Pretty picture: Masdevallia Bella Donna 'Lehua Snow Blush'

This was the only Masdevallia I saw at the 2016 show, which is a shame. I know they're often not very exciting, by comparison with all the fancy Cattleya alliance orchids, and it's possible that their cultural requirements don't mesh well with those of flashier plants, but I like seeing Masdevallias all the same, and felt a little cheated that there was only one. It wasn't even a particularly good one, in my opinion.

As for the ancestry, Masd. Bella Donna definitely exists, and is

Masdevallia Bella Donna = Masdevallia coccinea x Masdevallia datura (Ref.);

and there's definitely a clone called 'Snow Blush.' But 'Snow Blush' is, as you'd expect from the name, white. It's not clear to me whether Lehua Snow Blush is an actual, official separate clone, but orchidsbyhausermann.com lists it as a separate thing and gives it a HCC/AOS designation besides (Ref.), so . . . probably? Hiloorchidfarm.com shows both white and purple forms of "Lehua Snow Blush," with only the purple one getting an HCC/AOS tag, and I'm not sure what that means -- possibly the color is variable depending on cultural conditions?

I assume the "Lehua" in "Lehua Snow Blush" refers to the producer / breeder Lehua Orchids, but they have, they say, "lost interest in" Masdevallias, so they no longer sell them, and no longer have a page listing their cultivars. They include "Lehua" as part of the name for their two Phalaenopsis, though, so they've named plants partly after themselves before: it seems a safe bet that "Lehua Snow Blush" originated with them even if they no longer acknowledge it on their site.

Pretty picture: Masdevallia murex

Some of the photos of this species that I found elsewhere on-line are a lot more appealing to look at than this one; it's possible that the flower has not fully opened or something.

Even more disappointing than the photo of this particular Masdevallia is the fact that this was the only Masdevallia I saw at the 2015 show. (Or at least it's the only one I got a photo of: I assume that means it was the only one I saw.)

I don't quite get the species name, either. It doesn't look like a sea snail, at least no more so than any of the other Masdevallias I've seen. Basically this one's just confusing and/or disappointing all the way through.

Pretty picture: Masdevallia Georgian Franczyk

It'd be hard to get excited about the color pattern here -- faint stripes seem to be pretty common for Masdevallia hybrids -- but the color itself is something I don't think I've seen before. The closest we get is probably Masdevallia Tortoise 'Plum Petite,' from the 2012 show, and this is a lot more saturated than that.

Masdevallia Georgian Franczyk = Masdevallia Midnight Plum x Masdevallia coccinea (Ref.)

The Quad Cities orchid show was last Saturday, and it was, you know, fine. Like an orchid show. I got about 60 sets of pictures, I think, depending on how salvageable a few bad shots turn out to be, so we'll have about one orchid post per week for the rest of 2015, roughly the same frequency as the 2014 posts. Spelling and IDs were more consistent and more often correct than previous years too, so good for the Illowa Orchid Society.

Not a lot of surprises, though there were a few new weird species, which I enjoyed even if they weren't very flashy. Sadly, I only saw one Masdevallia in 2015, and it wasn't even a pretty one. You won't see many Phragmipediums this year either. (They were at the show; I just didn't take pictures of them. Most were the ringleted types, with the long skinny petals that fall down to either side of the bloom, and those rarely photograph well, so I figured this year I just wouldn't even try.)

The fashion story this year seemed to be Black Is The New Black -- seemed like an unusually large number of very dark blooms, including a couple really dark purple Phalaenopsis, a dark purple Vanda, and a few Paphiopedilums that were basically black in places. So we have that to look forward to, beginning in April.

Pretty pictures: Masdevallia Copper Angel 'Highland'

The foliage really was this yellow, and an image search for the cultivar suggests that it probably shouldn't have been. (What would cause this? Some kind of fertilizer problem?)

It's nevertheless kind of a nice effect, if you can bring yourself to pretend that it's supposed to look like that. I mean, at least it's a smooth, uniform sort of yellow.

