Darwinara Rainbow Stars
 

I bought this plant at the Mid-America Orchid Show last October. It came from Eric Michael, who owns Michael's Orchids. It is a large plant for a Neofinetia hybrid. The average leaf length is 5" from tsuke to leaf tip. It has seven fans. All through winter, it basically stayed alive. I erred in that I did not give it a cooler, dry, winter rest like I provided for my Neofinetia. Otherwise, I think it would be in bloom. There are some old spikes of previous blooms to indicate that it is "bloom size." It will be a real surprise as to what color the flowers will be.

The plant was in a regular green, plastic pot in large chunky bark. Mid April this year, I transitioned all of my plants outside. From April until mid-June, it did nothing except turn a little red--due to bright light exposure. It isn't sunburned but it is the coloration of these leaves that Neofinetia owners welcome.

I repotted the plant out of bark into smaller chips of Orchiata, coal, sponge rock, and LECA. Since I am using a 4" net pot, I lined the wall of the pot with NZ AAAAA sphagnum moss. When it dried about a couple of days later, I applied KelpMax from First Rays.

This is how the plant looks today. Good root growth, the leaves are growing healthy and with that dark reddish coloration. Cannot see if any of these fans are going to spike--not all that important right now. A good, healthy, growing plant is my goal.

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Darwinara Rainbow Stars by MattWoelfsen, on Flickr

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Darwinara Rainbow Stars by MattWoelfsen, on Flickr

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Darwinara Rainbow Stars by MattWoelfsen, on Flickr

Very nice

Thanks Tommy! This was an intriguing plant when I saw it on the vendor's sales table. Because it was the end of the show, Eric Michael gave me a really good price to entice me to take it home.

Nice one!

Seriously nice!

I just got some of these in from Exotic Orchids. Color will depend upon color of the Darwinara Charm used, it can probably range from near white through pink to bluish/purple.

It looks very happy. I am hoping to get a Darwinara one of these days.

Thanks everyone for your comments. This is an easy plant to acquire. Kawamoto Orchids on eBay, Hausermann's, Carter & Holmes, Orchids Limited--often have these plants available.

I have looked up the ancestry of this hybrid. According to what I've read, my plant has a lot of Vanda on one side and then what makes it a 'Charm' is by breeding a Neofinetia falcata to that Vanda hybrid. Further reading indicates that seedlings of this hybrid could produce different colored flowers in the same batch, consequently you wouldn't know what color the flower will be until a seedling blooms.

I like mysterious plants!

These are the only Neo hybrids still in my collection. I like them because the plants stay relatively small and have the Neo-like flower shape. I already have a yellow and pink flowering one and 3 more are coming soon.
Good growing Matt.

Thanks Marc! Speaking of size, here is the Darwinara compared to my largest Neofinetia. I think my Darwinara will continue to possibly get slightly larger but for the Neofinetia, this is about as large as it gets.

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Darwinara vs Amami Fuuran by MattWoelfsen, on Flickr