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Orchid ID: Phalaenopsis Karen Annie (phalaenopsis hieroglyphica x mariae)

As many of you have noticed on my YouTube channel, I'm not the biggest for phalaenopsis. Don't get me wrong, I like them. I like how long the flowers last for, how big they can be, how much variation you can find in the big shops. I love all that, but they lost the wow effect for me long ago.

Beyond that I'm, as I said, not the biggest - except probably a few very striking types which are so beautiful I can't contain myself.

Then come the exceptions, rarely I find a phalaenopsis which I really like; and when I say rarely it's almost like once in a year. Or, a few at the same time and then for months and months I won't find anything even remarkably worth attention.



However, recently I came accros this beauty, Phalaenopsis Karen Annie, a child of the beautiful phalaenopsis hieroglyphica (one of the phals I want) and not so much beautiful but still interesting phalaenopsis mariae.

And what I find mostly striking about this one is that the flowers are in a constant process of change, from the beginning when they are brown-orange dark with the dark markings and a violet lip to the end when they are almost vanilla white. They remind me so much of a summer style plant, that just changes colors in preparation to winter. Paph. hieroglyphica commited to the lovely shape and hieroglyph style markings and it's fragrance, and Paph. mariae which can put on a stunning show of dozens of flowers passed this feature, together with it's burgundy markings and also fragrance.
Both parents are vigorous and the child is like a plant on bloom and grow boosters day and night!.






However, the orchid tends to be on the larger side and can quickly grow to a specimen size. But in my opinion it's perfectly fine to spare some room for it to be rewarded with garlands of beautiful and highly fragrant flowers! And the additional plus it's a sequential bloomer therefore the flowers will keep blooming and showing up on the old spikes, so do not cut them off. Especially that the spikes will grow year after year creating a huge impressive display.




Phalaenopsis Karen Annie is a intermediate to warm growing phal, which likes warmer temperatures and a good flushing with water every week. Feeding is also advised often during the bloom period and often during growth period just to give it that extra energy.



It's a quite hard to get one, so you will do best on Ebay and German nurseries. They usually have everything.



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Some pictures presented in this article may not belong to me and are a property of their respectable owners.
 

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