Masdevallia Copper Angel 'Highland' = Masdevallia triangularis x Masdevallia veitchiana (Ref.)

Pretty picture: Masdevallia Annette Hall

We were without internet access for like twenty-five hours on Wednesday / Thursday and it was exactly like that one episode of Little House on the Prairie where they lose their internet access and Pa Ingalls has to take the horses out into the blizzard to chop it free or whatever, except that the snow is so deep and the internet is so heavy that when he loads it all on the horse to take back to the cabin, the horse can't move, so Pa builds a barn around the horse and the two of them just stay outside like that until the snow all melts in the spring and Laura and all the lesser Ingallses missed everything that happened on Facebook for, like, the whole winter.

This plant didn't, like, blow me away at the show or anything, but the photo turned out nicely. I'm this close to being more depressed that I can't grow Masdevallias than I am about not being able to grow Paphiopedilums.

Masdevallia Annette Hall = Masdevallia Copper Angel x Masdevallia Manco Inca (Ref.)

Pretty picture: Masdevallia Golden Monarch

Not the best picture but at least reasonably color-accurate, I think.

Masdevallia Golden Monarch= Masdevallia Golden Angel x Masdevallia Monarch (Ref.)

In Anthurium/scale/thrips news:

I just couldn't bring myself to oil Anthuriums this week, either. So that's what, like three consecutive weeks of oiling, followed by two weeks of not-oiling?

The present situation:

1) I saw thrips again on Thursday (4 Sep.). Also saw 2 scale insects on one of the Agave victoriae-reginaes in the basement, on 3 September. It is unclear whether the insects in question were alive at the time, but even seeing dead ones isn't a happy occasion: I want to not see them at all.
2) A lot of the plants are sticky, too, from dried oil and dishwashing liquid. It'll wash off eventually, I assume, but it makes dealing with them slightly less pleasant until that happens.
3) I also suspect that some of the bud-dropping I've been seeing lately with the Anthuriums can be blamed on the oil.
4) And we did wind up losing #238 "Rudy Day," #247 "Selma Carr," and #243 "Sal Monella," most obviously from watering issues, but it's possible that the oil didn't help. #095 "Clarice Fulhartz" is still around, at least, and may live long enough to produce a bloom, though she doesn't seem to have produced any roots yet.
5) Even though it hasn't actually eliminated the thrips or scale, makes the plants unpleasantly sticky, may be killing buds or plants, and has an unpleasant smell, I think I'm still going to resume oiling this week. It did, if nothing else, make the thrips a lot harder to find, and it's possible that if I'd just kept it up for a couple more weeks, I might have actually gotten rid of them. I mean, it may not be likely. But it's possible, and I'm otherwise out of options. So.

I had plans last week to do a third Anthurium update post, about the species involved in breeding Anthurium varieties and/or what makes for "good" Anthurium foliage, but sort of ran out of time. Posting's likely to drop off again as I resume oiling the plants. (Sorry.)

Pretty pictures: Masdevallia Southern Sun

Still nothing new happening here with the plants, aside from the Anthuriums. I'm positive you don't want to hear as much about the Anthuriums as I want to tell you (it's a little much even for me sometimes), so the blog may be quiet for a while, aside from orchid pictures and the occasional massive Anthurium update.

Today we have a Masdevallia. Not the best Masdevallia flower at the show, but the plant looked pretty good.

Masdevallia Southern Sun = Masdevallia veitchiana x Masdevallia hirtzii (Ref.)

Pretty pictures: Masdevallia Prince Charming

Good old reliable Masdevallia 'Prince Charming.' Long may he wave.









