Hello! I hope this note finds each of you in good health. My Christieara lost its lead. It was falling over and I grabbed it by the top which snapped off the three newest leaves. I'm guessing it will sprout a new lead from somewhere down the stem. I hope it will, anyway. After waiting about four years, a Paph. primulinum var. purpurescens(?) has finally flowered! It's a neat little flower. It needed much more light than I expected. I'm also replacing the bulbs for my light shelf. One at a time three days apart. I was willing to spend a bit more for the wide spectrum bulbs, but decided to get cool white bulbs, since the lights are for supplementing the natural light from the window. If the orchids do well over the next year that's great. If not, then I'll switch to the wide spectrum. It was interesting to note, while reading about the different kinds of fluorescent bulbs, that wide spectrum bulbs (from Sylvania) had higher initial lumen output than cool white Sylvania bulbs. Most of the specialty plant grow lights had much lower initial lumen output. I guess that targeting photosynthetic wavelengths makes up for lower intensity? I also had three Dendrobium. I thought there were two Den's with dark pink flowers and one with white flowers with a dark pink throat on the lip. I thought I had tossed one of the white ones which, rather suddenly, started doing poorly. Now, they're flowering. Turns out I threw out the dark pink one! :-( Darn! I seem to remember reading recently that the dark pink flowers are Den. phalenopsis and the white with pink are D. biggibum. I have also read much longer ago, that D. phalenopsis is a variety (?) or synonym (?) of D. biggibum. To avoid confusion I also threw out the labels - lol. Bob Campoli - Philadelphia, Pa
- posted
16 years ago