Pretty picture: Bulbophyllum mastersianum

Well, this is different.

Definitely prettier than previous Bulbophyllums have been. (I suppose one could argue that B. echinolabium is prettier, though I think I prefer B. mastersianum.)

Not sure if it means anything, but I saw more Bulbophyllums at the 2015 orchid show than ever before (three, compared to a mere five total over the previous five years) -- are they having a moment? Did the genus just become cool or something?

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: Cymbidium Yowie Flame

There never seem to be very many Cymbidiums at the orchid show.

According to the blog's Cymbidium tag, I got zero photos of Cymbidiums at the 2010 orchid show, one in 2011, one in 2012, one in 2013, and now the one in 2014.

What would explain this? Are they just uncool? (If so, why?) Is it hard to get them to bloom in March? 'Cause you can't tell me they're not pretty. And I know they're not significantly more expensive than some of the other kinds of orchids, or harder to find -- I've occasionally seen them for sale in stores around here. So why aren't they better represented at the show?

Cymbidium Yowie Flame = Cymbidium Tapestry x Cymbidium Sensation (Ref.)

Pretty picture: Paphiopedilum malipoense

This particular species has only appeared on the blog once (2012), but there have been lots of its hybrids around:

Paphiopedilum Lynleigh Koopowitz
Paphiopedilum Norito Hasegawa
Paphiopedilum Jade Dragon (possibly; the identity of the plant in that photo is uncertain, though it sure looks a lot like P. malipoense)
Paphiopedilum Memoria Larry Heuer
Paphiopedilum Bit-O'-Sunshine x Paphiopedilum William Sanders x Paphiopedilum malipoense

Pretty picture: Tetratonia Dark Prince

Another new nothogenus from the orchid show. I like this, especially the patterning on the petals and sepals.

Aside from the ancestry information available on-line, I know nothing about this plant or nothogenus. No idea what they're like to grow.

Tetratonia Dark Prince = Broughtonia sanguinea x Tetramicra canaliculata (Ref.)

Pretty pictures: Brassocattleya Sunset Glory

This is the last of my favorite orchids from last year's orchid show. It might also be my favorite favorite, if I had to pick just one. Can't explain why. I just dig it.

Brassocattleya Sunset Glory = Brassocattleya Richard Mueller x Cattleya purpurata (Ref.)

Pretty pictures: Phalaenopsis OX Spot Queen 'OX1460'

A "Spot Queen" that . . . doesn't really have any spots to speak of. I wonder what that's about.

In orchid-related news: the Illowa Orchid Society's Show is being held March 21-22 this year. I'll be there, taking pictures, so if you'd prefer that I not take pictures of your orchids you should probably put "make a 'NO PHOTOS' sign for orchid show" on your to-do list now.

Phalaenopsis OX Spot Queen 'OX1460' = Phalaenopsis OX Honey x Phalaenopsis OX Black Jack (Ref.)

Pretty pictures: Miltoniopsis (Dearest x Butterfly Primrose)

I'm assuming that the reason for the two sets of flowers being different colors is that they change over time, like so many other kinds of flowers do. (The lighter-colored ones do seem a little more beaten-up than the darker blooms.)

Another explanation is that the darker ones are just in shadow, or that my camera is making up colors again, as it often does when photographic subjects are at the extreme red or violet ends of the spectrum. Either way.

Miltoniopsis blooms are nice, but the ones at the orchid show always seem to be basically the same flower -- red or magenta, with varying degrees of spots and stripes near the lip -- with one yellow exception (Miltoniopsis Andrea West).

More typical: Keiko Komoda (from the 2010 show), Morris Chestnut (2010), Arnold Linsman (2011), Lennart Karl Gottling (2012), Echo Bay 'Midnight Tears' (2013, Echo Bay (2013). Surprisingly, most of the ones that come up in an image search are white, which I think I like better than the red / magenta? Not sure.

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 pictures: Phalaenopsis Madeline Hayden

Well, it's not orange. So that's something.

Initially, I was unimpressed with this one, but it seems pretty cool now. Maybe I'm drawn to the plainer, calmer Phalaenopsis varieties, as opposed to the ones with the wild dots and stripes and what have you. I mean, Phal. Mistral's Sunrise Flame 'Mendenhall' was one of my favorites from last year's show, and I had relatively nice things to say about Phal. (Sogo Yukidian x Brother Oxford) in October.

