Spikes and bigger surprises!

Sunday, 20th of November 2022

One thing that many of you don’t know about me is that I am ever slightly obsessed about orchids. Not quite as much as I was some years ago, when I had plenty of time on my hands. I would watch YouTube video about orchids daily as well as read a lot and buy a lot 😂 That was when I was living in NL for over a year.

Upon my arrival to UK I started also visiting orchid shows and even became a member of a local orchid society. That ended with the start of pandemic, but what I have learned is mine forever. Through blogging about my orchids I’ve met another Polish girl who lives in Scotland, Sarah, and we even exchanged some orchids by posting them to each other.

These super obsessed times are well behind me, but I still have a sizeable collection of orchids spread around my house. Probably around 40 still left. Some died while I was away for months, others died of too much love, some probably had a disease of sort. Those that stayed will probably be with me for as long as they can stand my occasional neglect.

At the end of October I took 2.5 weeks of holiday and went to Poland to visit my family. When I came back I was so tired I barely looked at my orchids. Besides, days are now so short that it is dark by the time I get some and weekends I spent mainly sleeping till mid day, then writing and engaging on my social media and of course dancing. Before going for my holiday I already had some orchids in bloom and those resistant to blooming I gave a a bit of cold treatment.

Many orchids get their blooming ‘signal’ when the temperatures difference between day and night reaches specific level. Bearing that in mind I left some of out in the garden in early fall. Some of them ended up missing some leaves, as hungry snails decided to have a feast on them. Others ended up with some burn marks 🙄 Like this beautiful Phal below. But hey, we live and learn.

Today however I woke up at 8am and I absolutely love how long is my day thanks to this early rise. It gave me an opportunity to take a closer look at my orchids and what I found is truly exciting! I found flower spikes. So many flower spikes! 😍

I know, some of you might be looking at those pictures thinking - what is she so excited about, these are just some green branches. Probably only another orchid lover can fully understand this. Some of these orchids I cared for over a period of 3-5 years and some never ever flowered for me. Seeing a spike growing is as if your soccer team just won a world cup!

First one I noticed was this Bulbophyllum Kalimpong. I noticed the spike fast, because it hangs in the kitchen, just by my usual sitting place. I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw this spike developing! I started watching it like a hawk and it didn’t make me wait for too long.

Couple days later the flower was almost formed and I was posting the pictures allover my social media accounts, too excited not to share that after around 4 years this orchid decided to grace me with a flower!

That day I went for a walk and by the time I came back a few hours later, it has already bursted open. The pictures is not great, as it was already dark outside.

Today the flower is still fresh enough to take a better pictures of it. I suspect it won’t last long. It opened last Sunday and I will be surprised if it lasts until the next weekend.

Can you imagine caring for a plant for 4 years to be blessed with one tiny flower that lasts a maximum of 2 weeks? That’s the level of crazy we’re talking about. In truth, the orchid flowers are so fascinating for me that I really don’t mind caring for them endlessly just to see them bloom. I mean look at this beauty… there is so much detail to it, that I really wish I had macro lenses to capture it all perfectly. For now my phone camera must do the job though.

Let’s move on to Phalaenopsis spikes. In theory these are the least exciting spikes, as I get to see them on a yearly schedule and they last for months at the time. Still, I get overly excited at the sight of each and every one of them, no matter how big or small. This cute mini Phal is a baby of a full size Phal that I once had. One could call it a suicidal Phalaenopsis, because it has a tendency to grow terminal spikes. Spikes like these grow from the crown of the orchid, making it impossible for another leaf to emerge. Eventually the orchid dies.

A rabbit orchid would be another suitable name for it, because it also multiplies like crazy. First it crates the branches from every possible place which bloom like forever. Once it’s done blooming it creates many keiki’s - orchid babies! They grow on the flower spikes and from the bottom of the orchid, below the leaves. I kid you not! I detached at least 7 babies from this orchid before she finally died in peace, still looking after it till her last days.

Usually it takes 3-5 years for a keiki to grow to the size where it’s ready to produce a flower spike. It doesn’t apply to this one. As soon as the baby has 2 or 3 leaves it starts producing branches with tons of tiny white flowers. Such a cheerful little plant.

Next up is my lilac purple Phal. I’m not even sure if it’s a spike or a root yet, but the location of it, above second leaf would indicate a flower spike. I sure hope so! She neglected her blooming time last year and I miss those masses of delicate flowers that last for months and look like fake orchid - it’s so perfect 😍

Above is another spike I feel excited about. Why? Because it hasn’t bloomed for so long that I don’t even remember what colour it was 😂 I wanna see! It will be another month or more before the flowers finally open though. I will sure post the updates once they’re ready to shine.

I know I keep saying this, but Im also excited about this little guy. It’s one of those that Sarah sent me from Scotland. It’s also still a baby, but I’m so happy to see it decided to bloom for me.

