New Plants - acquired in a trade

I love trades. Not that I get to do them as often as I'd like. This particular one was with someone whom I regard very highly as an orchid grower, so I'm doubly pleased to be able to deal with him. We did our trade on Friday after several months of orchid based nerdiness via Facebook chat.

Practically every orchid grower has a 'list' of plants that they'd like to get hold of, myself included. Unfortunately it seems to get longer, not shorter. At least now the plants I have on my list are appropriate to the conditions I am able to offer them. A couple of these orchids I just got in trade are off my list, and I have to say I'm impressed. So, without further ado, here are some pictures of the plants I got in trade.

 This above is Stanhopea nigroviolacea. From what I read, some authorities consider it to be a variety of the species Stanhopea tigrina. This is a decent sized plant, easily blooming size, I'd say. Very healthy, potted in Sphagnum moss (as this needs to hang to allow flower spikes to dangle down beneath the plant, a more water retentive medium is necessary). I've never grown Stanhopea before so I'm quite excited about this plant. I wasn't expecting one quite so large.

And Dendrobium gatton sunray. Another nice large plant, though I'm told it will grow a good deal larger yet. Flowering size again, I shall look forward to seeing it bloom. I have quite a few Dendrobium of one form or another in my collection, so I feel I'm on less shaky ground with this one. I have read that it is almost impossible to kill so hopefully it will do well for me. A very popular and sought after orchid.

A few Coelogyne. Back left is Coelogyne lawrenceana. This plant has two flower spikes and looks very healthy. I notice that the older pseudobulb is wrinkly. This interests me because I have a hybrid of this species that does exactly the same. It is meant to be a very large flower. I'm excited that it is about to bloom, though I hear the buds take a very long time to develop so I'll have to be patient. Back right is Coelogyne triplicatula. This is technically a cool grower, but I have a couple of its close relatives (fimbriata and ovalis) and both of them do fine for me. Front left is Coelogyne intermedia. This is allegedly a natural hybrid although nobody has been able to re-make the cross, so it may well be a species in its own right. again, technically a cool grower, but I'm told it grows and blooms fine under warmer conditions. Front right is Coelogyne Wood Fairy. One cool and one warm growing parent, so we'll see how it does in my warm growroom.

Here we have Bifrenaria aureo-fulva on the left. I've never grown this species, and I can't say I've done well with Bifrenaria in the past (not a good experience standing by helplessly watching Bifrenaria harrisoniae slowly die on me). I'm hoping this species will be easier for me. On the right we have Miltassia dark star. I know where I am with Miltassia so should be onto a winner with this one.

And finally two nice sized keikis of Dendrobium anosmum var. dearei. I have potted these two up so hopefully they'll just get on with it now. Occasionally Dendrobium species and hybrids will produce adventitious growths from the leaf nodes along their canes which will grow their own roots and can be detached and grown on separately. These are known as keikis. They are an excellent way of propagating orchids, especially if the plant in question is a particularly good clone. The keikis are genetically identical to the parent plant.