Previous PATSP posts about Masdevallia 'Prince Charming:' 2010

tag: Masdevallia Prince Charming
origin: Masd. angulata x Masd. veitchiana

Top 18 PATSP Posts of 2012

2012 wasn't my, the blog's, or the plant collection's best year. I spent basically the entire year saying that I had too many plants,¹ and trying to reduce the collection to a more manageable size, and somehow managed to gain plants anyway (919 at the beginning of 2012, 1029 at the end). And then the scalepocalypse. And then I started having problems with fungus, a problem which is ongoing.² And then the scale came back.³

Also saying these are the top 18 posts is sort of misleading in two different ways: five of them are basically all the same post, so it's closer to the top 14 posts. Also "top" doesn't really mean anything except that I liked how they turned out and think you should see them if you happened to miss them the first time. They're not necessarily the most-viewed or most-commented or anything like that. Anyway.


18. Pretty picture: Cattleya aclandiae (16 April 2012)


I just liked how the photo turned out, basically.


17. Random plant event: Sansevieria cylindrica (4 September 2012)

Well, it was a big deal. You don't even know.


16. Pretty picture: Phragmipedium Peruflora's Cirila Alca (22 November 2012)


Also just a nice photo.


15. Random plant event: Spathiphyllum (5 December 2012)

In which I propagate a plant I don't even really like, at a time when I'm actually trying to reduce the number of plants I have, because I've realized propagation is possible. I still feel all conflicted about this.


14. Pretty picture: Rhyncholaelia digbyana (30 November 2012)


In which I attempt to liven up a dull blog post with an incomplete screenplay.


13. Random plant event: Aglaonema 'Maria,' with special guest star (8 March 2012)


The debut of the peat-bog-in-the-basement idea.


12. Cribplants, yo. (28 November 2012)

In which my thugged-out ass realizes that Snoop Dogg is a mothafuckin genius.


11. Elsewhere on the Web: Did We Win Already? (29 January 2012)

The sellers of the blue dyed orchids said, about a year ago, that they were going to admit on the tags that their plants wouldn't re-bloom blue. I wonder if that actually happened. Somebody should check.


10. Random plant event: Clivia miniata 'Aztec Gold' (22 August 2012)

The rumors are true: Clivias actually can be induced to bloom. I was beginning to doubt.


9. The Very Slow and Occasionally Sticky Inferno (14 August 2012)

The scale outbreak depressed me. And led to all sorts of incidental badness. Which was also depressing. And is continuing to be depressing. And will likely be depressing in the future as well.


8. Pretty pictures: Masdevallia Sunset Jaguar 'Night Breed' (24 April 2012)


I really love this flower, though I'm unable to read the name without thinking about the "night cheese" joke on 30 Rock.⁴


7. Random plant event: Epiphyllum NOID (26 August 2012)

In which an Epiphyllum blooms in Iowa, and a family is brought together. (No, really.) Also there are many pictures.


2 to 6. Missing From Retail series
(Part 1, 25 November) (Part 2, 2 December) (Part 3, 8 December) (Part 4, 14 December) (Part 5, 20 December)

Sort of a weird choice, I guess, but it was nice to expand the horizons of the blog for a bit and talk about a new group of plants. Plus I learned some things about plants I was otherwise unfamiliar with.


1. The Brick Joke (16 January 2012)

And no, Pierson's Flower Shop and Greenhouses, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, never did contact me in response to the post, so I assume I'm still banned from the store. We never have occasion to go to Cedar Rapids anymore anyway (I'm sorry, Frontier! I miss you!), so this hasn't had much practical effect on my life. However, my initial feelings of well they kind of have a point and I understand why they might not want me there have had a year to . . . curdle.

And so now we have 2013. May I have less fungus and scale, fewer plants overall, and the same number of kidneys, next New Year's Day.⁵

