February 28, 2013

First flask!

   Well, my original intent was to leave all three flasks untouched for a week or so to allow them to settle down after their long travels, but my impatience was overwhelming, so I decided to unflask the oldest of the three, which is Hsinying Webber 'Happy' AM/AOS x Hsinying Sonata. I finally found a good picture if Hsinying Sonata, and it is a nice whitish colour with pink candy stripes, so I should get some neat purplish pinks with a mix of blushes and strips. In total, there were 27 seedlings, the three largest of which I am definitely keeping, which leaves me 24 to sell or trade!

February 25, 2013

Kingfisher's Princess update.

   Well, my Kingfisher's Princess has opened up some more, except the problem is that I don't know if it is even going to fully open. I remember when I first got it, the two open flowers it had weren't fully opened, but I thought it could have been because it was shipped as the flowers were opening. However, these flowers appear to not want to fully open at all. For others, this wouldn't be too much of an issue, but for a breeder, some consider cupping to be undesirable. Personally, I prefer cupping (flowers not opening all the way) over reflexing (petals opening too far), but the colour on this is also a bit muddy. I think I may sell this at my next orchid society meeting and buy a different seedling from Patrick.

February 24, 2013

Three Phalaenopsis flasks!

   Sooooooooooo excited right now! My orchid society went to a show in Edmonton, Alberta this weekend, and although I couldn't go, I was able to preorder from a few vendors. I was going to get some mature plants, but when I saw that Ching Hua had a list of flasks for sale that could be brought to the show, I decided to take a look at the list. At first I stared in awe as dozens of unfamiliar names appeared. After a few minutes of Googling names, I found three flasks that suited my fancy and wants. Going left to right in the picture below, I bought: Dtps. (Hsinying Webber 'Happy' AM/AOS x Hsinying Sonata),  Dtps. Hsinying Pink Mount x sib, and Phal. (Sogo Yukidian 'F4' x Join Grace 'TH288-4').
   The first cross is sorta a gamble; I found a few excellent pictures of Hsinying Webber 'Happy', yet I could only find one, low quality picture of Hsinying Sonata, and none of Hsinying Sonata's parents. From the pictures I've seen, this cross should yield some great, large purples with some veining on the flowers.
   The next cross is pretty safe, as it is a sibling cross between a semi alba hybrid, so I think this will mainly be semialbas, with some potentially having a blush, depending on the genetics.
   The last cross, Sogo Yukidian 'F4' x Join Grace 'TH288-4' is the one I'm looking forward to the most! For those who don't know, Sogo Yukidian is one of the cutting edge, huge standard whites with fabulous form. The specific Join Grace cultivar used in this cross is another great white that can have flowers up to six inches across. I can't wait to have I've of these give me a two to three foot long inflorescence with fifteen or more flowers that are five and a half inches or more wide. It is guaranteed to be high quality, and something I use in breeding a lot!

February 22, 2013

02/19/13 Update!

   Well, it's been a little while since my last update, mostly because of the sprain to my left thumb I incurred while skiing last month. One of the suckiest things this injury has caused would be inability for me to work, and the reduced amount of money has forced me to drop an order of plants I was going to get from a show next month. Oh well, I think I'll be healed up enough to get back to work next week or so.
   As I mentioned in my last update, I recently upgraded to a much nicer and newer phone, so Blogger mobile is now once again of use to me. One thing that I don't quite like is that if I upload multiple images to a post, there is no way for me to arrange them into the usual format I have, were I talk about an image and then show it, and then follow with more text and another image, so I'm still having to use the laptop for these larger posts. However, I may soon start doing single picture updates more often and as they come instead of doing several plants in a huge post.
   In other related news, my parents have been planning on selling our current house in order to downsize and all that other stuff I don't want to care about until I have to, and the house plan they are most likely to get is absolutely wonderful for several reasons. One is that in many of the houses we looked at, the upstairs bedrooms had half closets, only 2.5' long, which means my current in-closet stand would have to be adapted to being out of a closet, which I didn't want to do. Thankfully this house has the normal 5' wide closets in the upstairs bedrooms. Since my brother will most likely be moving to Ontario for school this spring/summer, that means I will eventually be getting a bedroom in the basement, which won't be developed when we move into the house. So, this will mean that I will also have the closet in my basement bedroom to use for plants, plus the room upstairs (which will probably be converted into an office. Oh, and like I do now, I may also have an out of closet stand in both the basement and the upstairs office. So, for those doing the math, that means I will have double the space that I have now. But guess what, there's more! My Dad was saying there is a corner in the basement that, due to it's location, is somewhat useless. Now, if you know me, (and my Dad does), you know that if there is any empty space, it is claimed by me for my plants. SO, my Dad had said that they will be able to make that into a room solely for orchids!!!!!! This is a whole, huge, approx 8' x 8' room that I'll have for growing orchids!!!! Since my parents have almost always wanted to sell this current house in order to downsize, I haven't been able to do much tweaking and customizing. However, I have a feeling that they will be staying in this next house for a loooong time, so I think I may be able to have things such as a RO system installed and maybe a drain right in the floor so I don't have to deal with hauling tubs of waste water to a toilet to dump it! I AM EXCITED!!!! Now, to the pictures!!!! Oh, and and I thought I'd mention that the reason this is dated for the 19th is because that is when I had taken the pictures and uploaded them to Blogger. I just happened to finally get around to finishing up this post today.
 

February 18, 2013

Kingfisher's Princess

Well, I just got a new Galaxy S III, SOOO, if you see this post, you'll finally learn of the issues I had with my old phone and Blogger mobile. If not you'll never see this post and this will pretty much just be me talking to myself.

Anyways, here is a pic of a bud on my Kingfisher's Princess that's going to open soon.