Karma Forester

Welcome! My name is Karma. I live in Gothenburg Sweden and I am a certified orchidophile with a penchant for orchids of the Pleurothallid Alliance, but we don’t have an exclusive relationship...

I am also the editor for the Swedish Orchid Society magazine "Orkidéer". If you would like to contribute, or know of any interesting orchid stories or people - please send them my way!

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New baby arrivals… Dendrobium cyanocentrum f. blue

This is so exciting… and I just have to give a hug and a huge plug to a very nice orchid grower for this one. I very recently (and suddenly) lost both of my Dendrobium cyanocentrum orchids and it really, really sucks! A heartbreaking experience since I raised both plants from flask to flower [...]

Ecuador orchid flask baby report

It was finally time to repot the little seedlings I bought from Ecuagenera in flasks at the orchid show in Gothenburg 2008. Since deflasking them I have grown them intermediate/warm in a small mini-greenhouse and communal pots with sphagnum moss. It is recommended you grow all small seedlings, even cool growers, a bit warmer [...]

Exciting new orchid baby arrivals

Today I received a very nice package from a friend in France. It was a box filled with a new batch of orchid babies… All were absolutely beautiful, but I am especially excited about the Vanda coerulea alba. This is a very rare orchid, and a mature plant will set you back anywhere between [...]

Seed pod failure

It has been quite exciting to follow the development of the Prosthechea cochleata seed pod over the past few weeks. It has been swelling rather quickly and it has been a thrill to watch as it is my first pollination attempt. Then things started going wrong… The new bud forming on this years new [...]

Pollination update – week 1

One week has passed since my first pollination attempt and, impatient as I am, I feel that it is time for a status update. In the right corner we have the graceful Paphiopedilum Vinicolor and in the left corner, the faithful bloomer Prosthechea cochleata.

The P. Vinicolor flower have now started to wilt, which [...]

Flask baby report – the very first flower!!

Oh this is sooo exciting! My very first flask baby to flower – and she did it in record time! This Oerstedella centradenia came from Roellke in Germany and it was flasked out in May of 2008. That makes a trip from flask to flower of no more than 1,5 years. Impressive!

Both [...]

Project flask babies, an update

So a whole bunch of the little flask babies I ordered from Equatorial Plants last summer got to move out of the nursery this week. It was a pretty big job, but really fun to see how much the little guys have grown in about 9 months. It is almost like giving birth, well [...]

Flask babies update

Time for another update on the flask baby project. Yesterday was a big day! The first few teenagers got to move out of the community pots and into a little pot of their own today. Granted, I still placed them in sphagnum moss and keep them in a separate mini-greenhouse in pretty much the same conditions [...]

Flask baby orchids status report

The flask baby project is progressing nicely… here you see the Phalaenopsis amboinensis babies.

The UK kids from Equatorial Plants are growing slowly… oh so slowly. For some you can see clear growth, especially Cattleya schilleriana and D. cyanocentrum. Even Paph. bellatulum and Phal. amboinensis (in the picture) are looking good, some are growing [...]

Learned something new, again!

Today, I had to replant all my orchid flask babies. I learned that the aluminum baking trays I was usng for pots, when put in water on leca do not last… do not know what causes it, but the bottom is entirely “eroded”. Then of course, the moss is wicking up too much water. [...]