-

¹ (Absolutely true, though!)
² The fungus story so far:
First I tried neem oil. That makes leafy Euphorbia and Pedilanthus types defoliate, and doesn't seem to have much lasting effect on the non-leafy stuff.
Then I tried spraying with basic copper sulfate in water, which seemed like the least nasty thing available for fungus control at the ex-job. Not only did that not help much, it clogged the sprayers almost immediately.
Then I asked for help from Cactus Jungle. They said hydrogen peroxide, so I've been doing that, but this doesn't seem to be helping either, especially since I can only do it every 14 days or so. And it makes the Pedilanthus defoliate.
The next thing to try is baking soda. That's not going to work either, but it's another thing I can spray inside the house that won't kill us all, so I'm going to try it anyway.
When baking soda has conclusively failed -- and it will -- only then am I going to allow myself to use an actual hardcore, mid-20th-century-type fungicide. I bought a bottle of chlorothalonil at the ex-job some time ago, then looked it up when I got home and kind of wished I'd bought something else, 'cause I don't want to use it in the house and it's too cold to use it outside.
If the chlorothalonil doesn't fix things -- and it's a polychlorinated benzene ring with two nitrile groups, so it ought to be able to kill everything -- I'm going to go back to the ex-job and buy some captan.
And if captan doesn't work either, I am going to burn the goddamned house down. THE MILDEW WILL NOT WIN.
³ (Truthfully, I'm depressed about all this. Probably going to take a hiatus for a while following today's post. I'd rather not think about plants any more than absolutely necessary right now. Plus, I have a bunch of plants in the basement that I need to dose with imidacloprid granules, and that's going to take some time.)
⁴ It's a throwaway gag where Liz Lemon is home by herself eating cheese. Getting the rights to use the song, even though it wasn't the whole song (or the right lyrics!), apparently cost the 30 Rock producers $40,000. That's some commitment to a joke, that is.
⁵ (For the record, I would also be okay with an increased number of kidneys, at least within reason.)

Pretty pictures: Masdevallia Tortoise 'Plum Petite'

Image search confirms the "Tortoise" part; I couldn't find evidence that 'Plum Petite' exists. Though I suppose now I'm providing evidence that it exists, for anybody else who's searching Google, even though I'm not sure about it myself. Tricky how that works.


According to the tag, Masd. Tortoise is M. uniflora (solid pinkish-purple) x M. angulata (dull red-brown, variously spotted or solid depending on the specimen).

Pretty pictures: Masdevallia Peaches and Cream

This is the second time photos of these flowers have been posted; the first time was back in 2010. This time around, the name was more complete: "Masdevallia Peaches and Cream (ignea x constricta)," as opposed to just Masd. ignea x constricta, which I appreciate.


I stand by my previous comments. This is probably my least favorite Masdevallia, of all those I've posted photos of before. (The most favorite would be Masd. Sunset Jaguar 'Night Breed', posted earlier this year.) The shape is fine, but that color just does nothing for me at all.


The photography could probably have been better too; looking at these pictures now, I'm struck by how washed-out everything looks. Oh well.

Edited to add a Scalepocalypse 2012 update:

Cryptanthus NOID (11 Sep 2012, basement) -- neemed.

I don't think I'm winning.

Pretty pictures: Masdevallia princeps x Masdevallia mooreana 'Elay Island'

tag: MASD. princeps X MASD. mooreana 'ELAY ISLAND'

Pretty pictures: Masdevallia Sunset Jaguar 'Night Breed'

This was one of the first orchids at the show that made me think, WOW. I like Masdevallias anyway, but the idea of a purple one, with spots/stripes, still kind of blows my mind.


According to the tag, Masdevallia Sunset Jaguar 'Night Breed' is a cross between M. Copper Angel and M. chapaensis. The latter turns out to be nonexistent. They meant M. chaparensis, which contributed the purple color. (Copper Angel is, as the name suggests, orange.) So those of you who had 24 April in the pool for the first orchid tag error of 2012 pool are winners. (Congratulations!)

In Will-Mr.-Subjunctive-Ever-Start-Writing-Non-Orchid-Posts-Again news: well, we can hope. I'm writing this on Sunday morning, at which point I've put up photos, prices, and descriptions for about 80-90 plants, as well as a general explanation of the process. I'm going through my list of plants one last time to see what I've overlooked, and once I figure that out, I'll have another however many items to describe and photograph, the speed of which will be partly dependent on the weather, but it looks good at the moment. So perhaps this week?

