I went to the Hilo Orchid Show yesterday.
I did something I had told myself to never do again.
I bought a couple of young un-established orchid plants, a Dendrobium lasiantherta and a Den. findlayanum.
I've had a Den. findlayanum before and have hungered to acquire another. This one is supposed to have a dark eye spot in the throat. A beautiful flower if it ends up looking like the photo displayed. And if I remember right, it should be fragrant.
There were other pots with more developed plants.
I chose this one because of the number of starts coming up.
If I can keep them all alive, it will begin as an almost specimen sized plant.
I am concerned by the small size of the new shoots.
Greed got the better of my judgment on this one.
While having the findlayanum in hand and perusing further through the booth, I saw this Den. lasianthera.
As well as antelopes do in my location, I couldn't resist grabbing one. Although, I felt there were some concerns that this may require somewhat different conditions than most other antelope types. This was the best looking of the bunch.
Any hands-on advice for dealing with these two Dendrobiums would be greatly appreciated.
I intend for these to eventually end up in my trees like most of the other are. But, I think now is too soon to do that. They probably should get some extra care to help them along.
I haven't looked them up yet in B&B. I'm still too stressed out from going to the show and can't slow down enough yet to read and understand the info contained there.
-------------------------------------------------------
Then, there were more than orchids at the orchid show.
I've been searching for something like this for quite a while now. My first and my last effort to grow papaya did not turn out well. They produced only female flowers. Apparently there were no male trees in the area. After 2 years they reached a height of about 8' to 10'. Then, the did begin to sporadically produce fruit. But, the fruit had no seeds in the interior, and did not have a very good flavor. I ended up digging them out.
A cloned dwarf hermaphroditic Papaya.
These should begin producing fruit in about 10 months while only 3' to 4' tall.
They are hermaphroditic, producing both male and female flowers, or flowers with both male and female parts, thus are self pollinating.