I will certainly buy the humidity problem. I do try and I have 2 humidifiers going one in the kitchen and one in the living room. It can be so dry in the winter here. We are having rain now so things are good at the moment. Other wise I will just have to cut them out of there.

The walkerianas are back inside, along with the rest of the orchids. It is just too cold at night for too many days. I decided it just wasn't worth stressing the plants.

It's finally here. Pretty nice looking plant from Hausermann's. I had to remove most of the center roots but there was a lot of nice newer roots around the outside. There are two new bulbs forming, one more mature than the other. Fingers crossed!

A picture is worth 44 words.

Picture is up! Sorry, I just can't seem to get the hang of posting photos here from my tablet... they're always crooked

Nice big plant. Photos seem to go up sideways from phones or tablets almost all the time.

Well I got my walkeriana, it is from a small ebay seller lala.orchids and yes, I got it because it was cheap (15$ as opposed to the 35$ I have been seeing.) It is a monofoliate. due to the reading I have been doing I know that a version of the species in Minas Gereis, Brazil is monofoliate. This is a semi Albal Walkeriana X with a species Walkeriana so it is all walkeriana despite its monofoliate leaves. It has a nice plump new leaf set forming, and the others are slightly ridged or shall I say "wrinkled" possibly from underwatering, however it has a nice thick white set of growing roots so I am happy that the wrinkles on the leaves are not terribly bad. (I will post pictures too but am having difficulties getting decently sharp pictures with the tablet I am taking pictures with.)

Fun, fun, fun. So there's a bit of a story about the delivery. I hate to speak ill of my brother, but he has Aspergers and a bit of other problems and you can only give him a few instructions at a time. He comes home from work, and I had to work all day. Ihad taken an all-day job (I free-lance) because it was supposed to be here Next Friday, not on Monday. I said if he came home for lunch and saw it in the pail box, could he put it inside the house? He forgot the house part and decided to pick it out of the mailbox and put it in his car then he left it in the car (nearing 90 outside in New Mexico). He called me about 2pm, saying he had it in his car and asked me to water his plants when I got home.

The more I thought about it. Orchid in a hot car for hours baking, really went through my head over and over. As soon as I got out of work I tried to call him but he turned his phone off, and so I booked it to his workplace, and actually had to get him to come out and unlock his car, all the while babbling (forgive me) about an international orchid competition, and a rare Brazilian orchid. Okay Hyperbole, but it sounded good! (Every orchid I have here except phals is a rare orchid).

Anyway, brought it home in air conditioning, and gave it a good drink in the "pond." It looks fine. I am sitting here afterwards chuckling to myself, and having an after work ice- cold adult beverage.

I had to drag all my orchids in for the week, it is really cold (like 41F) in the morning suddenly. A cold snap. My little intermedia is having a tiny bud forming and the Lawre-mossiae cross I have.

The end of this exciting tome!
Aloha!

---------- Post added at 05:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:22 PM ----------

Sadly spell check doesn't work on this site either. Pail box. :|

Shipping box contents take quite a while to equilibrate with outside temperatures, fortunately, if the box is well-packed and sealed.

It was okay. I am prone to catastrophic thinking. The package came at noon. He called me at 2:00 pm. By the time I got there it was after 3:30 Pm. Long enough fer my imagination to run away with me. That was a long time in a hot car. (did I say he parked under a tree? That is the only thing that saved it).

I'm glad everyone's plants are arriving in good shape. I know how hot a car can get in New Mexico, my mother used to live there. Glad you got it in time.

---------- Post added at 09:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:59 PM ----------

Hey everyone I got an email back from Fred Clark, he says
" It looks like there has been some root loss. C. walkeriana needs to be a bit dryer in the winter months to preserve root health. It really does better mounted on a cork is way the roots dry out quickly. They are also sensitive about repotting at the wrong time. only re pot when new roots are starting."

Fred sent me a little more advice, I told him that I had just repotted:

Make sure the plant is stable in the pot so the roots will reestablish well. ok to water regularly in summer, just keep dryer in winter I water them about 1/2 as often as other catts.

I agree with that advice, too. I find that large chunks of red lava rock combined with a plastic Vanda basket is pretty much the alternative for mounting.

Just put them outside. I will need to cover them for the next two nights. Since they did good covered at 36'F, I think they will be fine at 40' and 39'F.

