LC Wakayama ‘White Wedding Song’

It bloomed two spikes each with a couple of flowers this year. The blooms only lasted around 4 weeks. Our living room has two large windows facing east and west so it is always bright and the orchid loves it.

Alocasia ‘Pink Dragon’

The bloom is quite small compared to the size of the foliage. At first I thought it was a new leaf growing, to my delight it turned to be a cute little flower. Another flower bud is growing near it, another surprise.

I keep this Alocasia ‘Pink Dragon’ indoor near a bright west facing window. It gets a lot of sunshine in the afternoon. Once in a while it gets light seaweed fertilizer.

Coelogyne lactea Orchid

I bought this orchid about 4 years ago. I just love the look of the small white flowers. It was grown in spagnum moss, so after finished flowering I split it into two and replanted them in two new pots by using orchid mix. The say that Coelogyne orchids hate to be disturbed and it will take a long time to recover. Well only recently one of them grew flowers.

Transplanting Kalanchoe Copper and Silver Spoon

My favourite Kalanchoe plants are Kalanchoe orgyalis (Copper Spoon) and K. hildebrandtii (Silver Sppon). These two plants were brought from our old place, and I just had time to transplant them in the tiny front garden in our new place.

Kalanchoe hildebrantii (Silver Spoon)

This one was still in the pot. It has been growing very well.

After transplnting:

Kalanchoe orgyalis (Copper Spoon) : After over one year left in the pot, it has grown taller and a little bit lanky. I will wait to see what is going to happen after transplanting. If it is still leggy, I have to trim it hard to promote new leaves.

Den. Speciosum var Pedunculatum ‘Genesis’

I bought this Dendrobium spesiosum var. Pedunculatum ‘Genesis’ at the Native Orchid Show in Mt. Waverley. It has 3 spikes with flowers still in buds when I bought in September 25. To my horror it started to have bud blasts, especially on the smallest spike. Not all the buds dropped, some are managed to open.

I was thinking why this is happening. Maybe, it is not used to the new place as perhaps before it was grown in a controlled temperature in the nursery?? It is supposed to be an Australian native orchid that is easy to grow here in Melbourne area.

New Dendrobium Orchids

I went to a Native Orchid Show in Mt. Waverley and bought a couple of native Dendrobium orchids.

Dendrobium Rose Flare ‘Newbold Chunky’: I love the colour of this hybrid.

Dendrobium speciosum var. Pedunculatum ‘Genesis’ : Dendrobium speciosum var. Pedunculatum is a smaller variety which is more suitable for our small garden.

Cymbidium tracyanum False Surprise

Tuesday May 22, 2012:

Looking closely at the new C. tracyanum orchid plant, I realise that it is a big and robust species. The flower spike is tall almost 1 m long with 15 large flowers. The arching leaves are also long and thick. The big bulbs have already crowded, so after flowering I will move the plant in a bigger pot. Compared with all our other cymbidiums, it is the biggest one. I just read about this plant and it is actually native species of Southern China, Northern Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar.

Other than strong perfume, the flowers are weirdly pretty. The striped petals are mixed colours of yellow, green and dark brownish red. While the spotty white lip is kind of hairy. I keep it inside the house now to fully enjoy the sweet perfume and the exotic beauty. I read that quite a few hybrids available and I am not sure which one is mine….. it could be Cymbidium tracyanum ‘ Atlantis’.

Here in Melbourne, Cymbidium tracyanum orchids are rarely available. I feel so lucky to be able to buy one.

May 2022:

Not Much Of a Garden

Our new place has a small garden at the front with a nice Dracaena tree. The back and side yards are more of blank canvases. There are an ornamental olive tree and a couple of lemon trees. Near the fence there is a clump of Alocasia, I am not so sure what variety it is, but as the leaves are ponting up, I know that it is not Colocasia. I like the large thick shiny foliage

I have no idea why some people cover their land with plastic and spread pebbles on it. For a while weeds will not grow, but eventually weeds will always win. This has become my main problem to deal with the garden. I cannot mow the weeds and they are too much to dig them up. So I trim the annoying weeds with a grass trimmer. Some of the pebbles will fly away, but they are small sizes and scorias are not heavy, they are quite light and porous. We haven’t had time nor budget to do makeover and to get rid of the problem-some layer of scoria pebbles. This method of landscaping is bad for soil, as it will get compacted and hard under the plastic layers.

Front garden is tiny, and it also has scorias on it. Among the layer of reddish brown scoria pebbles, there are scatters of small sea shells. It is quite odd to think why people put old sea shells on the ground.

I have trimmed both the lemon and the ornamental olive trees. I decided that it is an ornamental olive as it did not bear fruit after heavy flowering. I could only find a couple tiny fruits, but I like the tree. It looks nice and compact.

Alocasia. I am not so sure what kind of variety, it could be Conjevoi Lily which is native to Brisbane (Queensland area) and New South Wales.

Zygopetalum maculatum 2022

Months after moving house, finally I had time to check on my orchids. I started with the Zygopetalum maculatum. Dusty leaves needed to be cleaned and dried leaves and stems were trimmed off. To my surprise they are having flower spikes. One pot is having a couple and another one is having one.

Old Garden Statue

Another item that the vendor left is this old garden statue. An Aboriginal – an Australian Indigenous Man statue that I name Mr. Bushman. Obviously it is old as the paint was badly faded and the face was barely recognizable. It was a pity to throw away, so I repainted the statue.

Oh my… this statue is so heavy. It must weigh around 30 kg, I barely could lift it all by myself. I had to use our small cart to move it. A few coats of paint really make it different. I am glad with the result