So maybe my problem with phals is not that I find them boring so much as I would like them to be more boring.

Phalaenopsis Madeline Hayden = Phalaenopsis Taisuco Carol x Phalaenopsis Taisuco Peace (Ref.)

Pretty pictures: Cattlianthe Jewel Box 'Dark Waters'

Looks remarkably like it did the last time we saw it. (in 2011, as Sophrolaeliocattleya)

I have the feeling this might come off better in person than it does in photos.

Cattlianthe Jewel Box 'Dark Waters' = Guarianthe aurantiaca x Cattleya Anzac (Ref.)

In other news:

I had set today as my deadline to announce a name for Schlumbergera seedling #083A.

I managed, with some difficulty, to eliminate four of my nine options ("Casino," "Gaga," "Uh Hey Baby," "You're Not Going Out Dressed Like That") as unsatisfactory to some degree or another.¹

I eliminated one more ("Tamika Flynn") on the grounds that there's nothing especially Tamika-Flynnish about #083A. She's not specifically associated with any particular colors in Welcome to Night Vale (unless you count the blood of librarians as a color, though I don't think we're ever told what color librarian blood is), and in theory any seedling could be named "Tamika Flynn" just as appropriately as this one.²

This left "AbFab Darling," "Delirium," "Psychedelic Bunny," and "She's So Unusual," all of which I liked, and all of which were specific enough to unusual colors that they could really only be used for a seedling like #083A. So how to whittle the list down to four? Well, I had to reach pretty hard for things to object to, that's how.

Hence, I dropped "AbFab Darling" on the grounds that the "Darling," even if insincere and cynical in context, was just not the kind of word I would feel comfortable using around people who didn't know the reference. Too precious.

Then I thought that maybe "Delirium" had connotations I didn't necessarily want. I mean, sometimes it's fun to be delirious, and there's "deliriously happy," which sounds good, but we also have delirium tremens, which it's harder to put a positive spin on. Certainly no kind of delirium (basically "excited confusion," according to the dictionary) is desirable from a medical standpoint.

So out goes "Delirium," and now we're down to two. Was "She's So Unusual" (a Cyndi Lauper album title) a concern in the same way "Gaga" was? I decided no, that Cyndi Lauper had had plenty of time to embarrass herself if she was going to, and as far as I knew, she hasn't yet. If anything, she's gotten more respectable over time.³

And I was slightly bothered by the "bunny" part of "Psychedelic Bunny," since it's not a bunny, it's a plant. But "Psychedelic Bunny" is vastly catchier than "Psychedelic" on its own, and people generally think bunnies are appealing and cute,⁴ so I couldn't justify eliminating it on those grounds either.

Was it, perhaps, a problem to be using an album title? Are the three words "She's So Unusual" legally claimed by someone in a way that might be a problem for me? Not as far as I could determine.

Well is the bloom more psychedelic, or more unusual? And that was the question that finally decided me: it's certainly unusual, but "unusual" could refer to a lot of things. Image searches for the two words confirmed it for me: "psychedelic" has more in common with the flower than "unusual" does. So "Psychedelic Bunny" it was. Hooray!⁵

Thanks to everyone for playing, hopefully no hard feelings if I didn't take your suggestions, remember I said I had to be absurdly nitpicky just to get the list down to one, really it's an honor just to be nominated, there'll probably be more seedlings to name in the future, etc.

-

¹ "Casino:" too generic.
"Gaga:" concerns about Lady Gaga's future behavior tainting the word. (Imagine naming a plant variety after Milli Vanilli, your favorite R&B pop group, in 1989. Then imagine trying to sell that cultivar under that same name in 1991. This is the sort of thing I worry about.)
"Uh Hey Baby:" sounded kinda dumb. Which was the point, but still. Dumb is dumb.
"You're Not Going Out Dressed Like That:" way too long. Also maybe a little bit sexist.
² And in fact I've been having a terrible time coming up with a name for one particular seedling, which you'll see on February 6. Allowing myself to name it after Tamika could solve two problems at once.
³ Unless we're counting her participation in The Celebrity Apprentice. I still have to raise an eyebrow at anybody voluntarily choosing to associate themselves with Donald Trump, but I accept that it's Hollywood and sometimes these things will happen. Also it was for charity. Plus Trump probably told her it would be fun, and we all know Ms. Lauper's position on having fun. So she's excused, but with an admonishment not to do it again.
⁴ Though I suppose your more serious outdoor gardeners would have less positive leporine associations, which might be relevant here. Not sure.
⁵ Which lasted until I told the husband about the decision, and then he was like, okay, but what about Cyndi Lauper doing "True Colors," and naming her charity the True Colors Foundation, and all that? If the colors are the interesting thing about the seedling, then isn't a Cyndi Lauper reference actually more appropriate? And don't we like Cyndi Lauper regardless, well enough to name something after her? (Especially given that I've recently named a seedling after the guitarist for a band I don't even like and will sometimes even go slightly out of my way to avoid?)
AAAAAAAIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.
And we do like Cyndi Lauper well enough to name a seedling after her. Really we do. But, after spending some time meditating on the pictures of #083A again, I concluded that it really just is more of a "Psychedelic Bunny" than it is a "She's So Unusual." And that's how that particular crisis was averted: by doubling down on a decision that had already been made, and then ignoring the conflict until it went away.

