The New Year

Happy New Year to everyone!

I spent much time in the greenhouse over the Christmas season tending to some new flower spikes and adjusting the irrigation system. Some of my Polystachyas have started to flower now and I was fortunate to see the first flowering of my P. transvaalensis which was given to me about a year ago by a colleague who rescued it from a fallen branch from a tree on his farm in the Limpopo Province. I have many seedlings of this species coming through now too from Seeds given to me by Casper. I am just not quite sure what I will be doing with all of them in the future as I don't think they are a particularly appealing species. Maybe a few collectors will be interested but I will have to see. My P. ottoniana is also just starting to shoot a flowering spike. I am looking forward to hopefully setting some seeds on this one. The species is a bit tricky, although it does well in flask. It is just a bit more fussy than some of the other species when it comes to placement in the greenhouse and the amount of water it gets (it prefers to remain drier than the others). I also recently received a large P. zambesiaca from a friend of mine. The plant is in flower presently and I have pollinated a few of them to see if I can get it to set some seeds.

I have placed an order with Nollie for a few interesting species (not that I can actually remember quite now what on Earth I actually ordered!!!) - I will keep it a surprise until they arrive.

Polystachya transvaalensis

P. transvaalensis

Another flowering Polystachya in the greenhouse

Polystachya zambesiaca

Polystachya zambesiaca flowers

I have added a few pics below of a new visitor - or rather a resident in the greenhouse - a clicking stream frog which has become quite tame. He or she has made a home in one of the pots but I often see the frog in the evening moving between the plants.

The frog between the dendrobes

and visiting another pot

as tame as ever