Pretty picture: Rhyncattleanthe Zul

Thanks to those who expressed sympathies yesterday about my expanded thrips situation. The glory of the orchid posts is that they have nothing to do with me -- they're not even my plants! -- so there's no way I can make horrifying discoveries about them. And for this, we are grateful.

My memory of this bloom is a lot pinker and/or redder than what the photo shows; I don't know whether this is a problem with the camera or a problem with my brain. The camera is well-known to make up colors from time to time, but in this case I suspect my brain is the culprit. (When I'm at the shows, I'm generally trying to take a lot of photos as quickly as possible, and I think sometimes my memories get a little scrambled, where I mentally combine a plant with another plant that was physically near it, or that was photographed just before or just after it.)

Though I did find plenty of photos that were pinker (e.g. one, two), and I found one image of an orange Rth. Zul in a search engine, in two different places, but one link was broken and the other was to Pinterest, which I can't actually see via links because Pinterest really, really wants me to sign up for an account with them. So you'll just have to take my word for it that Rth. Zul can go a lot oranger than this too.

They're not normally this pale, though. We might be able to blame that on the camera.

In any case, it's, you know, nice. Pretty. Looks properly orchidy.

Rhyncattleanthe Zul = Guarianthe skinneri x Rhyncattleanthe Orange Nuggett (Ref.)

Haven't seen this one before, but it's half-siblings with a couple orchids we've seen previously: 2014's Rhyncattleanthe Lily Marie Almas 'MGR' and 2015's Jackfowlieara Appleblossom (also 2010). Not a huge resemblance in either case, but for those people who care about such things (it's not just me who finds orchid genealogies intriguing, is it?), there you go.

Pretty picture: Rhyncattleanthe Kurt Hausermann 'Friar's Cove'

I was worried, when I scheduled this post, that maybe late August was the wrong time of year to be looking at a flower with such hot colors: usually by August I'm so sick of the heat that I instinctively gravitate toward anything blue, cold, or dark. But this summer, like last summer, hasn't been that bad so far. As I write this on August 18, the National Weather Service is predicting a high temperature of 69F/21C for Wednesday the 19th. We had one pretty bad week in July -- there is always at least one bad week in July -- but other than that, it hasn't been particularly hot, so I'm not really sick of the heat.

Some of the other summer-related activities, yes. I'm definitely sick of weeding (and stopped doing it altogether about three or four weeks ago). Japanese beetles can kiss my ass (though not literally because that would be horrible). Haven't yet been stung by a wasp, but they are everywhere,¹ and I'm tired of having to watch for them. Not sick of summer, but definitely ready for fall.

But so anyway. The tag on this one said Brassolaeliocattleya; it's a Rhyncattleanthe according to the orchid register.

Rhyncattleanthe Kurt Hausermann 'Friar's Cove' = Cattlianthe Ken Battle x Rhyncholaeliocattleya Susan Stromsland (Ref.)

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¹ They seem to be fond of the Cannas, though I haven't yet determined whether they're getting something directly from the Cannas, like water or nectar, or hunting the various insects that do get something directly from the Cannas. Whatever the explanation, the wasps do nothing to help with the Japanese beetles, which is the only thing I can think of that might make up for the increased sting risk.

Question for the Hive Mind: Brassolaeliocattleya Helen Brown

I was excited about this for about five minutes, when I first saw it. But this is just more foliage, not a flower bud, right?

[Exceptionally] Pretty pictures: transmitted light -- Part XLIX

Goodness. It's been so long since I did a transmitted light post that I don't even remember how I'm supposed to do them.

Actually no, that's not true. It's only been like five months. But it'd been nine months before that. I'm definitely a little rusty.

(The previous transmitted light posts can be found here.)

Schlumbergera truncata NOID, phylloclade. Though Schlumbergeras are not quite as abundant in the house as the Anthuriums, they've getting there. The most recent stats for the collection: 959 plants total, 198 Anthurium seedlings (21% of total), 116 Schlumbergera seedlings (12%). None of this changes the fact that they make lousy transmitted light subjects.

Philodendron [erubescens?] 'Golden Emerald.' I don't know what the deal is with this one; it never seems to photograph as bright and saturated as it actually is. It's really much prettier than this in person.

Brassolaeliocattleya Helen Brown. Probably by now it's not Brassolaeliocattleya anymore, but who has time to keep track of these things.

Iris ensata variegata. I have no memory of seeing a variegated Iris of any kind, anywhere. I mean, I know they exist; it's just that this photo is the only evidence I have that I've ever seen one. I didn't even take a photo of the whole plant, so there's no context for this picture. It's a weird feeling.

Salvia elegans. On Sunday, I semi-accidentally wound up looking at some of the pictures of the Salvia elegans we planted in the yard a couple years ago, when it was huge and in full bloom, and: I'm afraid we're just going to have to do that again. Even though I no longer seem to be capable of overwintering them. (Probably the basement is too warm now, what with all the lights.)

Callisia repens.

Tradescantia zebrina. I didn't actually intend for this to wind up next to the Callisia, but it's an interesting comparison, since they have a nearly identical growth habit.

