Early Birthday Present :D

Yesterday I received an early birthday present from my lovely girlfriend - 4 lovely miniature orchids from Inhle Orchids, which were already unpacked by the time I was told to come home and look at my present. Apparently, the plants were wrapped in bubble wrap and placed inside a box; they seem to have come through fairly well. Interestingly, Inhle shipped them before even being paid - very unusual in South Africa! All are new genera to the OOAB collection. Yay diversity! So, without further ado:

Bulbophyllum laxiflorum
IOSPE

Bulbophyllum purpurascens
IOSPE

Pleurothallis palliolata
IOSPE

Restrepia trichoglossa
IOSPE

Can hardly wait for them all to get around to flowering!

The first two (as you can clearly see!) came mounted on little bark chunks, whilst the two Pleurothallid Alliance plants had sphagnum moss around their roots; I kept that intact and packed some more moss around the roots.

Sadly, it looks like my big bucket 'o moss (a 5l water jug with the top hacked off) has attracted what I think are fungus gnats (arghh!). The little swines are all over the place. Will have to do something about them, as I have an aversion to small insects flying around my collection! Bacillus thuringiensis ssp. israelensis is apparently a good biological control. Of course, getting hold of such things around here is an epic pain. I have yet to find a supplier of any biological controls in .za (at least, any that respond to my email).