Vanilla extract!

I found a thread late last year on OrchidGeeks about making your own vanilla extract.  I never realized this could be done, but after reading the thread, I realized how ridiculously simple it is.

So fast forward a few months, and here's my attempt!

I highly recommend VanillaProductsUSA, the beans were super cheap and their shipping was fast.  Their recipe calls for more beans in less vodka and with a shorter wait time, but I decided to go with less beans but a longer brew.  I plan to make up some bottles of this for Christmas this year, so this stuff has plenty of time to....mature?  I have no idea what to call it.

And here's all the beans chopped up and dumped in the bottle.  The vodka started to turn color almost immediately, so that's a good sign!  Bad news is I had little black vanilla seeds all over EVERYTHING as I was chopping up the beans.  Good news is it made my whole house smell like vanilla :)

Now blooming: Phal. equestris (rosea x aurea)

I hate this flower.

Don't get me wrong, I like pelorics and everything. But it ruined an awesome flower in my opinion. I mean, the lip(s) are RED. I don't think I've seen a red-lipped equestris before. Hopefully that comes across in the picture...if it doesn't, trust me, it's an interesting shade of red/maroon. But it also seems to have some flower growth/retaining issues...it has blasted all buds except this one so far, and each node of the spike grows a large leaf-like protrusion, giving the spike a very strange appearance. This is a first-bloom seedling, and it's flowering very small, so I'm hoping all the struggles from it right now are just because it's a first bloom and will be better next time.

There's also no pollinia. I suppose that means its sterile? It looks like a genetic mess to me so I doubt I'd ever try to breed with it, but it would be nice if the possibility was there. *shrug*

AAAARRRGGHHH!!!!!

Yep, you guessed it....that's what's left of the buds on my Rlc. Seto Rainbow.  They got THAT far along before blasting this time.  Completely and absolutely frustrating.  I came home from vacation to find them like this.  I don't know whether to blame it on being gone for a week, or just the nature of the plant itself.  Either way, there will be no blooms on this plant for a while.  Sadness.

Mystery growth: Angcm. distichum

If this is a bud, it's gonna bloom out of season.  This one bloomed in October last year, so July is a stretch.  I've been having a lot of that this year and I have no idea why.  Seems too high up on the plant to be a new growth.  *shrug*  Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

In bud: Rlc. Satoru Toshima 'Lake View'

Been waiting all year for this one :)

Last year when this one bloomed, there was only one single flower, but it was SEVEN INCHES ACROSS.  It was absolutely massive.  I will always have a soft spot in my heart for these big huge floofy cattleyas, even though I don't have the room to grow the really big ones.  This is the largest orchid I have, and it's bordering on getting too big.  But you can't argue with 7-inch flowers.

There are two sheaths with 2 buds each.  Getting pics of the flowers might end up being quite a challenge, as both sheaths are on the same side of the plant and face each other.  We'll have to see how they grow, but I'm pretty sure decent pics will be out of the question.  Oh well.  And with 4 buds coming in, I doubt I'll see 7-inch flowers this time either.  More flowers = smaller.

Nothing wrong with the color balance on your monitor, either.  The leaves of new growths on this plant come in very very very red (flash made it a bit pink).  The inside of the sheath was a pale yellow, while the outside was the same red color as the leaves.  The only green here was on the developing buds :)

Rob's Kitten Caboodle and NoID #2 (finally!)

Here's Rob's Kitten Caboodle (or maybe it's Kaboodle, I have no idea).  Got this one a year ago at the AV show, mostly for its variegated foliage.  This one can't make up its mind if it wants to variegate or not, but right now it seems to be happy with light foliage.  Flowers are a cute light blue/purple bell-shaped with slightly ruffled edges.

And finally, here's a bloom from number 2 of my original batch of discarded-leaf NoIDs.  No idea why this one took so long to bloom.  Of course, I can't make a definitive ID without a tag, but there's a good chance this one is Optimara Rita.