The Orchids Are A-Growin'

I love this time of the year because as the temperatures start to fall, many Paphs start to spike. I grow all my orchids outside during the summer, and bring them in in the fall. Last year my collection suffered some losses from leaving them out too long though; even though they were in the coldframe, an early frost killed off a few of my most beloved plants. Therefore I took extra caution this year and brought all the plants in as soon as it got down to 5 C at night (which was less than 2 weeks ago). Usually it doesn't get this cold this fast, but sometimes it does, obviously. However, the falling temperatures in the second half of August have done some good. I now have two plants in sheath and one in spike, besides the Phrag 4N cross that has been in bloom since May. The two in sheath are Paph Satin Smoke (micranthum x victoria-regina I think) and Paph (Yerba Buena x Golden Days) x spicerianum, a complex hybrid that last bloomed 2 years ago; these are often slow-growing. The one in spike is Paph Pinocchio (primulinum x moquettianum I think), a Cochlopetalum cross which flowers almost perpetually when mature. The last time it flowered was last summer, and it flowered until the spring, therefore it took only a few months break! The first flower already opened on that plant, but it quickly died off due to a mealy bug infestation. Mealy bugs are little white sap-sucking insects which are the sole biggest insect pest for Paphs (which don't get a lot of trouble with pests). These guys love to hide in flower sheaths (as happened here) and in the crevices between leaves. They are easily killed off with insecticidal soap and I think these ones are all gone now. The rest of that plant's flowers should be fine (it will open several more over the next few months). Luckily this was the only plant in my collection affected this time around. This was the third time only in the 7 years that I have been growing orchids, that I got mealy bugs.

By the way, this was my 200th post on this blog!