Monster Spike & Still Growing V. Merv L. Velthus x V. Srakaew
 

Just had to share...even though all the blooms have yet to open but its a monster of a spike and the blooms are huge. Easily a touch over 5"s across petal to petal! :biggrin:
I just decided to snap a few pics this evening to show off a little :blushing:, but I will certainly take more pics when it has finished blooming out. I also will stand beside it to give a good comparison of how large this spike is; mind you that I'm 6'7" so i'm a big guy indeed. You would not believe that this is only a young adult plant. Pic will be continued in the coming weeks.
Enjoy! ;)

Wonderful. I would be scared to bump that thing those flowers look heavy for the little spike!!! beautiful show!!
Green thumbs up!!

Quite the contrary....the spike is half inch thick or a tidbit thicker. A Very strong spike no pun intended. :)

Fabulous!

Its been exactly a month since I posted the initial pics of this beautiful monster. Well it has finally finished blooming all 20 something blooms, all of which are easily 5 inches across. The spike actually is so big that it has starting to lean to one side significantly and I have had to secure it with a twist tie to the bamboo stake its on. I'm a big guy at 6'7" and its larger than the length from my elbow to the tip of my tallest finger & blooms bigger than the palm of my hand. I simply am in awe. If that wasn't amazing enough, it has already started pushing out a new spike. I guess Bud was right when he said no to worry about accidentally breaking the spike off the last time around bc it would grow bigger & stronger. No kidding! ;)
This guy has been producing bud after bud on this one spike that some of the first blooms on the spike have since faded & fallen off. Crazy!

I love the color!!!

Its gorgeous! And thanks for the comments. :biggrin:
I think I am officially in love with Merv L. Velthuis and any cross with it in it. You can't miss it and the bloom size is out of this world. :biggrin:

Phenom example! Beautiful and obviously very happy.
Thanks for posting!
Steve:waving

You are most welcome! And thank you for coming to look and for the lovely comments! :biggrin:
My that is a stunning Catt in ur avatar!! ;) is it 'Carmela'?

Beautiful! Aren't Vandas wonderful? The size alone is impressive. It's a pretty colour too.

Of course they are! :biggrin: Im building a new greenhouse space which you can see some of the metal posts laying in the background of the photos. I am making a large order from Thailand by next month, and will need the space. I am also gonna do a ton of landscaping with vandas & mokaras. I can't wait!

Boy, do I envy you! I just have windowsills in a small house. I have a very small greenhouse that I use in the summer because our nights are quite cool.

Well I certainly know all about running out of room on a windowsill. Well in my case I have french windows with Boxed in lattice, and now it is completely filled with cattleyas, phals, a dendrobium, and a specimen size rare cattleya cross. I also have a small greenhouse out back that is filled with all kinds of dendrobiums; alot of which are young ones that are now reaching blooming size. So I hardly have room to rotate them, every now & then i place a couple inside as centerpieces when they bloom. This new greenhouse will be able to house thousands of orchids, which means i can rotate out all the orchids in active growth from my window and rotate in all the ones in bloom! YAY! :biggrin:

You are so lucky!

ah blaaaah....you still have some Vandas i want! :P

Well, I wouldn't doubt that you have many more that I want!

Touche! Oh this debate is far from over!:biggrin:

The greenhouse you are describing would be my dream.
I once saw a greenhouse in a book that had a swimming pool surrounded by flagstones. The whole greenhouse was filled with plants in the ground as well as growing up the pillars to hide them. There were orchids hanging everywhere and a hammock. They had created a vacation atmosphere.

That sounds like something I would love to do with my back yard space...make it like and oasis of orchids! :biggrin:

Wouldn't it be cool? You could create a vacation spot surrounded with orchids! My dream.

That has always been my intention. But instead of a pool I would like to do a pond or a aquaponic setup. Their are a lot more semi-shady areas in my backyard so I need to figure out what types of orchids I'd use mostly; I even need to find which orchids do best alongside a water source i.e. pond/waterfall.

I have a koi pond, but the only orchids we can grow here are the hardy ones that only bloom about 3 weeks out of the year. I must admit that if I had that dream greenhouse pool, I would have koi in it.

Aww...well thats what I need to find out; which orchids love a continuously moist environment due to constant splashing from water and moisture from evaporating water. Koi are nice....and also expensive lol

Koi can be expensive. I bought baby ones that are cheaper. They grow quickly and within 4 years can be about a foot long. I love how tame the get. Mine let me pet them.
Have you thought of Phrags for your orchids? Mine seems to tolerate pretty high light levels.

Tell me a bit more about Phrag culture please! :)

P.s. The greenhouse area is almost up...they put up the highest point which is 12 feet which will be for hanging vandas ;) so they get full sun all day through the filtered shading (more blooms!), then there is a drop down to the lower level which is 9 feet the rest of the length of it. They have cemented in all but 2 posts and have a bit more welding to do which they will finish this sunday; woohoo :bowing

In the wild, some phrags live on the banks of streams and rivers with their roots dangling in the water, which is why I suggested them. I have mine in s/h in lava rock and it loves it. They don't like to dry out too much, kind of like phals but more light.

You must be so excited! I would be!

Sounds like these can definitely work. And they can do well in either low light & high light i just read. Perfect; and they are prettyy! Yep totally excited. So as its up then i start measuring of the shade cloth and plan out how to apple all the proper covering at the right points where sun shines directly on that area. :biggrin:

They should work then. Maybe spathoglotis? Someone else may have suggestions.

Maybe Bud or Tucker would know, I think i'm going to shoot them a message and ask. :)
Oooo....Spathoglottis is nice too, they get big and lots of foliage....that works really well! Thanks as always. :biggrin:

Spathoglottis also bloom for a very long time.