Phal Timothy Christopher

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Hi!

I normally resist buying orchids at big box stores to save room for the orchids I really want , but I could not help myself from buying this TINY Phal Timothy Christopher!!

The flowers are about the size of a penny!

Thanks for looking,

Cam

[trdyl]

Cam, It is very cute. You did check the roots right?

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Originally Posted by trdyl

Cam, It is very cute. You did check the roots right?

lol. yes I did

its in a 2 inch pot; I think thats the only reason it was still in good shape- it dries out so quick!!

[Leisurely]

I could not have passed it up either. A white, miniature Phal. in a two inch pot. It has all of the qualities I like. I just copied it to my want list. I have a white equestris but the flower is not nice and flat like yours and it is not supposed to be.

[Lagoon]

Oooo that is just beautiful, Cam
This is actually a nice orchid --What big box store?

[Harvy Howard]

Hi Cam. Searching online today for "Timothy Christopher" hits, I found your msg and joined the Board. A few comments.

Getting "bargains" at the big box store can be an interesting challenge in cultivar identification. Often they come with no more information than the generic name (and sometimes not even that, if the label has gone missing).

Case in point: in the spring of 2012, bought a white-flowering Phal at a Walmart clearance shelf. I forget the price, but it was likely no more than $8. It has been happy in a south-facing window screened from direct sunlight by lace curtains, and is now on its 3rd repeat bloom.

Moved under fluorescent lights this past October, it had much outgrown its original 3.5" opaque slotted plant pot so, this past week, decided to re-pot. The sphagnum medium was not drying out fast enough for my liking, and I was not prepared to wait until it had finished flowering.

I found that a 4" pot was too small, so moved it into the next size available here, a 5" opaque/slotted, using WillGrow "general mix" orchid media. (www.willgro.ca). Although still in full bloom (one more bud due to open) I am confident that the transplanting will not set it back. I found the roots to be in pretty good shape, and little that needed to be cut away.

One interesting find, on re-potting, was a fragment of a white plastic label deep in the root system, reading only "...istopher" and "10/25/09". I had already determined that this specimen was P. amabilis cv. and this scrap of label makes me think that the root must have been tagged as "Timothy Christopher."







I also wonder if this cultivar is variable. Mine (as above) currently has 18 flowers on the one 9" raceme (excluding the stem), each flower about -- and please excuse the more easily recorded metric -- 4.6cm diameter. Like yours, the sepals and lip have a spattering of basal mauve dots and dashes.

That's more than a few comments, so now I'll sit down and shut up. Cheers.

Harvy, Edmonton AB

[TOMMYMIAMI]

Cute!