My neo collection
 

Woke up today and was like, I should share some pics of my neo collection. From one addict to another, here's my windowsill collection of neos. (Obviously my windowsill is not big enough. Need... more... room...:rofl:

Excuse the bad lighting. My neos receive morning sun and this shot was taken not too long ago, while the sun was still shining on them from the outside. So... poor lighting for camera work.



Attachment 80718
Whole windowsill

Attachment 80719
(From right to left)
Furan, Houmeiden, Manjushage, Hisui, Kuro Shinju, Ryokuhou

Attachment 80720
(From right to left)
Aojiku-Yorodoishi, Hougyoku, Benikanzashi, Senzai, Seikai

Attachment 80721
(From right to left)
Raikoumaru, Kara-nishiki, Kogane-nishiki, Takara-nishiki, Shutennou

Attachment 80722
(From right to left)
Gojo-fukurin, Benisuzume, Shirai-to-nishiki, Amami-furan

Attachment 80723
(From right to left)
Same Amami-furan, Suikaden, Benisuzume (another), Shutennou (another), Neostylis Lou Sneary 'Blue Bird'


For a closer view on each individual plant, check out my flickr set. Click Here

Looks good! And yes, you need lots more room! :D

Wow that's a big collection! Well not big because they're all really small but big as in the number. They look great!!

Lovely, you have some healthy, happy Neos and a nice variety too. They like your window sill; you found the perfect place for them. Well done and thanks for posting. One day when you have time could you do close up shots of each one. I recognize most of the names but there are a few I am not familiar with. Thanks.

Nice!

Nice collection, but you are wrong when you say you need more room! You need a shelf hanging half way across you window, so you can put another row of Neos :evil::biggrin::rofl:

Not gonna lie, I've already thought of that and am thinking of ways to implement that plan. :rofl:
Hahaha!

You can check out my neofinetia set here on flickr. Not all are on there yet though, I haven't gotten around to doing a little photoshoot with some of my newer ones :) I'll get to it as soon as I am free from work and school! :lol:



Also, thank you everyone!

Neo Wire Hanger
 

you can make one of these out of old dry cleaning hangers with the use of a good pair of plyers and hang them on your window with hooks

Interesting idea, I might try that out.

I'm actually about to buy another neo. hanger from seed-engei this week. I only use them as a way to transfer all my neos outside or to the bathroom, when they need to be watered (which is about around every 2-3 days, as of late). Makes my life a lot easier, than bringing them one by one to be watered.

Great pictures and great collection! Makes me want to try and get pictures of mine, maybe this weekend I'll get to it!

Updated original post to include a link to my Neofinetia photo set on Flickr. Updated the set to include some of my neos that were missing from the set and I was just too lazy to update till now.

They are all beautiful! !....Jean

Your collection and photography is just beautiful :bowing

Aw, thank you! I hope the Neos you got from me are doing well!

That's really nice of you to say, thank you! It's sad that my iPhone takes better photos than my DSLR right now :( Probably because I don't have the proper lenses for such a close-up shot of my plants. I'm expecting a new neo to come in sometime this week :) I'll update this thread with a new photo when I have time to snap pics of it (and of course, after it arrives). I've been wanting to make a photo album dedicated to all the root growth I've been getting recently.
I saw your root photo thread and man, don't you just LOVE these brightly colored root tips? Even the brown/maroon ones have this glossy shine to them. So beautiful!!

I am finding that I am using my iPhone more than the DSLR as well and I have a macro lens. Lol. Yes, the roots and the foliage are more important than the blossoms to me. This is a very rewarding obsession. Again thanks for the pics. :)

What new neo did you get? I just ordered three this week. Hope they get here this week too!

What Neos are you getting, Ryan?

Adrienne, I got:

Kinku Jaku
Asahiden
Kinkosei

Introducing, Neofinetia falcata 'Byakko'! Not gonna lie, the photo didn't come out as well as I had hoped. It's waaaay too yellow in the photo when really, it's more of a faded yellow. Off-white, almost.

Also updated my album to add 'Seikai', 'Aojiku-Yorodoishi' and 'Suikaden'

Enjoy!