Well I won't get a bloom from my SVO one this year but I still have hopes for my new one coming from Andy's.

Well that means I re-potted mine at the wrong time then.

That's probably the trickiest thing about catts... repotting them at the right time... especially the species (especially bifoliates! ugh!)... thankfully the hybrids are far easier and more adaptable

however, as already stated, mine hasn't done a thing growth wise how many months into spring and i didn't touch it, repot, move it or anything...

It might just be getting a late start. I've been growing under lights during the winter so my orchids get a little confused...maybe your orchids put in a second growth in the fall?
When you do need to re-pot at the wrong time, just do it carefully. Soak the roots well first, be careful not to break the roots when removing the old medium, then put it in dry medium, carefully sticking the medium around the roots and banging the pot on the table to get it down into the pot, then leave it dry for a few days for the roots to heal (helps prevent fungus from getting into the cracks and rotting out the old roots). The more air your new medium gives the roots, the better. You will lose some roots but not all of them.

My coerulea (pictured earlier in thread) came from SVO in December 2015. It soon began making new growths. They are almost mature. Just recently the plant began making roots for the first time.

The regular color plant I put into S/H when it arrived. I didn't know any better. It finished its growth and then grew new roots into the LECA.

My bag baby has made steady progress since I got it and hasn't missed a beat even after being repotted. Another semi-alba that I got from Ten Shin at the SEPOS show sat and did nothing for over a month. It's now just starting a spike.

Yikes, my semi alba is from Ten Shin. Maybe siblings! I got it 1st of April this year.

We had rain all day today and I put my Walkeriana outside with some other cattleyas for about 6 hours. I'll bet they were happy. The little "winter" flashback we are having is slowly drawing to a close. I have several new cattleyas since buying the "Cattleya" special from Carmela's. Was a bit dissapointed because most were "red" catts and I am not so amazed by pure red catts, but I will see what happens, some may be nice. Others I can gift or sell. I am really, really thinking about getting a flask or community pot. There is no source of any kind of orchid here but Phalenopsis. Not thinking straight, obviously.

Have you considered placing them in an improvised wardian case over the dry winter months? It will stabilize rh in the growing area and keep your plants happy--something as simple as an aquarium with a sheet of clear plastic across the top will suffice.

---------- Post added at 01:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:23 PM ----------

If it has not done a thing, then I would try changing the culture--I'd also look to see what shape the roots are in. On a side note, if the plant in question has any sophronitis in its parentage, you may not see root growth until the fall, though you should be seeing new vegetative growth at this time.
I don't grow a lot of species catts, but find that when I am "forced" to repot them out of season, I have much more success by removing them from their pots, removing as much media from the root zone as possible (and removing dead/damaged roots at the same time) and placing them bare root in clay pots on the bench. They get watered along with the rest of my collection, but I wait on putting them in media until I see new roots forming. I follow this practice under lights as well and have found that I lose far fewer plants than if I put them into new media at the wrong time of the year.
Just my $.02,
Adam

I have had Cattleya aclandiae seedlings do nothing for a year before deciding to grow (after potting up at the wrong time). Then they are usually okay. Like Stonedragonfarms has noted, if you need to move an orchid at the right time, the more exposed the roots are to air, the less chance they will die. Air keeps the roots from getting infected if they are damaged.

I have noticed something. The Walkeriana I got was wrinkly when it first arrived, and I can even see it on the original e-bay photo when I bought it. I have watered it, and even left it in the rain at one point, and now that wrinkled leaf is taut, like a drum. My observation is that the leaves really do "fill up" quickly, more-so than any other orchid storage bulb I have encountered.

:)

Here is my C. walkeriana coerulea from Andy's. Got it today. It looks like a nice healthy plant. It has freckles :)

Attachment 120890

What a nice one! :)

I have three seedlings of C. walkeriana 'Carmela' semi-alba, and wanted to try growing it three different ways. Initially when I bought the plants, one went on a section of tree fern, the other two went into plastic net pots set inside a standard plastic pot until I decided what I wanted to do with them.

I had been thinking of mounting one of the three. After observing their growth for awhile, I decided this would be a good project for the morning. The plant I chose was one of the ones in a net pot, new roots beginning, but not progressed too far:

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...psmzefpchu.jpg

There is a new growth with some new roots at the base.

