Show us your houseplants in bloom now

The first of the Pleione for 2013.....................


I call this my ever blooming Phal - it's always in bloom, although never prolifically...............



That said, it now has three flower spikes!

 

Lovely - LongK

Nice to see the Pleone flowering - mine are just sending up a few leaves so far/

 

Peter - my stock was decimated when I forgot about them last autumn. The frost took about twenty flowering size pseudobulbs. Still got about thirty tiddlers, but it'll be next year before I get a good show again.

 

I was confusing myself - an easy thing to do. I was convinced that the flowers appeared before leaves. So I kept looking at my leaves and telling myself something was wrong. However I have had a Google and they seem to be together. I bought three tubers last year and had three flowers, but I have a lot more leaves this year - so I am hoping that they have multiplied.

 

Peter - the pseudobulbs are monocarpic. Each one should produce at least two babes though.
The flowers come first for me, then the leaves. The ones that produce just leaf this year will bloom next year.

 

Thanks LongK. You have confirmed what I had been thinking. I didn't realise the bulbs were monocarpic - but then that pretty common isn't it. I find tulips split after flowering.

When the leaves appeared first I assumed that I wouldn't get any flowers as the bulbs were too small. That appears to be the case.

 

Certainly common as far as the pseudobulbs of orchids goes (Cattleya and Cymbidiums are two more common ones that are the same).

If the leaves emerge you can expect no blooms from that one for that year.

 

Cattleya Hybrid




Had this plant around 5 years now. It was an impulse buy as I had never seen a bright yellow orchid. I honestly didn't expect it to survive but it has thrived on my bathroom window and has flowered every year since. I didn't expect flowers this year though as it was divided and reported. The new growth was stunted but it still put on a show!

Since then I've bought a few more orchids that I've been trying and have had great success. Mainly I have bought Cattleya but also have a Psychopsis macropods which is pushing out its 6 th flower since I bought it from the reduced shelf earlier this year.

 

Where do you shop! That makes a nice change from the usual drab tat that is sold around here!

 

Coolsox,Very nice orchids

 

There are a couple of garden centres near me that really slash the houseplant prices when they are past their best.

The nearest on to me has an Orchid festival each year. On top of all the Phalaenopsis they usually sell, they order in more choice species. During the festival, they are sold at high prices, but once the festival ends they dramatically slash the prices to get rid of them! Most are usually still in full flower at this time?

This was the Psychopsis I purchased




And this is a Cattleya I got from the 2nd GC.




I love a good bargain!

 

Where in Worcs are they? Probably the wrong side for me...................

I love a bargain too - remember this?

Another of my bargains was a flowering sized Tacca chantrieri reduced to £15 after the blooms had died. Got it to bloom again...................




Got this rather cracking Paph noid for a fiver a couple of years ago....................


It's in bud at the moment.

 

One is in Kidderminster called Barnett Hill, the other is in Worcester but I can't remember its name, sorry.

That Tacca is gorgeous. I saw one once, sure it had white flowers with black bracts though. I would love one, but do no have the room :-(

 

Google Tacca integrifolia.

They do get big - mine was a good metre and a half across!

 

I have tried Taccas before and not done well with them.
I think the trick is to buy them in growth.
The rhizomes that one sometimes sees for sale don't do well - I suspect they could be half dead already.