Macro fun for V-Day

Our Ceropegia woodii (string-of-hearts vine) is currently flowering. This somewhat succulent creeper has very unusual looking flowers. It's a rather amusing coincidence that the string of hearts is blooming for V-Day...!

Hairy Ceropegia woodii flower
Click for larger image

Creepy Hairs!

The flowers are unusual tubular structures, topped with hairy spires. It's experienced a surge in growth lately, mainly due, I think, to being loved a lot more (i.e. getting more regular waterings). Just to add to the V-Day theme, this plant is being trained around a wire heart...

Not forgetting this is Orchids on a Balcony, here's a close up of a flower from our Zygopetalum James Strauss:

Zygopetalum James Strauss 1:1 macro

Re-shuffle, Re-plant, Re-decorate...

After getting a light meter, we've started some re-organising at OOAB, as I don't feel some of the plants are getting enough light. We also did some fairly major re-potting to our little succulent collection over the weekend, as several were straining their pots or otherwise looking sad. Here are some pictures of the results quickly snapped this morning, and a closer look at some of the plants.

"Shadecloth" (net curtain) added, we moved (L-R)
Cymbidium 2328 (Annie Kelly 'New Horizon' x Enzan Shining 'Geyserland')
Dendrobium kingianum
Laeliocattleya Tropical Treat C0341
Slc. Kararizi Dawn 'Red Star'
Also: payday and big queue for bank (in the street)!

I'm also thinking the Ascocentrum and Rhyncostylis might like to move closer to the light, and perhaps some of the other light-lovers - but we need more space there... Will have to Build Something! This side (pic above) of the balcony gets an hour or two of direct sunlight in the afternoon; we added some net curtain to help diffuse this a bit.

As a result of the move,
the "orchid shelf" is looking a little more barren
(also the Oncidium is currently on quarantine in the bathtub,
until I'm sure the black fly are dead).

In non-orchid news (bear with me, Orchidophiles!)...

On a trip around Sunnyside Garden Centre in Grahamstown (main purpose: obtain sand for making potting mix and new larger planters for succulents), we found some bags of fluorite/calcite stones at the bargain price of R30 each. These have now been artfully arranged around the succulent collection, which gets several hours of morning sun. Kind of hard to see in the picture, but I'm assured it looks Awesome. Will have to play with the lighting sometime to see if it can be rendered so on camera! As with pretty much all the photos on the blog, clicking on the picture will take you to a larger size so you can see what's going on.

Lots 'o Rocks (and plants).

Repotted succulents
Transplanted succulent seedlings (bonsai pot rear left)
New succulent seeds (under glass)

Not sure what this is, but I like the leaves a lot.
Has been flourishing since moving into this pot a few months ago.

Fockea edulis
This little plant had filled it's tiny old pot right up.
Time for more space!

Four of the baobab seedlings, coming along nicely.

First baobab to sprout, in supplied bonsai pot, new leaves opening.

Our African violet has come into bloom again, yay!
I imagine it's enjoying all the humidity it gets now.

One of our 2 Tillandsia caput-medusae bulbosa.
I'd like to find some bark or similar to mount them on.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...!

The three Disa bivalvata we unflasked a few weeks back seem to be doing OK; here's an updated picture from this morning:

Disa bivalvata community pot

And one of our Paphiopedilum is about to open a new flower:

Paphiopedilum Onyx