Phal speciosa

[theloyalplum]

Originally Posted by oceans0516

Beautiful! Is it fragrant? Mine recently bloomed but it smells weird like plastic to me.

Oh yes! Forgot about that. We have some fragrance lovers out there. It is fragrant. Mostly in the morning and more intense in the heat. It's sweet and has a light citrus to it. I'll edit this tomorrow morning since it'll be much stronger. It's not too powerful but it does fill the windowsill with nice smells if you catch it at the right time.

[RosieC]

Gorgeous!

Yes looks like speciosa 'C1' clone which is quite distinctive with the red splotches on white flower. The amount of red you get in it depends on the conditions it's grown in as I understand it. I've seen some pictures with just a tiny red dot, mine when I bought it just had a red area on one petal of each flower.

Just so you are aware, there is some disagreement on whether the 'C1' clone is tetraspis or speciosa. My 'C1' is tagged s speciosa so I go with that. My understanding is that which species the clone was made from originally is lost in the depths of time and may or may not have been recorded correctly.

I would love to know how this is grown compared to bellina, because my bellina grows wonderfully and my speciosa 'C1' has sulked ever since I got it. I have the bellina in a south/west facing window (behind a sheer curtain) and the 'C1' in an east facing window with all my other phals. When I first got it I was told it didn't need the same higher light as bellina but I wonder if I should try it there, just worried about burning it if it doesn't like it. Otherwise I am growing them about the same as each other

[theloyalplum]

Originally Posted by RosieC

Gorgeous!

Yes looks like speciosa 'C1' clone which is quite distinctive with the red splotches on white flower. The amount of red you get in it depends on the conditions it's grown in as I understand it. I've seen some pictures with just a tiny red dot, mine when I bought it just had a red area on one petal of each flower.

Just so you are aware, there is some disagreement on whether the 'C1' clone is tetraspis or speciosa. My 'C1' is tagged s speciosa so I go with that. My understanding is that which species the clone was made from originally is lost in the depths of time and may or may not have been recorded correctly.

I would love to know how this is grown compared to bellina, because my bellina grows wonderfully and my speciosa 'C1' has sulked ever since I got it. I have the bellina in a south/west facing window (behind a sheer curtain) and the 'C1' in an east facing window with all my other phals. When I first got it I was told it didn't need the same higher light as bellina but I wonder if I should try it there, just worried about burning it if it doesn't like it. Otherwise I am growing them about the same as each other

I understand the worry about higher light. Mine sits about 6 inches from a south exposed window. But it's also behind 2 sheets of plastic sheeting to diffuse some of the brighter light. It's rather tolerant of the amount of light with slight yellowing around the edges of the leaves so a third sheet of plastic may be in order. So far so good! If it were me, and what I'm planning on doing, is throwing it together with a bellina, but maybe a tad further from the light source.

[RosieC]

Thanks, may try something similar. The UK probably doesn't get as much sun as you anyway so I'm going to try the bathroom counter first which is on the same wall as the windowledge bellina is on but not right up on the windowledge. If it likes that I may inch it forward a bit of at a time and see how it goes.

[theloyalplum]

Update on my phal! I have a couple extra pictures now that most of the buds are open. Fragrance gets better by the day!

Tried to get a picture of how it looks in the light. Pictures online sometimes show it with the telltale patterning and sometimes the matte solid colors. Turns out it's both. When hit with light from behind, there's patterning, and from the front, nice solid color. Forgive the whiteness; it has been overcast in the Bay Area for the past few days!


Full plant again!


EDIT: It's in a container with lightly moistened sphag. Testing a system for short and long term neglect for when I'm on vacation at the end of July. Already on week 2 and it looks like the roots below the sphag are incredibly happy. Can stand alone or hang, whichever is optimal!

[DeaC]

My next acquisition. It's stunning. I've a tetraspis starting to bloom that would love a roomate!

[No-Pro-mwa]

Just splendid! I love it and would also like to have one some day.

---------- Post added at 09:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:15 AM ----------

Originally Posted by DeaC

My next acquisition. It's stunning. I've a tetraspis starting to bloom that would love a roomate!

What exactly is the difference in the 2?

[terracotta7]

Wonderful!

[theloyalplum]

What exactly is the difference in the 2?

From what I've seen/heard, they're very similar since they're sister species. I personally think tetraspis tends to stay on the whiter side when it comes to petals and have red spotting at times. The speciosa has the tendency to have solid red or whites with it leaning towards the reds. I'm probably wrong, though. There have been reports of people with "speciosa" self'd seedlings that show the trademark tetraspis white flowers with purple/red bars and also the vice versa with speciosa looking flowers in a wild population of tetraspis. So long story short, nobody knows (or a few people do and they're not on the internet*)!

[No-Pro-mwa]

Well at least thanks for trying to explain it heheheh one of those secrets of the orchid world.