Bloom Event - Vanda Princess Mikasa 'Blue'

Yes, I know, another Vanda. It's getting boring, isn't it ? This particular plant has been languishing for ages with general malaise. Nothing ostensibly wrong with it, just not happy. And more importantly, not really growing or flowering. The leaves sort of folded up as if it was short of water, but I knew it couldn't be as it has been getting the same amount and frequency of water as all the other Vanda which are doing fine. I can only conclude that I did something a year or more ago that upset it and it has, in its own way, sent me to a kind of horticultural purgatory as a result. Now it has decided in its own inimitable way that I've suffered enough and has dutifully sprung back to life. The leaves have filled out again, it has started to grow and more importantly, it has produced some flowers.

I had quite forgotten what a handsome hybrid this is. I know I have it in a variety of colours which are all lovely in their way, but the blue is my favourite. Just like the other Mikasa hybrids I have, it is growing in a deep rose pot with coarse bark chips and seems to be thriving. Rather than just looking at the roots I can see at the surface, I like to look underneath at the bottom of the pot and if I can see roots at the bottom of the pot, I know my plant is happy. So it is with this one. Hence I cannot understand its sulking for so long. The flowers are, if anything, marginally larger than either Mikasa pink or white. The blue also shows off the tesselations better than the other colours, and that is what I find so attractive in many Vanda that have V. coerulea in their parentage. The blooms are nicely spaced on the stem, too. There aren't so many blooms this time and I know the plant is capable of better (I think there are five or six), but it still looks impressive.

I have found with a lot of these 'blue' hybrids that they look quite purple in certain lights (i.e. under my growlights) but this one looks blue even there. The difference is quite noticeable when one of my Blue Magic is blooming too and it looks quite purple under the lights. I've probably said it before, but I'll say it again. These Mikasa hybrids are nice compact plants that flower several times a year under my conditions. Even though I only have one in each colour now (except for two pink), there is still almost always at least one of them in flower, and I get way more flower spikes from them than I do from any of my Phalaenopsis (apart maybe from cornu-cervi which keeps blooming from the same spikes).

If only I could work out why it spent so long sulking. I should hate to inadvertently upset it again and have to put up with another year long sulk. All appears well now, though, as you can see.