Lovely plant and photos ...

The first time I see Yukako plant I like - nice shaped and beautiful flowers. Usually it's like you said "the leaves went every which way". And very good photos! Thank you for sharing!

Polina.

Very pretty

Thank you for having me. Everyone is giving me a very warm welcome.

Awwww. ;) If it interests you, I have uploaded a ton of photos to my idea books. I have one for African Violets, one for Streptocarpus, and so forth. I add a few now and then as I remember but if you like my photography, you are welcome to go and see them. I have far, far more plants than I can possibly have time to upload photos of so these are only some of what I grow.

The more of your pics I see, the more I want all these plants you have even though I probably couldn't make them look as nice as your specimens. :)

Yes you can. You can ask Hyn how.

We can go the way of hoarding - or learning how to grow them to the specimen level. Really well grown plant will knock the socks of friends and family - even it is a humble Optimara.

Interesting flower .... color pattern reminds me of some petunias. :)

Right. Those petunias you are thinking of are also chimeric, usually. And they are sold for a lot more than usual due to the slower propagation methods required to produce them. I'm not sure that all of them are chimeras however. Just like with African violets, some color patterns can mimic chimera traits. In AV's such an example would include a number of the bi-colored Optimaras. I am fortunate that I live near to the UGA test gardens in Athens where I can go and ask questions about things like the new petunia releases.

I have Yukako too, and recently re-started the crown. Hyn, your albums are great. I have an orchid album too and recently switched them to water culture. They are doing great with it.

Orchids on hydroponic culture? I'd be curious what sort of orchids. I find it hard to imagine phals and cattleya thriving on water culture, but there are a lot of 'wet' orchids too.

Mine are phals, they have just the bottom tips of the roots in water in a glass vase, so most of the plant stays dry. They love it. You can search it on youtube and there is lots of info. I have several pictures on my profile page. Another method is called semi-water culture and the roots are immersed in water for two days, then completely dry for five days.

Interesting. The reason I am curious is that all of my plants are set up so I could easily leave for a week and not worry about their watering. Maybe even two weeks without worrying too much that I'd loose much while I was away. Except for my orchids. They are the ones that would worry me and my only solution so far would be to bag them up into clear plastic bags to form humid mini greenhouses. So, it is additional food for thought and research, thanks. I'll stick my nose into it.

Have fun watching the youtube videos and pm me about it if you would like to.

All right, so that would be a wicking system for orchids basically using expanded ceramic ball non-vitrified porous media like LECA? There's also a much cheaper version called Zoo Med Hydroballs for a fraction of the price. Apparently PetSmart sells it so I may go pick up a bag on Monday when we're going to town, and give it a try with a mini phal.

For water culture there is no wicking system, just water. My one picture shows some pebbles in the bottom of one of the vases, but that is just for weight since that vase is plastic. Maybe pm me since this isn't about AVs?

Interesting about the petunias ... I didn't know that those so patterned were chimeric.

Regarding orchids: you may also be interested in investigating semihydroponics (often just referred to as "semi-hydro"). I've known folks who've had great success growing all sorts of orchids that way ....including phals and catts.

Regarding Primagra/Hydroton/LECA/puffed clay aggregates: Seem to recall there being some downsides to the ones like ZooMed's but can't recall what. Have seen this type of product at orchid shows and hydroponics stores .... think I may have even seen it occasionally at BBSs.

Yes, I can PM you, Perle de or and I'd love to see some photos of your orchids using this system. I'll be working on some research before I go investing anything in the media so there's no rush.

Paul, yes, most of them but not all. I remember a purple and white that was very popular some years ago that isn't a chimera and is really pretty and cheap. The color is also very clean. But a lot of the very recent introductions of similar type are such as a deep red and pale yellow-green stripe that everyone has been planting around here in high end places. So I find it interesting because normally you can't reproduce chimeras very well using tissue culture. So I assume that's a whole lot of cutting production.

Yes, it's my cattleya that concern me the most. I have a number of them including several community pots full of babies that currently require daily misting. I think I will move them to a dome and see if they like that better. Maybe it's a thread we should get going on the orchid board so we can discuss it and post photos, get others involved in.

I did add a couple of photos to my orchid ideabook.

Thanks! I'll have a look.