Not an orchid nor an AV....it's my first bonsai!

Trying something completely new!  I've never had a bonsai and was always afraid of trying one because they seemed like a lot of work, etc.

But hey, you only live once, right?  So I read up on them a bit, then just happened to wander into a semi-local nursery just after they'd gotten a whole huge shipment of super-healthy pre-bonsai of all types.  I couldn't resist.

I picked this one out, a Shimpaku Juniper, as it had the best 'character' in the trunk of all the junipers there.  I plan to give it a bigger/stronger bend in the future.  I grossly underestimated the size of wire I'd need for this trunk (it's thicker than I thought it was!), so now I have to wait on bigger wire, ha!

I gave it its first rough hack today.  Cut off two main branches and several smaller ones.  I will refine the shape and whatnot when I repot and wire it later.  I don't have a concave cutter yet, so there are branch knobs still.

I will update with pics as it progresses.  I understand this is one of the slower growing types, so don't expect frequent updates, lol!

In spike: Phal. bellina #1 and Neo. falcata

First up, one of my two Phal. bellina (this is the largest of the two, so it is by default called #1).  Yet another of my $4 Oak Hill seedlings that is finally maturing.  This one put out a spike last summer (you can see it below the one with the arrow), but it stalled for some reason and never got any bigger than this.  This year's spike is going much more according to plan:

Next is my Neo. (I refuse to call it Vanda) falcata.  Never thought I'd be able to bloom this.  Picked this and a Neostylis up last year at the spring show, figuring I would kill it like I have other small vandaceous plants in the past.  After blooming last year (in spike when I bought it), it put out what I thought would become a new fan...3 or 4 spotted pointy growths in a cluster; looked just like a tiny new fan emerging.  It stopped growing, so I gave up on it.  Then, a couple weeks ago, I looked the plant over and saw the "new fan" was growing again....yay!  Except it turned into a bloom spike instead!  It's now got a second "new fan/spike" just peeking out of the opposite side of the plant...I guess we'll have to wait and see what it turns into!

Now blooming: Phal. Mayamar

Oops, I guess I forgot to post this one!  It's been blooming for a couple weeks now, and I could've swore I posted the pics up here, but I must not have.  Anyway, here they are.

I love this flower.  I have a thing for waxy red phals.  This one is a solid color when viewed normally, but has spots and bars when backlit.  A white and black background for comparison:

Teaser!

Not much happening lately, so I ordered some more plants to make something happen!  Official pics will be coming later, but here's a teaser of what I got:

Now blooming: Phal. pulcherrima var. champornensis

Pleasantly surprised by this one.  I much prefer this color form over the pink-base-with-yellow-flares version.  Tried to cross this with my open cornu-cervi and make Phal. Summer Red using this color form, but the cross didn't take (quite possibly because I really wasn't sure what I was doing).  But there's more cornu-cervi flowers coming in soon, so I'll try again.  I think it might make an interesting cross.

Now blooming: Rlc. Satoru Toshima 'Lake View'

Here it is!  The ginormo catt.  It blasted one of its 4 buds, but the others are open/opening just fine.  Not as large as last time, just as I figured, but these two aren't half bad :)

I was worried about a poor presentation, with the buds being so close together, but these straightened themselves out well.

And of course, here's a pic with a (horribly blurry and crooked) ruler.  Natural spread of just over 5.5", full spread of at least 6", possibly 7" if you stretched 'em.