Pretty picture: Dendrobium Love Memory 'Fizz'

Some websites say "Dendrobium nobile Love Memory 'Fizz.'" I don't know what this signifies, exactly, and consequently have no idea whether it's accurate or relevant, but I include it for the sake of completeness.

Should perhaps also note that I find this one a lot more appealing than I do most Dendrobiums. Which also may not be accurate or relevant, but what the hell.

Dendrobium Love Memory 'Fizz' = Dendrobium White Rabbit x Dendrobium Sachi (Ref.)

And now some unfinished Schlumbergera business:

I attempted to narrow down the field of possible names for S. #083A --

-- and instead wound up enlarging it. Part of what happened was that on Monday, there was news about Elon Musk (CEO of SpaceX) announcing that he was naming two "autonomous spaceport drone ships" after ships from Iain M. Banks' series of Culture novels, and their names would be Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You.

Which sent me down a wikihole of reading all the names of all the ships in all the novels,¹ some of which were very amusing (and possibly even more amusing in context: I wouldn't know),² and that led somehow to the discovery of a Twitter account that periodically proposes new possible ship names along the same lines as the originals.

So, we have an abbreviated version of the list I came up with originally (about half of the originals have been dumped or altered), plus some of the names proposed in the comments of the #083 introduction post, plus a handful of names that occurred to me spontaneously just going about my regular business, plus a substantial chunk of names that are Iain M. Banks Culture ships, other people's ideas for Culture ships, or my own ideas for Culture ships.³ In alphabetical order:

"AbFab Darling:" Enough of an improvement on "Sweetie Darling" that I'm going to forget about "Sweetie" in favor of "AbFab." Successfully evokes intense colors thrown together haphazardly. Suggested by Diana.
"Casino:" Under consideration. You have to admit, the flower's color scheme does overlap that of most (all?) casinos. (Do an image search, I dare you.) Probably a little too generic, ultimately: a particular casino would be more interesting. But I'm sure all the particular casinos would sue me.
"Delirium:" From Paul's suggestion of "Delirious." Also possibly too generic, but nevertheless being considered. Possibly gets me minor nerd cred points for the (very) glancing Neil Gaiman reference.
"Gaga:" Paul's suggestion. I'm a little worried that it might age badly, depending on what Lady Gaga does with herself in the future. I'm, like, thinking about thinking about this one. It does have going for it that it'd be the easiest candidate to type.
"Psychedelic Bunny:" From Nadya W-G's suggestion. There's certainly something psychedelic going on here. The bunny part is questionable.⁴
"She's So Unusual:" Prompted by Paul's riff ("So Unusual") on Claude's suggestion ("Cyndi Lauper"). Makes sense with the plant, and I have nothing against Cyndi Lauper⁵ or the album in question. It could work.
"Tamika Flynn:" Seemed to be the crowd favorite from the original post,⁶ growing on me, and the previous arguments in favor still apply.
"Uh Hey Baby:" I'm cooling off on "Uh Hey Baby," as other, more evocative and colorful options have been suggested, but I'm not yet prepared to rule it out.
"You're Not Going Out Dressed Like That:" Also Culture-ship-esque. Unwieldy, and I cringe imagining all the extra typing I'd have to do, but somehow . . . appropriate?

