My yellow twinkle is blooming again!
 

I got this one last winter in bloom. It was so cute that I had to bring it home. :D
It had four little pbs with four spikes; two on one pb, the other two on two of the other pbs.
After close examination of the plant, I found that it had aphids all over the flowers! I panicked having lots of other plants in the house. I spayed alcohol on the flowers hoping to kill those bugs. well, the bugs did die, but they were not the only thing that died. All flowers fell off over the course of the following two days or so. Every single one of them! what a lesson about using alcohol on flowers! :(

I kept it throught the summer, during which 6 new growths appeared. One of the growths developed the bulb portion in June while all the rest didn't until early september. They actuall grew to a full size by early July but the bulb portion never developed until later.
With the developing pbs came new spikes and there were lots of them!
What an exciting moment:biggrin:

The spikes grew very very very slowly and finally this last week, those little buds started opening up.
Three pb have two spikes each, two smaller pbs carrying one spike each, and one prematurely developed pb has none. So there are total of eight spikes loaded with tiny fragrant yellow flowers.
I guess it is well worth the long wait. :)

Now, can anyone tell me if the white or pink twinkles have stronger frangrace than the yellow variety?

By the way, I grew mine by the window with strong sun all summer and by late August, I noticed the leaves were getting cooked (turning slightly yellow). I was lucky not to burn them. :biggrin:
Then I moved it under the halogen lamp where I grow my mini orchids. It's been doing very well.
So those of you who are space challenged like me, the halogen lamp ( I think it is a typical shop light) works well for certain plants.

Well done, what a cutie ;) I can't answer your question as I don't have a twinkle, but my Onc seems to be more fragrant when it's in the sun compared to when it's cloudy

Beautiful! What a cheerful color to have this time of year.

I had a red twinkle as one of my first orchids. I couldn't get the watering right for it back then so when I purged my collection twinkle went back to the stars. I'm thinking of getting another one now that I've had more experience. The lady who sold me the red one said the whites are more fragrant than the reds, but I don't know how the yellow compares.

How lovely! Makes me want one. I have a tiny Onc. Gold Dust. I think one of it`s parents is Onc. Twinkle. I sure hope it blooms as nice as that!

Thank you, Evan!

now I want to try the white one just for the fragrance.
Somehow I was never really drawn to the white twinkle.

With the limited space I have, I've deciced to only collect either very fragrant orchids or something small.

I have a lavender colored one similar to this-- name is escaping me presently-- but the fragrance is a lightly sweet vanilla scent-- like others have said, when the sun warms the plant, it is an amazing scent and much stronger.

My Garden Center is having a pre-inventory sale tomorrow-- I saw a few of these I'd like, including a red variety-- I'll have to check them out!

There's a lavendar colored Twinkle? wow~ :)
Mine smells just like what you described. I like it a lot!

There was this one orchid store here that carried many of the yellow twinkle alikes ( I started a thread on it but no one seemed interested in that lol ). They didn't sell all and once flowers were gone, they sold them for $10 each. I didn't get any as they had aphids all over! lol

I already have one yellow twinkle and one of those twinkle alike, which is enough for me for now. :biggrin:

Could your lavender one be oncidium ornythorhynchum? I just got one and it is sort of vanilla scented with clusters of tiny pinkish lavender flowers.

No problem! :)

I've been thinking of trying Twinkle again. It will either be the white or the yellow one. I wasn't much drawn to the white one at first either, but I've been on a white bloom kick lately. I've also been focusing more on fragrant orchids and miniatures, for the same reason as you, space. lol

I just checked the tag and that is exactly what it is! Good catch! Mine is out of bloom now but has many many new psbs growing.

NYC if you'd like a psb let me know and I will send one in the Spring.

Apparently, this species is a parent plant of Twinkle and Sharry Baby-- unconfirmed but I've come across it several times whilst reading about the Net.

Ryan

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well done! I've managed to kill the couple I've tried. Too bad really, as the plant size is in the range I look for.



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Ryan- You are right. oncidium ornythorhynchum is one of the parents of twinkle.
Sharry baby is a cross between onc. jamie and onc.honolulu, but I haven't looked up if any of those parents are species or hybrids themselves which might involve oncidium ornythorhynchum.
Thank you for the offer. I'll think about it. :)

Paul- I've only had this one less than a year.
Onc.twinkle is considered very easy and they double in size each year. So when you try this next time, you should have a plant this size in no time, as long as you keep it alive :rofl:
It is quite common that oncidiums and their related plants shoot up multiple growths at a time and they just get bigger and bigger with many flower spikes.

What a pretty one! Love that colour and what a great display of flowers.

Thank you! :)

That's a beautiful, healthy, well grown orchid. Congratulations. You should get a culture award on the fine care you've given it.

I do have a Twinkle that is white with a little yellow center, and it is fragrant. I bought it in bud, and it has bloomed well for me, despite it having developed a yellow pb, which was already happening to it when it arrived. It is fragrant, but the scent is peculiar-sort of herbal I think. Here's a question from a onc. newbie: Do I cut the spent spikes off after blooming as I do phals? Speaking of which, I stuck a 'gone by' spike from a mini phal I have into some hydroton and water, and I now seem to have a kaki? (miss spelled??) :dance13::cheer:

You may cut off the spent spike, but it is not necessary. I wait until it dries up and turn brown. Then it is actually easier to cut off. I just pinch off with my fingers.
You will not see second flowering off the same spike on oncidiums in general. They quickly grow new pb after finishing flowering. then once those new pb mature, more flowers will be made. Depending on the type, it will be either once a year or multiple times throughout the year.

Beautiful! Can you please share what your growing medium is and how you water them and how often?

Denvervet it's is New York City water that makes them grow like this. Lol I kid... Do share, NYC! Twinkles are great. I have two plus a species that is the same size as twinkles. They all smell heavenly.

denvervet- When I bought this plant, it came in some kind of moss (but not sphagnum moss). I transpotted it to a mixture of small coconut husk chips, small sponge rock, medium hydroton, coir and rice hulls. I ordered it from repotme.com. It is great in that it drains VERY well and still contains some moisture. Apparently, the result is pretty good :)
The mix I got is labeled as paphiopedilum&phrag mix on their website, but it works great for any fine rooted orchids like oncidium hybrids. You can visit their website and compare a few different mix they have and will notice their oncidium mix and paphiopedilum mix is quite similar.

Anyways, all my paphs and oncidium intergenerics are potted in the same mix and they all do very well.

How often do I water? well, I found that twinkle likes the medium moist, so it really depends on how fast the medium dries out in a given growing environment. I just make sure the medium does not dry out completely. I'd say about two to three times a week. It really depends.

Pilot- I like your joke! Thanks, made me laugh out loud. :lol: but I really do use tap water on all my orchids. and yes, twinkle smells pretty dang good! :)

an update...
 

My yellow twinkle is in full bloom now. well, actually more than full as two of the eight spikes are spent already. I have it sit on top of my TV and it looks quite nice under the lamp with the dark sky in the back. :)

Such a lovely plant and blooms!

Wonderful!

Thank you, all!