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Hello everyone! I obtained some interesting orchids during the last months, so I thought I'd start my topic to share some pictures. I grow most of them in my highland terrarium, and a few in my lowland terrarium. Here are my "orchids balconies" in the highland terrarium: As you might remember from my other post, I have a Masdevallia princeps. This one is flowering since early March!!! You can see the receptacle where the former flowers were attached. There are 2 floral hamps, producing flowers alternatively. I just love it! And here is the first real miniature flowering: Masdevallia herradurae.

Hi all, I thought I would share my orchids with you! I've not got many but my collection is growing. A phaleanopsis I'm waiting to bloom again. Miniature phalaenopsis. A Mother's Day present from my little boy. BLC Petch Siam A miltoniopsis I got this week. Young cattleya orchids, fresh out of the flask last night! I hope you like them.

The flower opened today:

Hi everyone, I just wanted to share a few pics of my Masdevallia princeps that is flowering now in my highland terrarium. I just love it!

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, two years ago I bought a couple of Masdevallia ignea. I was asked to paint a watercolour for my mother´s school friend who became 60 in 2011. Orange flowers and green leaves would be fine she told me. I wouldn´t be Andreas Eils if I wouldn´t find something SPECIAL to paint! I was remembering a Masdevallia flower in an old catalogue of an orchid nursery I kept. The picture was labelled as Masdevallia militaris. I did a Google search and found out that Masdevallia militaris obviously wasn´t a valid name anymore and the item in search is in fact called Masdevallia ignea. I was totally fascinated by this glowing orange-red flower and decided to buy such a plant. I never grew Masdevallias before but knew the montane species from South America need cool conditions. So, why not growing the Masdevallia together with my highland Neps? Said and done. A couple of months later I got a visit of an orchid expert. He predicted to me it would be nearly impossible to keep a montane Masdevallia in a terrarium and the plants would be most likely dead after about six months! Well, he is proven wrong...hehehehe... In fact the plants grew vigorously but sadly no flower bud appeared last year. I was told M. ignea would be hard to get to flower. So, I slowly faced up to my plants would most likely never flower. THEN CAME spring 2013.... This flower show compensates for all misery I suffered with my plants in the last time! with some back light :) The whole plant is looking like this: I´ve counted 13 flower scapes (in this picture you can only see 12, I believe). 13!!!!!!! As you can see I grow this plant on a piece of cork and a thin moss layer (not sphagnum!). Growing it in a pot doesn´t work for me as the roots stay moist for too long. This eventually results in root rotting. The tank is ventilated by a mini fan every 30 min for 30 min. :o) Finally the second plant has also produced a flower - only a single one unfortunately. The sepals (not petals, those are tiny and hidden in between the sepals in the center of the flower) are narrower and a little redder than those of the first plant. The third plant doesn´t flower and I think that one isn´t a Masdevallia ignea as its leaves are narrower and longer than the ones of the two flowering plants. Well, I am not sure if my flowering plants are truely M. ignea at all. I have heard stories about only a few selected nurseries sell the "real thing" and everything else would be hybrids... And my specimens don´t origin from such special orchid nurseries. I don´t mind I love the flowers of my plants! ;-) I hope, you also do! Cheers Andreas

Hello my dear, I hope you´ve all had nice Christmas days and gifts. To my very surprise one of my orchids sent out flower buds for Christmas and the first one opened just in time! I´ve been at my parents over the holidays and when I´ve come back yesterday the second flower has been open. I´ve taken the digital cam of my stepfather and made some snapshots. This is a Restrepia orchid and according to the information the donator has given me it could be a Restrepia falkenbergii or a hybrid with R. falkenbergii as one ancestor. Comparisons with other R. falkenbergii flower pictures on the web suggest that my specimen is most likely a hybrid. The "tongue" of my flowers look significantly different to that one of the other "Falkenbergiis" I´ve seen. Well, in the end the flower looks like an ALIEN anyway, doesn´t it? More flowers to come as you might detect. =D Not bad, is it? Bye Andreas