Honorable mentions, but not serious consideration, to:

"Gravitas Rainbow:" Both a pun⁷ and a gravitas joke. Stolen from the Twitter account. The "rainbow" almost makes it work, but I don't like it well enough to make it permanent.
"It's More of an Aesthetic Question:" Culture-ship-type option. Stolen from the Twitter account. Probably too long to be serious, plus if it's going to be a super-long name, "You're Not Going Out Dressed Like That" is better.
"Naked Celebrity Gravitas:" Stolen from the Twitter account. Not serious, I think, but just imagine the search engine traffic I'd get!
"Ruth Bader Ginsberg:" Not much of a contender, on the grounds that I can't imagine her wearing colors like this, even though I'm sure she probably has at some point or another, and maybe even is right this moment. I'm not sure I've ever seen the Notorious RBG in regular clothes clothes. But there really needs to be something named for Our Most Adorable Supreme Court Justice of All Time.⁸ Maybe an Episcia.
"Tripping Balls:" Well in line with the psychedelia angle, but probably too vulgar for actual consideration.

Anyway. So it looks like we have nine serious(-ish) candidates. Advocate for or against them in the comments;⁹ I plan to decide and announce a name by 2 February. Though I may have to pull a name out of a hat or something: however hard I try, I can't seem to eliminate any more than five options.

-

¹ I have not actually ever read any of Iain M. Banks' science fiction novels, though I've read two of his mainstream books, a long time ago (Whit and The Crow Road). I understand that the Culture series are considered to be good by the people who consider that sort of thing.
² e.g. So Much For Subtlety; You Would If You Really Loved Me; I Blame My Mother; I Blame Your Mother, etc. There's also a running joke regarding the word "gravitas," which includes Zero Gravitas, Very Little Gravitas Indeed, and Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall, which will explain some of the name options you'll see momentarily.
³ If you proposed something that didn't wind up on the list, the most likely reasons I didn't include it are that it implies colors that the flower doesn't contain ("Aurora Borealis" or "Mardi Gras" really should be at least partly green), I included a riff on your suggestion but not the actual suggestion, you made the suggestion after I completed writing this post and I didn't want to spend my whole Monday re-editing it, or you suggested a group of related names and I picked one out of that group instead of all of them.
⁴ I have a hard time seeing Schlumbergera blooms as anything other than hummingbirds, personally. But "Psychedelic Hummingbird" seems redundant, so we'll let "Bunny" stand.
⁵ (as if anyone could)
⁶ (among those expressing an opinion)
⁷ (on the TV show Gravity's Rainbow)
⁸ (not counting Clarence Thomas)
⁹ Or say something about the Dendrobium at the top of the page. You remember the Dendrobium, right?

Pretty picture: Paphiopedilum Varina's Wine

Next round of Schlumbergera pictures begins Friday. Are you excited? You should be excited.

Paphiopedilum Varina's Wine = Paphiopedilum Varina Vaughn x Paphiopedilum Joanne's Wine (Ref.)

Pretty picture: Lycaste Dainty

Here's another Lycaste (previously: Lycaste Alan Salzman). It has no colors in common with the previous Lycaste, and I'm not really seeing a similarity in shape either, but I suppose I can still believe that the two are related. It'd hardly be the first time that an orchid did something that didn't make sense to me.

It helps that the International Orchid Register has heard of it, and believes it to be a hybrid of Lycaste candida x Lycaste campbellii. (Ref.)

Pretty pictures: Cattleytonia Sister Toby x Cattleya Memoria Robert Strait

Kinda ennh about this one. Points for being . . . vivid, I guess.

Pretty picture: Dendrobium lindleyi

This is Dendrobium aggregatum according to the tag at the show, but D. lindleyi was correct as of last March, according to Plant List.

Previously (D. lindleyi var. majus): 2013

Pretty picture: Vanda Pakchong Blue

We've seen this variety before, pretty consistently from year to year, even (2010, 2011, and maybe 2012), which makes me wonder if it's not just the same plant coming back over and over.

I mean, the only other explanation that would make sense would be that maybe there are just a lot of them out there. But I've only ever seen one per year at the show. So it's probably the same plant over and over.

Vanda Pakchong Blue = Vanda Doctor Anek x Vanda coerulea (Ref.)

Other news: I'll have two more Schlumbergera-bloom posts eventually (021 and 083, and you will definitely want to see 083: it's the best Schlumbergera seedling to date) for sure, and possibly several more (008, 012?, 019, 023, 027, 028, 030, 031, 061, 078, 084, 088) if buds don't drop first.

