Bought 3 new orchids today!

[nogreenthumbs]

I wasn't actually planning to buy any orchids for a while, maybe in August (b-day) or the fall, but this was the missus' idea, so I happily went along with it. We are entertaining on July 4, so I think she wanted some flowers in the house, and it seemed smarter to buy orchids than cut flowers that would just whither. The local purveyor also had a 25% off sale going on (50% on Phals) which helped.

We got one each Phalaenopsis, Oncidium and Prosthecea.

Plant #1 is a Prosthecea/Encyclia Cochleata and isn't blooming size yet, I believe, but seems healthy. It's got 9 pbulbs. The largest pbulb is about the size of a 50 cent piece in height. Most are the size of a quarter, and one is tiny and closer to the size of a nickel or dime. I would have liked something bigger, but I thought it would be interesting to grow this one from such a small size.

The oncidium is a Miltassia Kauai's Choice 'Tropical Fragrance' AM/AOS. It's got very spidery blooms. I've already got a Gilded Tower 'Mystic Maze' which has a very similar appearance, but I'm ok with that and the missus really liked these blooms. I suspect this came from the same source as the 'Mystic Maze' that I have because it appears to be planted the same (media, pot, etc...). After the party, I'll be repotting, and I'm not looking forward to having to pick the moss out of the roots. <edit> Holy moly, I was just looking at this one and noticed that it has a second, new, young inflorescence that's about 6-8" long! Hopefully, I can keep it healthy and happy in the current media long enough to get that second set of blooms to mature and open.</edit>

The Phal is a Shu Long Beauty. I've never seen a Phal with this many blooms. It's got 21 blooms on a single inflorescence with several branches. Every branch has a small nub that looks like a tiny bud right before the last bloom too, so I'm guessing those could possibly end up being more blooms or branches (or do nothing). It's got 8 really nice flat healthy looking leaves. It is in a floppy thin plastic pot full of moss, but it's got a bunch of good healthy looking roots.

I just grabbed a couple of quick, kind of crappy snapshots with my phone of the two blooming plants.