(EDIT: Or maybe not. Google has chosen this week to roll out a new blogger interface, which basically means that I'm going to have to relearn how to write posts. Everything is now in different places, the HTML has gotten more opaque -- not that it was ever all that clear to begin with -- and this is possibly the worst time possible for them to decide to rearrange everything. I'd hoped that they'd give me the option of reverting to the old interface, but that's apparently gone forever. Fucking hell.)

Pretty picture: Masdevallia Caraway Moon

I don't really see what's caraway-like (or moon-like, for that matter) about this flower, but that probably just shows I'm a dull, uncreative person.


Google has no records of an orchid by the name of Masdevallia Caraway Moon. (Image searches for "Caraway Moon" bring up lots of images of shoes; I declined to investigate the reason, but I suppose someone might have named an orchid for a shoe? Or vice-versa?)

Pretty picture: Masdevallia schlimii

Hey look, it's an orchid photo.

Pretty picture: Masdevallia ignea x constricta

The actual petals and other important parts of Masdevallias are stuck way down in the center of the plant, and are tiny. The sepals, which have become fused together, are the brightly-colored bits with the long "tails."

I think most of the Masdevallias I've seen are less pretty than just odd. I like odd, usually, so that's not really a problem. And the first one I posted about, Masdevallia Prince Charming, I actually think is kind of pretty, too. Everything breaks down with M. ignea x constricta, though, as my brain insists that it's creepy and off-putting. The odd shape, combined with the large numbers of flowers in these pictures, somehow add up to "alien invasion" in my head.


Also the color, let's face it, is not the most appealing.

Maybe if they were edible, and tasted like cheese, it would work for me.

Though I'm not a big fan of cheese either, actually, so maybe not. I don't know.

Masdevallia is another genus I will probably never grow, though I have more hope for Masdevallia than for Miltoniopsis; Masdevallia might be okay in our basement. It's humid and cool, and there are fluorescent lights all over the place, so if I managed to water often enough, I might be able to keep a Masdevallia happy. Not, like, an alien cheese invader Masdevallia, but with some other, more pleasingly-colored hybrid.

Pretty picture: Masdevallia Prince Charming

This is one of the orchids from Saturday's orchid show in the Quad Cities. Full-size view is recommended.


I don't have a lot to say about the orchid, which I think is pretty self-evidently cool, and any commentary I had would be roughly along the lines of hey, isn't this orchid pretty self-evidently cool?, which seems like a waste of your time and mine.

In Sheba news:

As of Day 3, the allergies are still a complete non-issue, which is awesome. The slight amount of reaction I had at the animal shelter when we first picked her up appears to have been from her environment, not the dog herself; since we bathed her on Friday, I haven't even had a small reaction. Unlike Fervor, too, she can play-bite me without it being a problem, though it's rare for her to try.

On the other hand, her anal glands need to be emptied (which we'll take her to a vet as soon as we can, but in the meantime this is not an endearing quality, and sometimes I have to back away from her because the smell is too much, which she of course doesn't understand). She whines when crated, though usually not for very long. She appears to bore easily, which is both good (probably pretty smart, then?) and bad (going to need more toys, play, and direct interaction?). She's agonizing to walk: she clearly hasn't been on a leash much, doesn't know how it works, weighs about 50 pounds (23 kg) and is very easily distracted by birds and squirrels. Both of which are everywhere at the moment.

She does seem to have figured out pretty quickly that she's not allowed on the furniture, she seems to be totally housetrained, she appears to understand that she's not to go into the basement (we have the stairs blocked off, but it's not like she couldn't jump the barricade if she wanted to: when we tried blocking the plant room, she jumped over the block just fine), and she hasn't done anything obvious to any of the plants, if anything at all.

So it's not all bad, or even mostly bad, and the problems we have are fixable, but at the moment, this whole anal-gland situation means I don't enjoy her a whole lot inside, and her unwalkability means I don't look forward to being outside with her either. And I feel kind of bad that I'm not happier about her being here.