Anthurium #334 "Jean Poole" is developing nicely but has still not opened yet.

The other three new Anthurium buds (#132 "Eve Stropper," #241 "Megan Gigaterra," and #259 "Tasha Salad") are all still doing okay, but are so far from being ready to open that I'm trying not to get too excited. There's a first-ever bud on #594 ("Charity Case") as well. (Light to medium pink so far: nothing too exciting.)

First-generation berries: Anthurium 'Joli' (medium-sized, lavender to hot pink to orange-red) has in fact been pollinated. Still can't tell about 'Florida.' (huge, orange) Should have seeds to sow from 'Midori' (large, green) just any day now, as well as six spadices' worth of seeds from 'Pandola.' (large, pink)

Second-generation berries: nothing much on the horizon at the moment save for #203 "Anna Mae Hemensouz" (medium, dark red) and #231 "Rhea Listick" (medium, purple-pink). #234 "Ross Koz" (medium, purple-pink) has some berries forming but it seems like I've been waiting on them forever; ditto for #245 "Sawyer Ad" (medium-large, red) and #276 "Zach Religious" (medium-large, pink/red). I'm getting ready to move another set of seedlings into 3-inch pots soon, to make more room to start seeds, so expect the plant census to make another big jump. I could well wind up with 2000 by the end of 2015, if this sort of thing keeps up.

Pretty pictures: Paphiopedilum gratrixianum

For some reason, I have this one marked as the third of my four favorite orchids from this year's show.¹ I still like it, and I guess the photos came out well enough, but I don't think I'd rate it quite as highly if I were doing the top 4 list over again. I like the colors a lot; not sure how I feel about the shape.

Paphiopedilum gratrixianum is found "from Laos to Vietnam," according to Wikipedia.

-

¹ The first was Laeliocattleya Natrisiri, or whatever it's called, which was posted in August, and the second was Cattlianthe Mary Elizabeth Bohn, which we saw in September. You'll have to wait until March 2 to see the fourth one.)

Pretty pictures: Phalaenopsis OX Prince 'OX1480'

Not terribly excited about this particular Phalaenopsis, though a lot of that is because it's hard to get me excited about any Phalaenopsis.

Phalaenopsis OX Prince 'OX1480' = Phalaenopsis OX Black Jack x Phalaenopsis Leopard Prince (Ref.)

In other news:

There will be at least one more Schlumbergera seedling to talk about; #083 has a bloom that is almost but not quite opened as of the 16th, and at least so far looks like the sort of plant I would buy if I saw it in a store. (Would you believe magenta / orange, for a color combination? I'm not sure that it works, exactly, but I can't say I've ever seen it before.)

I also have buds on a number of others,¹ though there's always the possibility that those will drop before developing -- a lot of the first batch of seedlings (057 "Pyrotechnic," 024 "Bryce Canyon," 054 "Helpful Gesture," and so on) just dropped a bunch of buds on me, possibly because they got too dry, and don't appear inclined to make any more. But I'm pretty sure 083, at least, is going to finish building its flower in time for me to take a photo, and I'm interested in what y'all will make of it.

There will also be Anthurium posts soon. 040 "Ivy Winters" has finally gotten it together to produce a bloom (and followed that immediately with a second bud, which is kind of impressive even if the bloom itself isn't), and I've seen first-time buds on another four seedlings.² This is after a few months of nothing at all happening,³ so I'm relieved.

-

¹ (008 "Frightened Dog," 012, 021, 023, 027, 028, 031, 056, 061, 079, 084)
² Namely:
132 "Eve Stropper" (light pink?)
241 "Megan Gigaterra" (white / cream right now, which probably means light pink eventually)
259 "Tasha Salad" (purplish pink?)
334 "Jean Poole" (red or dark red, with fantastic foliage)
³ Well. Lots of up-potting (including the first group of seedlings to advance to 6-inch / 15 cm pots), and lots of seed-starting. But that was all me: the plants weren't doing anything much, and hadn't been since June or July. Lazy freeloading bastards.

Pretty picture: Renanstylis Queen Emma 'Nuccio's Reward'

Well. That is certainly a lot of flowers. I'm not sure what else to say about this, though. The photo might be more impressive at full size, but the background is a problem either way.

Renanstylis Queen Emma 'Nuccio's Reward' = Renanthera storiei x Rhynchostylis gigantea (Ref.)