Shore Orchid Fest Purchases

Silva Orchids held a very fun and very welcome Orchid Festival a couple of weekends ago, inviting a bunch of other orchid vendors to share their territory for a weekend and enabling a lot of NY-NJ-CT-PA orchid folks to socialize and binge on awesome orchids.

I attended Sunday, the last day of the Fest, but still found plenty of nifty things to buy. I swore I could only buy very few plants because contrary to prior years' experience, hardly any of my recent purchases have perished. In fact most of my orchids are thriving, and many were recently moved up a pot size. This causes problems of course when your space really is finite. So I used the same trick I used at a few other sales: I brought a small (recycled plastic) Whole Foods bag that is excellent for orchid transportation (being thick, flat-bottomed and with longish handles), and intended to just fill it. Alas I forgot, once again, that this wonderful bag is infinitely expandable. I bought and bought and STILL had room...well it helped that the plants were mostly in 2- or 3-inch pots.

Spread out a bit, this haul fit in two plastic takeout tray/boxes, as seen above:

• Angraecum leonis (an old favorite, a nice healthy plant)
• Bulbophyllum frostii (could not resist another)
• Gastrochilus japonicus (currently in flower)
• Goodyeara pusilla (really gorgeous dark sparkly leaves)
• Holcoglossum subulifolium (Oak Hill, a huge plant for cheap!)
• Liparis bootanensis (a little underwhelming florally, but I may learn to love it)
• Liparis viridiflora (replaces one I had for many years but managed to kill)
• Macodes petula (yet another one...they are NOT the easiest jewels to maintain!)
• Oeceoclades maculata (yes I know it's a weed, but I don't care)
• Paphiopedilum purpuratum (Silva has a nice assortment of paph species)
• Paphiopedilum Yakushiji (malipoense x weshanense) (compact, in spike!)
• Phalaenopsis deliciosa (wanted one for years!)
• Pholidota chinensis (one of my VERY favorite species)
• Podochilus muricatus (I could not help myself but to get another...alas the one I got in March bit the dust)
• Tolumnia Genting Volcano (a nice dark pink)

Most of these new guys have found places more or less OK for them but a few are hanging out with some of the SEPOS plants that still haven't found exactly the right spot. I also have to pot the bare-root Liparis. And since the beginning of the year I managed to acquire a number of other plants as well...shall record them soon.