New Plants - Delivery from Spicesotic

I know I'v not long had a delivery of plants already, but the fever was upon me. Normally, I'm quite wary of ordering plants from eBay, but when you find a seller who seems consistent in their quality of plants, they are worth sticking with. Such is the case with Spicesotic plants, from whom I got my lovely giant Angraecum and my new Coelogyne rochussenii. You can fine this seller on eBay and I recommend them.

First off, we have a rather nice Cochleanthes hybrid. I know there have been some name changes  around Cochleanthes, resulting in some names I can't pronounce, let alone attempt to spell so I'm sticking with Cochleanthes. There aren't many hybrids within the genus at the moment so I'm hoping that once flowers are produced I might be able to put a name to it.

As you can see, it is a large healthy plant and the pot is full of roots. As I understand it, the flower will be a nice dark purple colour. I do have another Cochleanthes in my collection (C. discolor), so I'm hoping that this plant will like my growroom too.

Secondly we have Liparis viridiflora. I have developed rather a liking for Liparis species, and have been on the lookout for a couple more plants from this genus to go with Liparis nutans that I've had for a while and seems to grow well for me. Liparis viridiflora is said to be an equally vigorous plant and eager bloomer. From what I can gather it puts out several growths per year but they all flower at the same time so a decent show is almost guaranteed.

Another large, healthy plant and at a good price. I look forward to it settling in and putting out some flowers in the near future. There are several new growths already coming, so it looks like it will be a good grower!

Third we have Baptistonia echinata. Back when I used to do some selling in my own right, this was one species I used to stock myself. Pity I didn't think to keep one, but such is life. This is a miniature species that produces a frankly amazing amount of flowers considering the size of the plant. Also known (apparently) as the Bumblebee orchid (who the hell by?), Baptistonia echinata has spikes of yellow flowers which often do not open fully but are very beautiful nonetheless.

Believe it or not, this is an adult plant. The flower count will increase with time, but for now I look forward to the flowers it has opening. This may well be a candidate for growing mounted rather than in a pot so the flower spikes can hang down naturally (there is a plan coming together regarding mounted plants; watch this space!)

Fourth,  we have Psychopsis mariposa 'green valley'. Psychopsis have a (not entirely unjustified) reputation as being difficult to grow. I have lost several of these in the past, but I feel that my growing conditions now match quite closely what they want so I have a better chance now of succeeding than at any other time. I do have another cultivar of P. mariposa in my collection which seems to be growing both a new shoot and new roots, so I am hopeful. The new plant is fully grown and bears three flower spikes so I won't have to wait long for flowers. With Psychopsis, one shouldn't remove flower spikes as they can continue to bloom on and off for a number of years. Obviously this makes repotting rather difficult, so it should be done very infrequently. I am hoping to get hold of a bag of Orchidata bark in the near future, so once its done it should be good for several years.

I have to say it has been my experience with orchids that even the ones that are said to resent being repotted won't be a problem provided you disturb the roots as little as possible while changing the growing medium and you make sure you do the job at the appropriate time. If you time it so the roots have just started to grow and don't break roots as you remove the old growing medium (or just 'drop on' if there is a solid mass of roots) then the plant will grow away fine. Hopefully this will hold true with Psychopsis, too. For this genus the plants hate stale growing medium so it is very important that you use good quality orchid bark with no 'fines'.

Lastly, we have Coelogyne trinervis. This is a new species on me, but as it is a warm grower it should do OK in my conditions. From what I can gather, although it isn't the most glamorous species in the genus, it is quite variable with several colour forms out there. What form my new plant is, I haven't the faintest idea, so I look forward to finding out.

Notice from the photo that the plant has three growing points. Flowers should be produced from these before the leaves fully unfurl, so hopefully flowers shouldn't be far away.