Wish List: Cymbidium Huell Howser

I just watched a California’s Gold episode about the Santa Barbara International Orchid Show and they showed a Cymbidium Orchid named after the host of the show: Cymbidium Huell Howser. I like its color and searching to see if there is one for sale online.

Pacific Orchid Exposition 2012 + Orchid Purchases…

My Mom and I went to the San Francisco Pacific Orchid Exposition at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Like in the previous years, the Orchids were beautiful and there was so much to see. I’ll post photos from the show in a later entry.

Since we tend to kill Orchids, we have only purchased Orchids that will survive outdoors, mainly cool/intermediate weather Orchids like Cymbidiums, Epidendrum and Masdevallias, with a few Zygopetalum and Maxillaria.

I found two inexpensive Masdevallias:
Masdevallia Angel Glow ‘Zi’
Masdevallia Angel Frost ‘Sunset Velour’

My Mom wasn’t going to leave the show until she got a few Orchids. She wanted a particular Dendrobium, but that Orchid needed bright light and warm weather, so we didn’t get that. She ended up choosing two:
Epicattleya Rene Marques ‘Tyler’
Epidendrum Crystal Valley ‘Orange Ball’

For fun, I searched the internet for the parentage of these Orchids and here’s what I came up with:
Continue reading

Mid January 2011 Blooms…

Folia, a garden organization website, started giving badges for different accomplishments. One is a Bloom Day Badge which they give out monthly (on the 15th) when you post a blooming milestone with a photo in your Folia gardening journal… so I thought I would participate and also make Mid-month Blooms blog entry a regular feature on my blog.

I know it’s a month late, but here are all the plants that were in bloom last month.

Borage
Borage Folia

Cymbidium Orchid
Cymbidium Folia

You can also view the photos in the Flickr photoset “Mid Jan 2011 Blooms“.

Garden Events 2011

I added some garden events into my calendar:

2011 Golden Gate Chapter Scion Exchange
Saturday, January 22, 2011, 12-3 PM
First Baptist Church; 4555 Hilltop Drive; El Sobrante, CA
www.crfg.org/chapters/golden_gate/scionex.htm

Sonoma County Orchid Society
“Waves of Orchids”, Spring Plant Show and Sale
Saturday-Sunday, February 5-6, 2011
Santa Rosa Veterans Building
www.sonomaorchids.com/springSale.html

The San Francisco Orchid Society
“Natural Wonders”, the 59th Annual Pacific Orchid Exposition
March 3-6, 2011
Fort Mason Center, San Francisco CA
www.orchidsanfrancisco.org/poe.html

San Francisco Flower & Garden Show
March 23-27, 2011
San Mateo Events Center
www.sfgardenshow.com

San Francisco Epiphyllum Society Show & Sale
May 28, 2011, 10am – 3pm
San Francisco County Fair Building
affiliates.cssainc.org/san-francisco-epiphyllum-society.html

San Francisco Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale
Saturday-Sunday, June 11-12, 2011, 9am – 5pm
San Francisco County Fair Building
affiliates.cssainc.org/cssa-affiliate-events.html

Sowing Coleus at Work + Orchid (from Kathryn) has new growth…

I brought in some gardening supplies to work so I can start sowing some Coleus seeds.

Garden Supply at Work Sown Coleus

I made my own mix using used peat pellets (from peat pellets with seeds that didn’t grow), a little bit of potting soil and perlite.

I sowed:
– Coleus (Dappled Apple G2 2010)
– Coleus (Oompah G2 2010)
– Coleus (Splash G2 2010)
– Coleus (Sedona G2 2010)
– Coleus (Kong Scarlet G2 2010)
– Coleus (Trailing Rose G2 2010)

I just noticed that my Orchid (from Kathryn) has fresh new roots and growth coming out. Looks like it’s starting to recover…

Four Flowers…

10:16am My Epidendrum Green Hornet Orchid at work surprised me with another flower this morning. It now has four :) #

Epidendrum Green Hornet

Epidendrum Green Hornet…

4:22pm My Epidendrum Green Hornet Orchid at work now has three flowers and I noticed two new flower stalks emerging #

Epidendrum Green Hornet

Garden Progress…

11:50pm The Peach ‘Flavorcrest’ graft is blooming… #

11:51pm Peach ‘Elberta’ in Veggie Bed is starting to flower and leaf out simultaneously… #

11:53pm The Peach ‘Stark Saturn’ graft (on Peach ‘Elberta’ in Veggie Bed) is starting to leaf out… I don’t think it even bloomed… #

11:55pm Sparker Radish seeds are finally starting to sprout… #

11:47am My Chayote is now 10 inches tall!… #

12:10pm I brought my new Epidendrum Green Hornet Orchid to work… As I was watering it, I noticed it had a scent which reminds me of Alyssums#