Next, I looked at some of the possible mounts I had available. I opted for a natural piece of heart-of-pine, then evaluated which side to mount the plant on. Having seen other mounted walkerianas, they seem to spread a lot on mounts, so I didn't want the mount to be too small; better to have room to grow:

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...pshew5pbha.jpg

I added a wire to the mount and placed the plant low on the mount, going upward. Here it is (although I straightened it a bit after this photo):

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...pscdrywz4e.jpg

Stonedragon how would that be with air flow? I would think it wouldn't get enough.

Yep, all of mine did the same thing. Adaptation to intermittently dry climate, most likely.

stonedragonfarms, unfortunately I can't change the culture all that much, so it's just a matter of seeing what it does this year... no brighter spots, and in that spot the green is borderline burned... so it would have to be shadier spot if moved and doubt that would do anything but set it back even further from flowering... rather try watering it more anything to change... I have a feeling it's more the cold/heat thing. i have a bunch of stuff sitting doing nothing while it's been cooler here (nights low 50's, days top at 70 lately)... once it's warmer i think is when it'll initiate something. At Andy's orchids, they grow them in the warm/hot greenhouse even though it can handle cold, and it's probably for a reason.

Wintergirl, what a beautiful little one... when you can get something beautifully attached to the mount, it's totally worth it! congrats!

Orchid whisperer, what a beautiful mount! and how did you get it cultured with moss already? Think pine is without resins? and such little cuties are the walkerianas... I usually mount a plant at least slightly up the mount to accommodate side growths should they happy, but just adding that, but looks great!

[QUOTE=No-Pro-mwa;805062]Stonedragon how would that be with air flow? I would think it wouldn't get enough.[/]

No-Pro-mwa; which thread are you referring to?

[QUOTE=stonedragonfarms;805099][QUOTE=No-Pro-mwa;805062]Stonedragon how would that be with air flow? I would think it wouldn't get enough.[/]

If the plant is sitting bare root in a clay pot, the root zone will dry a bit slower than on a mount (rh, temps and air circulation being the same); there is ample air movement around the rhizome in comparison to the plant being potted up. In the greenhouse, bare root plants can also be left on the bench as is, though I'm that case I most often just mount the plant and be done with it. If you have the room/time try placing a bare root seedling in a clay pot and observe how long it takes for the roots to dry under your growing conditions.
Adam

Hi u bada, glad you like the mount!

I'm fortunate to have a patch of mixed pine and hardwood in my back yard. When the pine trees die for whatever reason, the soft sapwood of the pines is easily decomposed by bacteria, fungi and insects, but the heart-of-pine (aka heart pine or fatwood) does not decay. Heart-of-pine is full of resin, red, and quite hard (like oak), very rot-resistant, and does not decay, but if highly weathered, is not resinous on its surface. A hundred or more years ago, people used to make durable flooring out of this material, obtained from old-growth pine trees. Now, younger trees only have a little of this in their centers. In an old rotten trunk or stump, the soft sapwood rots away, and this is what is left.

This piece came from a rotted stump. the top part has some natural moss on it because it stood in place in the ground as the rest of the stump rotted away. The lower part does not have moss on it now, but could be colonized by moss later. The wood is resinous, but you can only smell the resin if you drill or cut into the wood. The resin is not detectable on the surface of the wood.

There are a lot of hardwoods not used in the lumber industry because they never get large enough for boards. Tamarind, persimmon and others generally seen as small trees or even bushes can be very hard woods.

[QUOTE=stonedragonfarms;805099]Sorry I missed this earlier. I was talking about the one where you said putting them in an aquarium with some plastic over it. The 2 small ones in 1 1/2 inch pot and a 2 inch pot with bark dry out every day. I water them almost every day and they are doing much better.

Optimist, if you have chollas growing around you, their skeletons make great mounts. Plain for Catts, center channel stuffed with sphagnum moss for things that need more water.

I took new pictures of my plants all 3 of them. So picture of the first child as I am calling them after I did surgery to remove the outer layer to let out the leaf. Then new pics today of it. The middle child has 2 yes 2 new growths and the baby getting there.

Looking good!

I forgot to post a picture of my walkeriana

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ps6zebkhyc.jpg

It is not in a very big pot. As you can see, their is a nice new leaf forming. It just spent 2 days in a drizzling rain. It is very happy today.

It looks very healthy and happy! :)