to post photos showing this one off shortly along with my Dendrochilum glumaceum. I hadn’t managed to get either of my Dendrochilums to flower since I bought them (both first half of 2008) until now. I’d only built the greenhouse towards the end of last winter, and obviously growing indoors was no good for them.

Dendrochilum wenzelii

This Oerstedella centradenia was almost lost to root rot – I’m not sure what it was potted in, but pulled it out and mounted it. Seems to be doing OK now.

Oerstedella centradenia

This is a hybrid Phalaenopsis from Woolworths. One of my first plants from the very beginning of 2008. The plant itself has done fairly well over winter (I’ve lost a couple Phals, and others don’t seem too happy), but this one’s OK. The buds on the other hand, have not dealt well with winter, and this inflorescence of about 9 buds has lost 3. Although, this inflorescence has branched like mad – last time I checked there were 4 branches on it.

Phalaenopsis NOID

These photos were taken on the 1st August 2010 and are unfortunately, not my plants. I also don’t have names for most of them, but I’ll try label them correctly.

Masdevallia species

Unidentified

Laelia anceps

Unidentified

Mokara

Unidentified

Unidentified

Dendrochilum species

Dendrobium bigibbum var. superbum

Dockrillia rigida

Barkeria ?

Unidentified

Polystachya

Unidentified

Here’s a photo of my Scaphosepalum lima, taken 2010-05-24

Scaphosepalum lima

A couple of photos of Dendrobium C.K. Ai taken on 2010-05-25

Dendrobium C.K. Ai

Dendrobium C.K. Ai (different angle)

I took some photos of my Nepenthes on the 2010-07-03, here they are..

Nepenthes 'Gentle/Velvet'

Nepenthes alata

Nepenthes alata close-up

Nepenthes coccinea ((N. rafflesiana X N. ampullaria) X N. mirabilis) (old pitcher)

Nepenthes coccinea ((N. rafflesiana X N. ampullaria) X N. mirabilis) (new pitcher)

Nepenthes hybrid

Nepenthes mirabilis (growing from a cutting I took a few months back)

Nepenthes mirabilis (growing from a cutting I took a few months back)

Nepenthes mirabilis (more light)

Nepenthes mirabilis (new pitcher)

Nepenthes miranda (close-up)

Nepenthes miranda

Nepenthes miranda (new pitcher)

Nepenthes miranda (new pitcher, different angle)

Nepenthes ventrata (upper pitcher)

Nepenthes ventrata (lower pitcher)

Nepenthes ventrata (new upper pitcher)

Nepenthes ventrata (new lower pitcher)

Nepenthes ventrata (another upper pitcher)

Nepenthes ventrata (view from above)

Took this photo of the Tillandsia crocata on 2010-07-03

Tillandsia crocata

Both of these flowered last month. The photos of the Brassavola nodosa on 2010-07-03, and the Pleurothallis tridentata on 2010-06-23

Brassavola nodosa

Brassavola nodosa

Pleurothallis tridentata

5 plants I had on order arrived in the post today. This is the list of plants:

• Bulbophyllum blepharistes
• Bulbophyllum purpurascens
• Bulbophyllum spathulatum
• Pleurothallis palliolata
• Restrepia trichoglossa

Here are some photos I took of them after unpacking

Bulbophyllum blepharistes unpacked

Bulbophyllum purpurascens unpacked

Bulbophyllum purpurascens unpacked - buds

Bulbophyllum spathulatum unpacked

Pleurothallis palliolata unpacked

Restrepia trichoglossa unpacked

It seems I’ve forgotten to upload a photo of my Scaphosepalum lima in flower. It’s been in flower since the end of April, entered in the Cape Orchid Society Autumn Show 2010 on the 5th – 7th May. Here’s the photo:

Scaphosepalum lima

It’s still in flower, and actually has about 7 inflorescences right now, although only 3 of them have flowers.

I’ve left this update rather late, and also missed out on taking a photo of my Masdevallia condorensis in flower. Otherwise, the following plants have flowered:

• Ludisia discolor
• Pleurothallis tridentata

and here are their photos:

Ludisia discolor

Ludisia discolor - leaves

Pleurothallis tridentata

On the 15th of last month I was given 3 new plants:

• Dendrobium exile
• Restrepia brachypus
• Zootrophion atropurpureum

I bought 2 new plants at the Duckitts open day yesterday, and they are:

• Cattleychea Darling Glow
• Powellara (Cattlianthe Noemi Santiago X Brassanthe Maikai)

and this is what they look like:

Cattleychea Darling Glow

Powellara (Cattlianthe Noemi Santiago X Brassanthe Maikai)

Today I bought myself a few plants..

• Ascofinetia Peaches ‘Kultana’
• Bulbophyllum putidum
• Bulbophyllum wendlandianum
• Dendrobium pulchellum
• Encyclia prismatocarpa
• Paphiopedilum Leeanum
• Stanhopea NOID

These photos were taken today. Horrible weather in Cape Town for photos, but anyway…

Holothrix villosa (2010-05-03)

This photo of the Holothrix villosa was taken just to show how it’s grown substantially since I last took a photo of it.

Polystachya Frieda's Blush (2010-05-03)

I decided to take another photo of the Polystachya Frieda’s Blush and I think this one came out a little better.

Stapelia pillansii (2010-05-03)

The Stapelia pillansii opened up yesterday.

Stenoglottis longifolia (2010-05-03)

This was a difficult photo to take – low light and wind doesn’t make it easy. This plant has been in flower for a few weeks already and the flowers lower down the spike have already begun to die off.

Phalaenopsis Florisles (2010-04-23)

The Phalaenopsis Florisles is a X between P. Star of Florida and P. Coral isles. Found that on the International Orchid Register.

Epidendrum peperomia (2010-04-22)

This photo of the Epidendrum is an HDR render to bring out more detail, but modifies the colour quite a bit (much more intense)

Dendrobium bigibbum var. superbum (2010-04-22)

Some stapeliads follow…

Huernia thurettii (2010-04-20)

Huernia barbata (2010-04-23)

The Dockrillia rigida’s new growth seems to be doing nicely

Dockrillia rigida (2010-04-23)

Some Polystachya’s

Polystachya Cape Candy (2010-04-27)

Polystachya galeata (2010-04-27)

I’m sure there are more photos, but I’ll post them at a later time

Just over a week ago 2 of my terrestrial orchids (Holothrix villosa and Satyrium odorum) started sprouting new shoots. I took some photos a couple days after and here they are:

Holothrix villosa (2010-04-25)

Satyrium odorum (2010-04-26)

The Holothrix photo was taken at night using an LED flashlight (that’s why it looks the way it does). I also took a macro shot of one of my Microcoelia exilis seedlings.

Microcoelia exilis (2010-04-23)

So much for them not having leaves.. As you can quite plainly see, those are two tiny leaves on there. You can see they’re quite tiny by the size of the very thin nylon thread in the background I used to tie it to the cork mount.