Phrag Sunset Glow (meh)
 

I've had this one for about a year now, bought it in bud in October last year I think, and now it's flowering again (the flower opened yesterday).

The colour is very "meh" this time, and that colourless spot on the petal bugs me a lot (as do the ones on the pouch). I think the colour was better on its previous flowering, but that could be due to beautified memories and over-saturated pictures. Not sure.

What I do know, is that the form is better (at least in my eyes). It looks really perky and happy and I like that. :D Those extra things on the petals, teeth or what I should call them, seem to be thing for this one. Don't know why it gets them.

Some of the pictures aren't that good, since it was way too dark in my apartment for some of the shots, and my hands were too shaky.


Here it is:

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8665/...034d72ed_b.jpg


Profile picture that will be replaced due to being too much out of focus for my taste. I just wanted to show it from this angle:

http://www.neovita.com/orkideer/bild...82844.orig.jpg


Picture of the whole plant, which will also be replaced due to it being too dark in some places (I don't have a good photo editing program anymore, so couldn't fix it any better than this). I just wanted to show the size of the growth that's flowering (can you spot the old growth behind the new one?):

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7570/...2047ea8c_b.jpg


I have been grumbling about this plant a lot. One of the reasons that I bought it (beside that it was reddish, being sold really close to where I live and a Phrag) was because it wasn't that big, which was great. I wanted a nice, compact growing Phrag, since I don't have that much space. So... Where did that new growth come from?! Has it been eating steroids behind my back?

I took a picture to show the difference in size. As it was too dark, it was kind of difficult to get a decent picture, but I hope you can see what I'm talking about. The two bottom leaves (not the yellowing one) on the new growth are the same size as the largest ones on the old. This thing has the ability to become a monster... :shock:

http://www.neovita.com/orkideer/bild...82846.orig.jpg

nice!

I really like it. :)

Color depends a great deal on light available, as well as temperature. In Oct it developed the spike in greenhouse(?), which probably would be higher light intensity than the Dec spike blooming now.

As to temperatures, cooler temps bring out deeper red shades. I can't guess at your temperatures vs the greenhouse.

Lastly, I wouldn't worry about color breaks, unless they repeat in all the flowers.

Oh, I think it's beautiful, really beautiful. And the leaves are so perfectly healthy looking. Gorgeous plant and bloom.

Lovely

Thanks for the nice comments guys. I know I sound like the most ungrateful Phrag owner ever. I blame all the pictures of wonderful Phrags I've seen on several forums. They have caused me to get greedy. ;)

It's standing next to my T5, so there's plenty of light. The problem could be that since it was trying to grow up into the T5, the developing bud became pretty warm. I've moved the plant further away from the T5 to see what the next flower will look like.

Last year, when I bought it and it flowered for the first time, all I know is that it was shipped from Germany to Sweden in spike, and then the bud developed in the flower shop at rather warm temperatures and not that great conditions.

I suppose there are no standards for the word "compact." Orchids can get rather large. I guess you need to go for "miniature" if you really need small.