Its an infracta. It appears to be growing something green at the tip of 2 previously bloomed spikes; inside the spent "sheath". Have a couple of new spikes that haven't bloomed yet so this plant is still in a bloom cycle. Its the strangest thing I've ever seen. Have many masdes but never saw that. I agree. I don't cut spikes until they are brown, even then, I only trim. I like to know what has bloomed previously. Its often hard to tell with masdes My masdes have been outside until the heat wave hit. Wondering if the temp change triggered some odd behaviour. (?) I have been running this plant a little dryer than I normally do. I don't grow masdes in bark, but ran out of my preferred media and then it went into spike. Trying to get a pic but my camera is not cooperating on the macro setting. Going to post this question seperately. Can this be a kei kei? I though only dens and phals produced kei keis Clara

Kevin. Ok when your back from the paint... LOL. Whatcha painting? I didn't go to church this morning. "Carla" went to church and I wrote ;-) Not a challenge but rather fuel for debate to sort it out! That's the forum,. Interesting to learn & better than an oncid. stake in the eye on a Sunday afternoon :-) "I would assume it's rather balanced, but since there's more rain at certain times of the year more nutrients are available at certain times of the year." That's my POV and question for the forum. I think they change due to those very factors at certian times a year. I am not a Geologist. Studied Pharmacology on a graduate level. Still way out of my range to know the molecular specifics (or to really care to know). When I can't get the gunk off in the car wash at certain times of the year something has changed. Maybe a tree sapping, maybe salt/minerals, maybe both or something else?? But there is some kind of change. Does it contribute to nutrient balance? I imagine it could. Just like you can smell Fall coming, people who live is sub-tropical climates are attuned to other changes. (Like car gunk and mouthfuls of salty air) The earth is a big chemistry lab. It goes through seasonal cycles. For orchids we are talking micro nutrients. There has to be some reason why High P and High N Ferts are offered and recommended at certain times in a cycle? I suppose that's my really question besides when is why? Not sure about what you mean about ambient moisture? I don't think that RH has a whole lot to do with nutrition. (Did I catch your meaning right?) There are months in Miami where there is low RH, Jan, Feb March. Feels normal, like Chicago in Spring, believe it or not. There is only some much folar feeding that can go on. After that, the plant just starts to rot, just like they do in our homes when we mist at them too much or it rains too much. Saw that a lot in Florida. Scrappy wild 'chids. Besides wild-life munching away, there is rot in situ. They ALL need "re-pots", Physan and Safer's :-). If you live on the coast, the car gets a fine coat of ocean salt. Is it something orchids need? Probably not. They just get a little crusty and need a hosing if the air becomes still. I was careful not to say "everything". But the earth is connected. The currents of the oceans, those earth cycles, play a large role in weather. Weather and seasonality may have a role in dictating nutrients. When snow is released into the water supply there is certainly nutrients that have been locked away and are now available? Hurricanes and Monsoons screw up the drinking water. The water supply in my city gets an adjustment after a particularly bad winter. Global issues affect the entire planet, not just the source...Right? Is that your area Kev? If so, SOS please Pleuro's nutritional needs are not as demanding as other species. Their location could be dictating that? Its very stable, compared to a FL Encyclia. But it's still is not the misty sauna that you might imagine at certain times of the year just like Miami isn't, but that is relative when you live in a place like that. 30 or 40%% humdity is low RH. Medellin Colombia's weather can be similar to Ca. It is "La ciudad de las flores"! General fert.is fine. I've used it. I don't have it right now. When I go to the sink, I have no idea what to "cook" for them. This is one of those times. I am like everyone else. I have limts with the orchids and what I am going to concoct. I don't cook individually for 200 people. But I will give them something they like from the menu, en masse. If I didn't have the orchid hospital, there would be 1 kind of fert. being used at certain times of year. But then again, I use high N on them because they need vegitative growth and the others don't. My goal is not to flower them yet. See where I am getting confused? I would like flowers for the holidays from the healthy ones. Would be nice to understand when, who and why :-) Let me know what your 'second coat" thoughts Clara Should have gone to Church with "Carla"

You can purchase wave petunia seeds from many online and paper catalogs. I've not seen the sweet potato vines from seeds, don't think you can get it "that way" as they are tubers. I love them too and here is my stategy: Early in the Spring I buy one of each color I want at the garden center. I try to find really robust, full ones, but still in small pots so they are cheaper (even these go for $4 a pot here). Then I take them home and make cuttings, dipping the cut ends in rooting hormone. These cuttings are placed in a homemade propagation box. Just a clear sweater box, filled with damp promix with a porous clay pot full of water in the middle. This pot then keeps the soil moist. I bury the cut, hormone dipped end in the soil and a leaf or two sticks out above. I place the box in an indirect light (sunny but not hot)on a table near a window in my den. In a week or so roots start to form, in 2 weeks they are ready to pot up as small plants and grow on (inside, till its warm enough to go out). I can't remember exactly WHEN I do this, but it's not till at least Mothers day I don't think!

If a rose has smaller leaves than you expect, and smaller blooms than you expect, which fry immediately, I would suggest it is getting too much hot sun. Of course, we still don't know which of the 6 Rubens the OP was talking about, because that question was never answered. However, if I take a guess that it was the old tea rose, it could be too much hot sun. I just moved a tea rose whose blooms were 1/2 to 1/3rd the size they "should be", and which fried fairly fast. Also the leaves were extra small. I have another bush of the same rose which is growing in full shade. It has amazingly lovely huge full blooms, which change color & last a long time. However, in full shade it is a once bloomer. The one which was in full sun was a repeat bloomer. So, we moved that one into where it gets morning sun until about noon, and then afternoon high shade from a tree. I am hoping that that combination of sun and shade will result in a repeat blooming bush with large blooms. Will let you know how that works out. Jackie