Caladium NOID. Not one of my best Caladium pictures, but with Caladiums, even a bad picture is still okay.

Quercus sp., autumn.

Stromanthe sanguinea 'Triostar.'

Pretty picture: Brassolaeliocattleya Majestic Light 'Crown'

tag: Blc. Majestic Light 'Crown' (Blc. His Light x Blc. Hawaiian [end cut off by pot]

Actual ancestry: Blc. His Light x Blc. Hawaiian Treasure

Pretty picture: Brassolaeliocattleya Morning Glory H & R

This doesn't really fit my mental image of Brassolaeliocattleyas, but that's what the tag said. Even though the tags are frequently wrong to one degree or another, that's all I have to go on, so here it is.

I'm not sure if I like these flowers or not, but the flowers aren't exactly the point today, because today is mostly about celebrating Bom's upcoming 1-year blogiversary¹ with him. It's a bit self-interested of me (there's a prize giveaway involved, which I am entering by posting this) but hey, maintaining a blog for a year is a big deal, and there are also several birthdays involved, so it's also a general celebratory thing. Which, frankly, I think we could all use, times being what they are. Click the image below for his post on the subject.

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¹ I checked Google to see what spelling everybody's going with these days, and the most popular vowel for "blog[]versary" was O: blogoversary had about 4,000,000 hits. Not sure why that would be, since the word is clearly coined by analogy with "anniversary." I am, therefore, making a stand here for the letter "I." The full results:

blogOversary 4,000,000
blogIversary 1,200,000
blogAversary 428,000
blogversary 133,000
blogYversary 4590
blogEversary 1140
blogUversary 39

The biggest surprise for me is that more people use Y than E (I expected Y to come in last).

Pretty picture: Brassolaeliocattleya Goldenzelle 'Lemon Chiffon'

I tried very hard to come up with something to say about this flower, but apparently all my blogging energy for the day went into a mashup post, which will go up twelve hours after this one did. It's not that it's not a nice flower, it's just that after a certain point, one gets tired of frilly Cattleya-type orchid flowers, even if they're sort of unusual-colored Cattleya-type orchid flowers, and I think I'm approaching that point so fast that the blurry spot in the rearview mirror might be it already. I hope someone is making new kinds of orchids.

Pretty picture: Brassolaeliocattleya Darcy-Rose Campbell

I really thought I had more pictures of non-cattleya-alliance flowers than this in the Wallace's Orchid Show set. I mean, I don't mind if you don't mind, but I went to a certain amount of trouble to avoid repeating genera, yet they're all starting to look the same to me anyway. (The last one, Paph. delenatii 'Santa Barbara' x Sib., is a notable recent exception.)

Looking at this picture, I'm mostly struck by the difference between the (big, wide, frilly) petals and the (narrow, plain) sepals. Usually the breeders try to make them both big and frilly, don't they? Or am I misremembering?

[Exceptionally] Pretty pictures: transmitted light -- Part XII

Unlike most of the transmitted light posts recently, this one isn't because I ran out of time to write anything else and had to use one of the transmitted light stockpile. Having pre-loaded photos was still a factor, though, since I have to spend a lot of the next couple weeks packing, watering, working, and relocating, and so I'm trying to pre-write the blog, which means that even though I haven't actually run out of time and had to scramble for something to post, it still feels like I have.

On the plus side, this batch contains what is possibly my all-time favorite transmitted light photo to date. It's at least in the top ten.

(The previous transmitted light posts can be found here.)

Brassolaeliocattleya 'Helene Brown.' Sort of a cat's-eye effect, almost.

Guzmania lingulata NOID. Boring, but at least it's in focus.

Variegated Tradescantia pallida. This one didn't really work any better than the nonvariegated Tradescantia pallida photo, but it's a little more interesting to look at.

Philodendron hastatum. Much more impressive in person; I'm not sure if this is just a bad picture or if no pictures of P. hastatum by transmitted light turn out well. It seemed like a better picture when I took it originally. Maybe I screwed it up in the cropping somehow.

Dracaena fragrans 'Massangeana.' More or less what you'd expect it to look like, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis NOID. Who knew?

Gynura aurantiaca. Better if opened in a separate window: the hairs show up well enough that you can tell which direction they're pointing.

Plumeria NOID. Nicely dramatic. This is another one that's better in a separate window.

Acer platanoides 'Crimson Sentry.' An actual tree for once. Not a particularly interesting leaf, but the color is pleasant.

Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Tilt a Whirl.' Very likely my favorite transmitted light picture to date. I had plans at one point to do an all-Solenostemon transmitted light post, but after spending hours rearranging all the pictures, I realized that if I took out all the Solenostemons and gave them their own separate post, then I wound up with one kick-ass, super-spectacular post and seven or eight really dull ones. So I won't be doing that, but instead you'll be seeing Solenostemon pictures scattered over the next seven or eight transmitted light posts. Though this has got to be the best, or maybe second-best (the 'Gays Delight' picture rocks pretty hard), of all of them.