Neofinetia falcata Setsuzan from eBay
 

I received my gorgeous Neofinetia Setsuzan today. I won this on Seed Engei's eBay listing. I usually buy the bean leaf plants but I wanted a nice tiger. I have a Kinroukaku though it has very little variegation sooo the Setsuzan was a must have.

The plant has very thick roots and a lot of them. Several roots are broken and appear to have been broken for some time. The plant is awesome and very healthy looking, nice coloring.

I apologize if I sniped this out from under anyone here, last 2 seconds and it was mine! I love winning on eBay, it makes up for all the times I've been outbid.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Neos are so cool. Congratulations!

Nice snag !

Jkofferdahl I think so too, they really have grabbed my attention. So many different leaf forms, shapes and the roots are amazing. I especially like the small bean leaf varieties. I hope to have flowers later this year!

---------- Post added at 10:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 PM ----------

Thank you Charles, I admit I was excited. Seed Engei has some great buys on eBay.

Honest confession: In my previous life I had several Neos, which I loved and grew for about 15 years. When I returned again to orchid life, one of the first plants I bought was a Neo, a basic, mounted Neo, from Andy's. Then, a month or so later I was at a local greenhouse, mostly wandering, and saw and snagged a Neo. Quite an impulse buy, I admit. And then, about the same time, I ran across one called v. Hoshiguruma (sorry, no cool Japanese characters), which I bought not because it's a Neo but because it's a peloric (I'm that nerd who likes pelorics). And THEN someone posted an amazingly purple Neo here, and I thought, that can't be a Neo, it's not white - must be a hybrid not a true Neo. Yep. I was 39 years into orchid growing and 60 years of age and, perhaps a year ago, I discovered that not all Neos are cut from the same cookie cutter after all! :blushing: I started doing a bit of research and was stunned by the variations of flower color, leaf shape, and size.

Sadly, this was also about when I also ventured into miniature orchids and went nuts. Of course, two of the Neos are in with the minis but I had/have to explore some new genera to discover what I couldn't kill (so far everything is actually doing well). Doing so, I've not been able to afford either space or $$ to explore all of these Neos which I SWEAR didn't exist a few years ago. But I will.

If you don't already know/have it, SE printed a Fukiran catalogue in English (NOT a catalogue of what's available). It goes over the various distinguishing characteristics of the different forms. It will help you plan your purchases!

It used to be $20. It's not comprehensive but covers anything we can get here (US). Email Satomi if you are interested.

Jkofferdahl you've been growing orchids much longer than I have. I'm about 3 years into them and loving it. My obsession started with a Miltoniopsis gift and I very quickly found this forum. I have a few large plants but the miniatures caught my eye, TOMMY had much to do with it. I've only recently started buying Neofinetia and again this forum has been a great source of information though not many Neo nuts post here any longer.

I frequent Al's Orchids in Leasburg Va and he had Neos at 1/2 price, that was all it took. He had a gorgeous plant with yellow flowers, don't remember the name though I did get a picture of the flower. Al convinced me to buy a Shutennou as the flowers are red/pink and I'm patiently awaiting blooms, it looks like there will be several. Neofinetia are just fascinating to me and I'm glad I decided to try a few.

Here you go: Hoshiguruma 星車

It is an odd flower, six petals, no nectary. Once you get it to bloom, it blooms regularly every season, if it has more than one or two growths, it sometimes blooms twice a year--early Spring and then late Summer or into Fall. My plant is already growing an inflorescence although I wish it would instead grow more keiki.

Hello AnonYMouse! Yes, the booklet is still available. Satomi told me that it is supposed to be updated but no ETA. She still asks US$20 not including shipping, which is usually $7--but maybe less since it is printed material. This is an excellent resource as it does give you some idea on the different plants that Seed Engei imports to the USA and makes available to Furan hungry Americans!

This was just beautiful! This was flowering in February at Al's.