Back in September I picked this up at the International Phalaenopsis Alliance annual meeting in New Hampshire. It had the start of a spike then, which has taken a few months to grow and then push out a bud. The bud opened up a few days ago. I have to say, I'm a bit surprised by the form. My other Mendenhall has longer petals that sort of frame the lip. This one has shorter petals that stick out like that... it makes it look like the bloom is jumping out at you. Has anyone seen this shorter petal variety before?
It has great color. If this is the first bloom on this one it may just be a once off and will bloom with longer petals next time. My Mendenhall has two spikes that have been blooming one at a time and the one in bloom right now has the longer petals.
It is the first bloom - so here's to hoping with the next one. Thanks for the note on the color - I really like the striping and how dark the dorsals are. It's hard to see from the stinky cell phone pics, but the lip is curled under itself so it's a fair bit larger than it appears in the picture, which is great because it too may spread out and fully open up on the next bloom.