EDIT: I removed the bad color representation of 'Byakko' and put up a new one HERE. Better representation of its true color but it looks a bit grainy. I just can't win with this one :(
TOP VIEW

Oh my that is a beautiful tiger stripped Neo. Byakko is on my most wanted list yours is TDF. If you don't mind I am going to go back and peak at the collection you have posted. :)

Aw, thank you. Byakko is definitely a must-have! There aren't very many neos considered as a "White Tiger-stripe" and this one is one of em. I'm an enabler. :lol:

Yeah, you are. :) Now I'm looking for one too. Seed Engei doesn't have any online right now, nor does orchidweb.

Love that Byakko! The contrast is great! You guys make me feel like I should most my puny collection!

Your collection
 

I just had an eye opening visit to your Flickr collection. Talk about beautiful healthy Neos I am impressed. Thanks for all of the tidbits of culture info. :bowing

Jeremiah is one the worst (and by worst I mean best) enablers.

Had to trim a beautiful piece of new root growth from my 'Houmeiden' today. It was sad but necessary to maintain its beauty. Anyone else trim "out of place" roots out there?

Root trimming - 'Houmeiden' | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Is that the common practice or a personal preference? My Figaku has a few roots headed skyward, including one about 2/3" long, but they're in the center of the clump and I don't think my hands are steady enough easily remove them without doing damage to nearby leaves. Not that I'm sure I'd want to anyway.

Jason Fisher said on a video that long roots can be cut without damaging the plant especially when you want to put a big clump in the pot when replanting. New roots will grow and it does not set the plant back. Sorry you had to cut a ruby red root. :(

To be quite honest, I did this out of personal preference. However, I am not sure if that is common practice in Japan. As far as I'm concerned, the damage done to the plant is minimal as there are plenty of other roots bursting from it and it also still carries its original roots pre-growth season.
Given that the root growth placement is rather unpredictable, I find it odd that most plants being entered in shows show that receive high markings don't have roots going upwards into the air. I do believe these people trim roots (and leaves) to make their Neofinetias as pristine as possible. However, this is just my speculation. I'm hoping other people can chime in on this topic. Personally, however, I don't think it would harm your plant if you wanted to trim that aerial root, as long as it has plenty of other roots to get nutrients/water from.
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The unfortunate reality of Neofinetias in the US:
The sad thing about the Neofinetia culture in the United States is that the US database has extremely limited information. As far as I know, and please correct me of I'm wrong, there are only THREE widely known folks who are deemed "experts" by the US public. That would be Jason (from Orchidwebs), Satomi (from Seed-Engei) and Glenn (from New Word Orchids). I'm sure there are other expert growers out there who have had great success but the three I have named are the ones who I'm sure most of us have read about sometime or another quite frequently.
To top it off, most people only post photos of their plants and don't really give much detailed information on their specific growing conditions and their observations in whatever conditions their plants were in. Photographs of progression, changes in growth, what conditions they were in to obtain that growth for that specific type, etc, are all important data that we, as US keepers, should have and share.

Anyway, perhaps this is just the Science major in me talking and I've always been the type to want EVERY SINGLE DETAIL POSSIBLE. Others probably don't care as much, so forgive my ramblings. But for those who think alike, I say we get together and start gathering information from our OWN personal experiences. Things we tweak for ourselves and begin to try our own experiments with these plants.
Example Scenario:
Person A receives a Neofinetia 'kogane-nishiki'. This is a yellow tiger stripe variety. At the moment, it does NOT have very bright yellow leaves yet. Person A decides to put it on an EAST facing window that gets direct morning sun and only bright (shaded) light afterwards. No lighting supplementation.
Person B receives a Neofientia 'kogane-nishiki' as well. Not necessarily from the same plant (aka not a direct divison but rather a seed clone). Person B places his/her plant in a South facing window and receives no direct morning sun and instead, gets direct afternoon sun with a % shade cloth to prevent burns.

Person A and B can document and photograph the original state in which their Neos came in. After an X amount of months pass by, Person A and B can take a photograph again to see if yellow variegation intensified. Who has stronger yellow? Maybe it didn't change? Any sort of information would help. Of course, this isn't exactly the most scientific way of doing things because there could have been other factors that could've played into these situations. Perhaps person B's shade cloth got torn down by a cat and burned his plant for a day or two? Maybe Person A forgot to water his plant for a week? Nonetheless,as hobbyists, any sort of data like this is extremely beneficial, don't you think?

OR...

Another alternative is we should all just learn Japanese and hop onto Japanese Neofinetia Forums and we can learn from there and build off from that. No need to start from scratch. :rofl:

AND.... that is all for now. I don't know how I got from root cutting to this.

