Orchid Borealis

According to IOSPE page ( link ), this species is from Ecuador on a volcano at elevations of 1500 to 2000m.  It was originally described as Maxillaria volcanica .  I got this from Mundiflora in October 2015.  It quickly established and started to grow immediately, and it has been flowering for 3 months or so, and the number of flowers are gradually increasing.  I couldn't find any information about the culture of this species, so I contacted Marni Turkel .  She has been always helpful and kindly got information about this species from her friend, Dan Newman of Hanging Gardens , who has seen the natural habitat of this species, and has been growing it for more than 15 years.  Dan gave me a detailed description.  Thank you, Dan!  His winter minimum temp is around 13C (55F), and mentioned that it seems to be ok with higher or lower temperature.  Indeed, I'm growing at lower temperature; the temperature stays constant at 20C (68F) during the day and at 10C (50F) during the night

I got a surprise when I came back from a long family vacation in Miami and Florida Keys.  Blooming  Masdevallia racemosa !   It was the biggest vacation for our family since our son, Taiga, was born 4 years ago.  Even though daily high was 86F in Miami, it was a bit too hot for us accustomed to Alaska.  We still enjoyed sun, ocean, beach, zoo, and other things which were first for Taiga.  We did lots of shell collection, and we also chased lots of exotic insects, lizards, fish, invertebrates with small nets.  Little Taiga is quite a biologist just like his parents!  The vacation included my first visit to the Redland International Orchid Festival .  It was great, but I feel a bit guilty of buying so many orchids.  I'm mostly done with potting/mounting, but it was a lot of work!  It would be great if I can write more about the vacation in the future post, but it could take a bit of time to organize all of the photos. Masdevallia racemosa is native to high altitude (2800-3900m)

I got this as  Gastrochilus obliquus TW-2087 from Louisiana Orchid Connection.  It was blooming around January 1, 2016, but this is another one I forgot to post.  It seems to be a steady grower and bloomer in an intermediate condition.  Since the flowers are below the leaves, it is kind of difficult to get nice photos. By comparing with other photos, I noticed that mine seems to have less red coloration at the base of the column.

This was flowering around January 1, 2016.  I have forgotten to post it.  I got it from Florália .  It came as Cattleya nobilior coerulea x coerulense.  It tried to flower a couple times, but they blasted.  I moved to warmer grow tent, and I finally get to see the flowers.