Replenishing the Old Collection

Around February, my tillandsia collection diminished to nothing...
They were ravaged by mealybugs, suffered from rot, or suffered from underwatering.  Overall, it just left my tillandsia collection from a grand total of five to a grand total of a 1/3.  Pretty sad, I know.  The mealybugs were the most disappointing of all the ailments that my tillandsias suffered. It was just that I noticed a couple of mealybugs on my neofinetia falcatas one day, and the next thing I knew the source of the mealybugs were from the inside of the little leaves of my tillandsia.  I tried to do everything in my power to get rid of the mealybugs...but it was just too far gone. 

But, recently I was able to snag some great deals on tillandsias at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden gift shop.  They had my favorite tillandsia that I have been looking for months that was eaten away by voracious mealybugs.... 

So yeah...this little tillandsia fuchsii v gracillis was the tillandsia that I have been looking for months.  It is really hard to find, and the only place that I know that sells this tillandsia is on ebay.  Only problem is...the shipping is $6!!! And the location of the seller is just a five hour drive.


BOTTOM: I also got a really nice mounted tillandsias for $25.  When I first saw it, I thought it was really pretty especially with that gorgeous bloom.  There's spanish moss on it, and three different types of tillandsia.  I got it for my mom, but mainly I wanted it because it was just a great deal that I couldn't resist passing up. 

RIGHT: This is my 1/3 that I have left of my original tillandsia collection.  It is a little "pup" from the mother plant that had two "pups" growing from the side.  I just broke off the larger of the two "pups", and I am now growing it without dirt in a 0.5 inch pot.  Pretty small...but this one I didn't kill.  My mom did...Did you know how she killed it? She watered the poor thing at night and the water got trapped between the leaves.  It died of rot...DO NO WATER EPIPHYTIC PLANTS AT NIGHT!!!!

BOTTOM: I also picked up my first carnivorous plant.  It's a Drosera...or sundews.  I mainly picked this little guy because he was cheap and doesn't have a dormant season like the venus fly trap which is a plus.  I have it in a little jar sitting in rainwater that I collected for my orchids growing with my orchids.  So far...it seems happy with new "tentacles" growing from the base.

Conservatory of Flowers 7/23/13

It's so hard to find a bright sunny day in San Fran these days....

I've been volunteering at the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco for the past month. Watering their orchid collection and now repotting their highland tropics collection.  It's fun, especially when you're rocking out to your favorite playlist. But the humidity and the whirring of the fans get to your head after a while...

Anyways, I'm sorry for not posting anything at the Conservatory because it was either I forgot the memory card in my camera to the fogging of my lens due to the humidity.  Finally, I got some good pics in as I was roaming around after my shift.  Unfortunately, the Conservatory of Flowers newsletter cannot do the orchids currently in bloom justice. So I'm going lend a hand....

Vascostylis Veerasawas White

Disa Uniflora

 

Gongora Tricolor

Coelogyne usitana

Cirrhopetalum

It looks like a monkey!!! <3 draculas

Dendrobium Hybrid

 Now for the Conservatory's special exhibits like the aquatics exhibit and their butterfly exhibit!

Southern Cali Trip Final

What you're greeted with when you enter

 On our way back to the Bay Area, we stopped by Cal-Orchid Nursery.
I had deep feeling of regret of not going there when we visited Santa Barbara Orchid Estate on our first day. Cal Orchid was right next Santa Barbara Orchid Estate.  I'm not kidding!  When you drive into this little road called "Orchid" (such an original name...) on the left side are the gates to the Santa Barabara Orchid Estate, and down the road on the right side are the gates to the Cal-Orchid Nursery.

Still, I needed to clear my head from the shopping spree from Day 1.  I think the the 24 hours lapse between the first nursery and the second day was a good time frame to clear my head.  Orchids tend to fog your mind...and all rationality that one has.  So here, I got a healthy Lycaste Aromatica which I learned was from Golden Gate Orchids owned by Tom Perlite.  HE'S RETIRING!!! I'm so sad, right now. Both my mom and I exclaimed "What????" when we heard the news from the extremely nice owner.