Great post! I wonder how well google translate works between English and Japanese. At worst we could give them a good chuckle over our clumsy, robotic attempts to dialog on their boards. :rofl:

Shades of "All your Fukiran are belong to us." Hehehehe! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

I get what you are saying Jeremiah we all grow Neos and most of us do a good job with them. We need to trust our success with the plants and pool that knowledge we have gained with confidence. I always feel that I have to repeat the words of our "experts" for I certainly cannot know enough to just express what my experience has been with cutting a root etc. :roll: This a good thread! Thx.

This is where you'd start:
Fuukiran Society of America

I think it was Delaware Jim who provided the original link.

I am sure you are correct that it won't hurt to cut off a stray root but I just don't think I could do it! Good roots are hard to come by on some orchids, I don't have trouble with the neos but my other orchids have me well trained....Jean

We just had Terry from Flora Peculia give a talk on Neos and it was very interesting. I certainly have a greater appreciation for them now. Nice collection you have there. Thank you for sharing with us.

I've always wanted to do this, just no one to do it with. So I only have documented the difference in my own growing conditions from year to year, just to compare. So if you really want to try this, let me know what plant you want to use as the subject plant.

I'm definitely interested. Especially with one of the first few who went into the neo hobby. I would be honored really :) I really liked your thread of before and after pics with years that have gone by with your neos!

All we really have to do is when we show a specific neo, just list the conditions we grew them in. A before and after photo as well, to show improvements. Even if they don't overlap now, some eventually will. Soon enough, people can do a simple search and find different growth patterns with varying conditions from various people (that sentence sounds funny to me).

Example (Rough draft):
Houmeiden 1/24/13
Neofinetia falcata 'Houmeiden' / 'Bountiful Bright Palace' | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Houmeiden 3/18/13
Houmeiden 3/18/13

Houmeiden update 5/1/13
Houmeiden 5/1/13 #1
Houmeiden 5/1/13 #2
Houmeiden 5/1/13 #3


Name: Neofinetia falcata 'Houmeiden'

Growing Condition: Open East Window. bright indirect morning sun, bright indirect afternoon. Never receives direct light, only bright indirect. I do this to avoid burning white variegated leaves and to promote the white variegation to stay. I do not use humidity trays. They endure whatever San Jose, CA humidity is. Although to be quite honest, I don't think humidity is much of an issue for Neofinetias.

Media: 100% Sphagnum moss

Cold Season Water: Receives water approx once every 7-10 days. Media is allowed to dry completely for at least 1 day before being watered again.

Warm Season Water: Receives water approx once every 2-3 days. Ideally, I don't allow the media to completely dry out (although it has happened a few times, but not for too long). Ideal situation, it gets watered with the media still very slightly moist - almost dry.

Fertlizer: 20-20-20 fertlizer, once a week (or if I remember). Only when root growth is visible.
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Perhaps there may be more to add to this list. I'm too tired to think of anything else, but hopefully this can start a movement somehow in the Neo community. Doesn't have to follow my exact layout, but somewhere along the lines would help. Let me know what y'all think.

Thanks, Jeremiah. I have friends at the local orchid nursery who have specimen plants that are many times more awesome than mine. They are really the first few who went into the neo hobby :)

I thought you were thinking of doing some kind of "double blind, randomized, placebo controlled trial". I'll have to wait for middle of May to get my iphone to take new photos since my current camera sucks. You can certainly start a new thread and start documenting your plant info. When I am able to get some photos later I'll add to your thread with my info.

Not sure how I overlooked this comment, sorry for such a late response. But yes, I will definitely try to start something up when I have more time. I was thinking of just doing a blogspot but eh... we'll see how much more free time I'll have with my life going on plus having to do orchid and pet maintenance when I DO have some free time (which is hardly ever any). So I may just do a simple thread to keep things easy on my part.

---------- Post added at 02:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:50 PM ----------

Went to visit Seed-Engei today at the San Jose Orchid Show.
And of course, I spent way more than I would like to but I walked away really happy. My wallet on the other hand is a whole different story...


Neofinetia Pot - Bird design

Neofinetia Pot - Bird design backside

Momoyama-nishiki

'Nishidemiyako + Manazuru

Nishidemiyako + Manazuru #2

Great buys! You left pretty quickly after I ran into you! Maybe we can chat next time. I was also able to get a Momoyama during the last show in SoCal. Great addition!

You made the right choices in getting these plants as they are gorgeous!!!