Utah Orchid Society Spring Show

Portagrow exhibit at Red Butte Gardens

We had the opportunity recently to take our Portagrow Indoor Growing Environment exhibit on the road to the Utah Orchid Society's Spring Show at the Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake City.  We had a great time at the show and felt very welcomed by the Utah members we met there.  A big thank you to Sean Quealy with the UOS, for all his assistance in making this show a success for us.  We got a lot of positive feedback from the people who saw our exhibit in Utah, and sold several growing stands and greenhouses during the show.  We also saw some beautiful plants, and, much like the Fall show in Denver, we met some great photographers and were able to persuade them to let us share their photos with you on our blog.

Portagrow exhibit at Denver Spring Show

Since we didn't have a chance to tell you about the Spring Show for the Denver Orchid Society, we will combine some words and pics about both on this blog.  The Denver show was held at Paulino's Gardens, and there were some truly memorable plants exhibited there.  Unfortunately you only get to see our amateur photography of the Denver exhibits.

Phrag. "China Dragon"

Epicat "Rene Marquez" "Flame Thrower"

Incredible colors

Elegant shapes

What a beauty!

Cattleya "Beautiful Sunset"

View from Red Butte Gardens

 The Utah show was held in the stunning Red Butte Gardens, a beautiful glass pavilion with incredible views of the mountains and a really wonderful place to spend a weekend in Salt Lake City.  We took a few minutes to walk around the outdoor gardens at Red Butte before the show, and although little was in bloom yet, it was still very evident that this is a spectacular botanic garden.  There was one area with thousands of beautiful yellow, purple and pale blue/white tiny flowers blooming, and only after we got very close could we see that they were all tiny miniature iris!  Each flower was about the size of a nickel.  They were really 
wonderful.

Small daffodils with tiny iris

Tiny yellow Iris

Tiny silver white iris

Tiny purple iris

We met a couple of wonderful photographers at the Utah show who have kindly agreed to share their work.  Jill Spriggs has an eye for the wonders of the macro lens especially when applied to Phaphs and Phrags.  She writes a facinating blog about all things floral at http://jillthinksdifferent.blogspot.com.
You can also reach her about her photographs at  jillspriggs@gmail.com.

Doug Johnson's photos have a wonderful abstract quality to them that many of us, who are fascinated by the wonder of orchid structures and colors, appreciate.   Thanks to both Doug and Jill for sharing their work.

A time to spike!

This season I've tried to pay particular attention to the advice of other orchid growers, both personal acquaintances, and those who post on Internet forums and websites about how to fertilize, water and care for specific types of orchids.  Taking care to treat each species the way it prefers to be treated.  In the past I've always grouped many different types of orchids together and hoped for the best but this year I wanted to see if it made a difference.  Guess what; it has.  

In my own indoor greenhouses I've tried to create micro climates for the different types of plants that I have.  I have a warm, temperate greenhouse, and a cooler less humid greenhouse.  The warm greenhouse uses the HDS system to create extra humidity and stays at about 70% with a temperature range from a low of 62 at night and 75 during the day while the cooler greenhouse relies on the humidity created by transpiration and standing water in the Humidi-Grow trays.  It stays at about 45% humidity with a temperature range from a low of about 58 at night to a high of 70 during the day.  The plants that I keep in the warm greenhouse consist of Cattleya, Oncidium, Zygopedilum, Dendrobium, Epidendrum, Brassia, Vanda, Miltonias, and a few assorted species orchids.  I have them arranged by light needs as well as day time temperature preferences which is achieved by placing them on the correct tier of the grow stands.  In the cooler greenhouse I keep the Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedilums, and the Odontoglossums.  

I also keep several of my Phals growing in southeastern windows where the night time temperatures can drop into the high 50's.  I have been fertilizing them all with quarter strength fertilizer that has a high nitrogen content about once a month and watering just a bit more than usual.  I'm typically a low water orchid grower, erring on the side of "less water is better".

  

The result of all this extra effort and specific care has started to pay off.   The majority of my orchids have spiked in the last two months and have some of the most healthy spikes they've had in years.  At least 3/4 of my phals have spiked, some that haven't bloomed for a couple of years.  My most difficult Miltonia has four spikes on it.  An Oncidium I've been nursing for many years has it's first spike since I brought it home, and many of my Cattleya's have sheaths on them.  A miniature Vanda has already started blooming and I'm anticipating that the Brassia's and Epidendrum will all spike in the next month or so.  

So, it has been an interesting few months here at Portagrow, not only with the beginning, and continued sales of our products but also with continued experimenting with my own orchids and their environments.  It should be an exciting spring as our house fills with the beautiful splashes of color our orchids provide.