But yeah...the greenhouse was clean and well organized.  Something that is very hard to find in most orchid nurseries I've been to.  There was a barbeque going on with guacamole and chips.  It had a very homey feeling to the entire open house.  I think...this is on my favorite nursery list. 

Again...sorry for the lack of names. At least in this round of orchid pics, I can recognize a lot more orchids and my dad accidentally took a picture of the names along with the orchids. 

Neofinetia Falcata Hybrid

Agraceum (I really regret not getting this orchid, so much history dating back to Darwin's Origin of Species)

Lycaste

Encyclia

Vanda

Southern Cali Trip Day 2

Not only did we visit orchid nurseries, but we also stopped by the Huntington Conservatory and Library in Los Angeles.  The gardens there were spectacular, but their orchid collection was a bit neglected.  They had a lot of stanhopeas that were in spike, but most of their cool growing mounted orchids were just leaves that were being invaded by moss.  Since it was summer, not a lot of their species orchids were in bloom.  Fortunately, their oncidiums, paphiopedilums, maxillaria tenuifolia, and a brassavolas nodosas were blooming happily.

This is the scene that you are greeted with when you enter the Huntington greenhouse.  The building is a majestic  Victorian greenhouse full of hidden surprises.  I was a bit disappointed because many of the orchids didn't have tags...so when I thought I knew the name of an orchid, I was never quite sure if it was really the name.  Sigh...crazy orchid lady problems.

Amorphallus Titanum

         I was first introduced to the weird growing pattern of the cocao tree when I was touring the greenhouses at the Conservatory of Flowers with my supervisor, Eric.  Normally, flowers of fruit trees grow at the tip of new leaf growth.  But with the cocao tree (the source of delicious chocolate), the small, fragile, white flowers grow on the hard branches or on the trunk which will be fertilized and be matured into the yellow seed pods you see in the picture.

The other picture is of a flower that is quite popular at both the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens and at the Huntington Conservatory.  What you see in the picture is a almost blooming size leaf of the Amorphallus titanum...and when it blooms it will be a large, ugly flower that smells like corpses.  Wonderful, ain't it?

A Pretty View from the Chinese Garden

A grape bonsai that I dream to grow when I'm a old lady.

Southern Cali Trip Day 1

Thank you for patiently waiting for my posts!
I've been extremely busy, and it took me a while to get the nerve to write something.
Anyways, a week ago my parents and I went down to L.A. to see my long lost cousins from Texas. They are such cuties, one is named Amber and the other is named Andy. Luckily, it was also the same weekend as the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate Summer Open House and the Cal-Orchid open house.  So, orchids galore!!!

So I shall recount the adventure from the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate sale, the first place we stopped.
There I was able to get three orchids:

Encyclia Cochleata

 The three orchids that I got were an Encyclia cochleata, a small sarcochilus ceciliae, and  Barkeria Lindleyana.
My mom gave these orchids for me as a "good job" presents on getting straight A's during second semester and getting a 5s and 4s on my AP tests.

Large specimen size sarcophilus ceciliae

The potting for these orchids are a bit weird because the nursery uses rocks as a potting medium instead of the traditional bark or sphagnum moss.  Still, the orchids are high quality and at a reasonable price especially
 since they have unusual species starting from $17.













Now for some lovely pics of the flowers being sold there....I'm sorry that most of the orchids don't have names, since my dad took the pictures.  He thinks more about the beauty of the flowers instead of the names of flowers.  But if you really have fallen in love with one of the orchids here, you can find most of the orchids on the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate website( here: Santa Barbara Orchid Estate Home Page). I'm just a bit lazy to sift through all the orchid pictures to find the names... ^_^

Vanda Paki