My Neofinetia story, with a hokage in flower

[dries666]

Since a few years I am bitten by the Neo bug and it all started with buying my first three from Glenn at Newworldorchids. Those were Neo. Shutenno, Neo. Tamakongo and Neo. Amami Island. For a while those were the only ones I had, since I live in Belgium and it is quite hard to come by the different variëties here in Europe. That and they are quite expensive, as every Neo fan here knows I guess. I only got one more from a grower in the Netherlands, a kinryuukaku it said.... but probably it's really a kinroukaku, but I am still in doubt because the stem of the plant is still completely green, not a brown or purple tinge to it, and it has clear limegreen roottips (some sources say that it is possible for a kinroukaku to get ruby roots?). But last year the urge to buy some new ones became overwhelming and I decided to choose wisely because of my limited budget.

Eventually I chose a Neo. Hokage (It had to come home to me, this was one of the reasons of the cravings for neo's XD), a Neo. Fugaku and a Neo. Kikutome.
Secretly I have already found a new one for on my affordable wish list, it was there under my nose the whole time, but I never really payed any attention to its beauty until recently and it's the Neo. Nishidemiyako! Its ability to easily mutate makes it interesting to me. But probably I won't get my hands on it since I already have a few and I can't spend less than 150 dollar because of the Europe thing . Neo. Houmeiden makes me drewl as well, but hey, I don't really call that one affordable for me.
Well, that's my neo story and I'm not that good at photographing their immense beauty, but here are their pictures(some in home made pots since I can't find the standard K30 pots here anywhere), and I've put their Kanji next to it. If I made a mistake or if u have a clue about my Kinroukaku?, please do tell. The Kikutome kanji symbols were really hard to find, I found them as kiku otome apparently, but it seems to be the right name. (and I will not be naming them vanda's, to me the name neofinetia just has that mysterious ring to it).

Oh and I know my Shutenno doesn't look that great, the thing is; since a few years I have troubles with damage from brevipalpus oncidii, and I recently moved and tried to treat them completely but they were already quite severely damaged by the attack... little critters! I also grew them until recently in a full sun windowsill which made my amami furan turn black on the underside of it's leaves, but it has already turned green again since the move... I hope they grow even better in their new home!

now: the pictures!

Neo. Shutenno (朱天王), on the right in it's good days with some nice blooms.



Neo. Tamakongo (玉金剛) and its tsuke, does anybody know if this is supposed to be a straight or a wavy tsuke? The first picture is the tamakongo in bloom when I got it from Glenn.


Neo. Amami Island (Amami Furan)(奄美風蘭). The photo on the right shows the plant with its black undersides because of the high light intensity.


The kinryuukaku/kinroukaku mystery plant, Neo. Kinroukaku (金鏤閣) ?


Neo. Fugaku (富嶽), does anybody know if this one can also mutate into another specific variety or is it just normal for it to change its pattern in each growth?


Neo. Kikutome (菊乙女), is supposed to bear yellow flowers with a hint of pink in them.



Neo. Hokage (火影) with flowers! I haven't found any picture of this variety with flowers so I thought this might be interesting, the flowers came in the package, so Glenn gets the credit for them. Although they are already wilting, probably because it didn't have many healty roots and it had a bit of a mealy bug problem on its flower buds. The bottom of the flowerstem bears a light pink tinge and to me the flowers seem to have a more open, star-like shape than the standard flowers with a more vertically alligned shape. Also the flowers nod downwards, but that might be because of the lack of light from above in their development. The smell is sweet jasmine like most neos but it appeared quite faint. It is supposed to have beautiful ruby roottips, so I will impatiently await the emergence of new roots!
I just adore this variety and I can't stop dreaming about what a wonderful plant it could become! (google it, I dare u!)

Enjoy the amateuristic pictures and friendly greetings from Belgium,

Dries

[Joyorchid]

You have a beautiful collection, Dries, and a very nice story!

[vjo]

According to Glenn the tsuki is a WAVE! If you pull a leaf down a little bit you will see the wave.....Jean.

Ooops! I re-read my notes and Glenn said it was a mountian tsuki, sorry...Jean

[dries666]

Oh great !! I was hoping on the wave tsuke... I just didn't know that this was already called a wavy pattern, some others carry a more clear wave pattern.

greetz,

Dries

[coffeecup]

Great collection! Thanks for sharing.

[rangiku]

Lovely story, photos and plants, Dries. Very nice pot, too! You're among friends here.

[Red Orchid]

Very nice collection & great pics. I love the Hokage but then I love all of them including your black pot are they pottery?

[dries666]

the black pots aren't pottery, they are made from FIMO clay, a polymer clay that hardens out in an ordinary oven. I read the thread :"Neo Pots are nice Part II" and that's what I based myself on to make them.

The only downside I think they have is that they aren't as sturdy as I thought they would be, in fact I broke one because its design wasn't ideal and another one cracked a bit when forcing the moss ball of the mount inside of it, but it'll do for now. They still look better than ordinary terracotta pots, but I don't know if I will be making them again when they would break. (Maybe I should make the walls thicker to make them harder and thougher, but then I would need lots and lots of clay for making one small pot but rolling out and forming the pot would become more difficult)

[Red Orchid]

You did a good job with the pots they look really great 8 neat. I have had no problem with the polymer clay breaking but I recently broke an expensive pot I got from one of our vendors. Maybe you should make the bowl a little thicker. I fire them for 25 minutes at 275 degrees. Pilot might have a better answer for you. Your Neos are thriving are so beautiful.

[Pilot]

Your tiger is likely not kinrokaku. Beautiful plant and collection regardless!