Ok, ok, there is one above, that I’m slightly less excited about. It’s one of my oldest orchids and it doesn’t care about the time of the year or the temperature. It just grows spikes like a machine. Even though it is located in my bedroom I sometimes miss the spikes if I move it out of the windowsill and realise it has bloomed when flowers are almost gone. Sometimes I worry if it can sustain this many flower spikes, but they I remember its roots:

These monster roots could sustain 3 flowering orchids, not just one! Roots are the reason why I love this one though. It traveled with me from uk, to Netherlands, where I repotted it into new semi hydroponic setup and since then I think it decided to grow aerial roots. Just loves dangling them around I guess. It also traveled back home with me a year later. It’s probably been with me for 6 years or more.

Let’s move to some more exciting spikes. The one above is a Dendrobium type orchid. There are many different types of Dendrobiums and nobile type I always struggled to keep alive. I seem to have more luck with other species of Dens. This one here I am not even sure if it’s a spike, but I sure hope so. It looks pretty happy, growing each new cane bigger than the previous one, so one would hope for some flower spikes eventually.

I remember one flower spike last year, but it was almost gone when I came back from my 1 month long holiday, so I’m hoping to see more of them this year. The flowers should be white with gentle pink spray, but shapewise will look like the one above, Berry Oda (that one belongs to Tina btw). I found a few of those little nodes and I really hope they will grow into spikes and not keiki’s . I want more flowers, not more plants 😂

Finally my Oncidium Twinkle! Nope, it’s not a bunch of grass I picked up from my garden. This is one amazing little plant. It does grow a little bit like a weed, although not for everyone.

I think it was 2019, when Tina and I went for an orchid show and picked up 2 of these in 2 different colours. We made a deal - each of us will grow one at home and when they’re big enough, we will split them into 2 parts and this way each one of us will have 2 colour variations of Twinkles.

While mine tripled in size over those years, Tina’s almost completely dried out and reduced to 1/3 of its original size. I always tell her not to overwater her orchids, so she takes it seriously, but this one is a very thirsty one. Mine only has roots at the top of its little pot, so it pretty much stands half way in water all the time and it makes her happy. No other orchid would survive these conditions, but this one is an exception.

In desperate attempt of saving her Twinkle, I took it upon myself to repot her orchid into the media that can stay wet all the time and in that process I split it into 2 tiny parts - one for Tina and one for me. I thought it will have a higher chance of survival if both of us will attempt to care for it. The Twinkle rewarded both of us with tiny spikes last year and it does love the new semi hydroelectric setup. Mine grew quite a few healthy pseudobulbs since then, so I’m hoping for another spike soon.

Back to Dendrobium orchids. This one is called Dendrobium Phalaenopsis. It’s quite confusing name to be honest. It looks nothing like Phals, but they named it this way, because it grows flower spikes like Phals, although it looks like Dens. Nobile types grow flowers directly from the canes and throughout their lenght, while this weird one grows a spike from the top.

I know there are other, less confusing names for them, but I can’t seem to remember them. I have one only of this variety and in about month or so it will bloom in a pretty dark red/purple like this:

Ok, enough of spikes, time for some flowers! Only yesterday, while moving my orchids around I have found a flower spike with already opened flowers!

This is another orchid that traveled to me from Sarah in Scotland. I swear I knew its names, but I lost it. I will be sending pics of them to her soon, so I’m sure she’ll remind me its name and I’ll label it properly then.

Those cute flowers remind me of little fairies. So cheerful and look like their up to some mischief when I’m asleep!

It’s exciting to see new flowers open and looking amazing as this one:

I have to give it to this Cattleya orchid. She lasted almost 2 months! Today I’ve noticed that her time has past and the flower has already dropped. I suspect it would survive a little longer if it wasn’t so close to the window at this time of a year. It is a tropical orchid after all.

I am however happy that it lead a happy life, which can be noticed by the sap dripping from it. They call it a ‘happy sap’. It’s all the extra sugar the orchid managed to produce and not use. Ants love the happy sap. I hope that maybe next year she will grace me with more than one flower. That would be amazing view 😍

Let me finish this prolonged piece by showing off another flower that I am extremely proud of, even though it’s not even mine!

This amazingness belongs to Tina and there are 2 reasons why I am so proud of it. Firstly because Tina managed to get it to bloom, which is tricky and proves that I managed to pass on some useful orchid knowledge to her. Secondly, because it is a part of my orchid - Dendrobium Aggregati, that I bought at orchid show from a seller from Taiwan. It traveled the world, it survived my attempt at splitting it and then it still flowered. Twice for me in the past years and now also for Tina this year, while mine decided to take a break 😂

This will be it for today. I hope all of you had an amazing weekend!

Until next time 💙