Encyclia Serena O'Neill - April 2010

I think this plant looks more beautiful in person that it does in the photos.  I grow it in a plastic basket mounted on a tree fern fiber plaque.  It can stay outdoors in Miami all year round.  It drys out fast on its mount so needs to be watered nearly every day in April and May.  During the winter it does not like to be watered that much.  I can let it go a week or even two without water in the winter.

Phal Baldan's Geisha 'Happy Stripes'

I purchased this orchid four years ago.  At the time it was a bare root seedling.  It has bloomed twice before, but this is the first time (April 2010) that the blooms were of a good quality.  I probably could have gotten to this point quicker, but I have been experimenting with media for Phals.  This Phal has been in a plastic pot with expanded clay and charcoal.  Yes, I know.  That is a weird media for a Phal.  But the picture is the proof that it can be done.  However, I must admit I have finally accepted the inevitable and now pot my Phals in AAA New Zealand Sphagnum Moss.  It is really the only way to go if you want your plants to grow quickly, strong, and with healthy blooms.  The biggest downside to the the moss is that you will have to REPOT EVERY year right after the plant is finished blooming.

What do you grow your Phals in?

Dendrobium Aphyllum

I have at least two other posts about Dendrobium Aphyllum.  While I have been gone, my second Den. Aphyllum bloomed.  The first one has since faded.  The flowers only last about two or three weeks at most.  The photo to the left shows nearly the whole plant, giving one a much better idea of the length and growing nature of this plant.  The photos in my other post gives a much closer picture of the blooms themselves.

Den. Aphyllum is widespread in nature in Southeast Asia.  It grows in southern and eastern India, Burma, southwest China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaya, and South Andaman Island.  In the nothern hemisphere, they normally bloom anywhere between February - May, but have been known to be in bloom in nearly every other month.

These plants like light of about 2500 - 3500 footcandles.  In its natural habitat, average temperatures range from around 85 degrees during the day to around 70 degrees at night in the summer.  Winter days average around 70 degrees and average nights around 45 degrees.  Most people mount these plants on a plaque of tree fern fiber or cork.  Mine is on a plaque of tree fern fiber.  With a mount like this, the plant will need water nearly EVERY day during the summer months.

But this plant needs a long winter REST.  Once the leaves drop around October or November each year, I stop watering the plant.  Since I have it outside, it gets some moisture from dew and the occasional rain that we get during South Florida winters, but that is all.  This plant needs to be DRY during the winter in order for it to bloom the next spring.  This orchid also likes the cool winter weather we get here in South Florida and likes to get around 45 to 50 at night.  This past winter, the lowest temperature in my backyard was 34 degrees.  The plant stayed outside the whole time without any damage. 

This orchid blooms on ONLY the NEW canes each year.  Although, I have had keikis grow from some of the old canes and have some flowers on these keikis.  While they do not show in the photo, this plant already has 5 new canes starting to grow.  The blooms that are there now are on only three canes.  The more canes that grow each year, the greater the potential for an even greater display of blooms the next year.  The more mature the plant becomes, the more abundant and the beautiful the blooms.  The highest awarded plant of this species had 3,417 individual flower blooms. 

Blc Chyong Guu Chaffinch 'Ta-Hsin' X Ctna Starrlyn 'Kate'

I have not been able to find this cross on OrchidWiz.  I bought it on sale from a reputable orchid vendor in Miami-Dade but when trying to find out more information about it from them, all they could tell me is that they bought it from another vendor that had it as part of left over inventory and they were selling it cheap so it did not have to be transported back to Hawaii.  I took another bloom of this same plant to an AOS judging center and their opinion was that the plant was mislabeled.  Well, they did not really say that.  They just said that they did not think that plant was a cross of the two plants indicated.

This plant is small and the flowers are small.  It blooms three or four times each year, starting in the spring and blooming all they way through summer.  The more mature the plant gets, the more blooms appear at the end of each flower spike.  The first bloom had only one bloom. 

I grow this plant mounted horizontally on a piece of tree fern fiber plaque supported by a raft and hung by a wire hanger under my Cattleya Pergola.  I have two of these plants.  The other one has two new spikes coming out now.  They really bloom well! Whatever they are!

(Blc Lucky Man x C Netrasiri Beauty) 'Quest' AM/AOS

I have not been able to find this cross in OrchidWiz, even though the tag that came with the plant indicates that it is a cultivar that has been awarded.  Does anyone know why that would be?

I bought this plant in bloom about four years ago.  It has bloomed for me every year, but in the past it has always bloomed only once (usually in January) and it has always had one bloom from the bulb.  This season it has bloomed now for a third time with this latest bloom being a double blossom from the same bulb.  I think that fact that I have given the plant MORE light has helped the blooming.

The plant is getting very close to being specimen size.  It is currently in a 12 inch wooden basket with NO media.  It has gotten too large for my Cattleya Pergola, so it hangs under my peach tree.

When I bought this plant, I was just starting out with Cattleyas.  It is amazing I did not kill it.  At first, it was in a clay pot with a media mix of expanded clay pebbles, charcoal, and coconut husks.  While this is a popular mix, it was a disaster for a Cattleya that grows outdoors in South Florida.  If I did NOT water the plant all summer long, I could just barely keep it alive in spite of the roots trying to rot away.  When I finally moved the plant to a wooden basket with NO media, it took off.  I mounted the orchid on a wooden raft and set the raft down inside the basket.  The roots have now firmly attached themselves to the entire basket.  I think the plant has two or three more years in this basket.  At that time it will either have to be split into pieces or I will have to set this basket inside a bigger one.  What would you do?

Paphiopedilums

I do not grow very many Paphs.  The only Paphs that I have are ones that were given to me.  Below are pictures of two that I have in bloom right now.  These are very reliable bloomers.  They bloom once each year around April or May.  Any they take very little care.  I keep them indoors.  They do not like a lot of light.  They are the only orchids that I have been able to bloom indoors.  They do not require much fertilizer.  The main thing is do not let them get dry.  They tend to like their media to be on the damp side most of the time.

PAPHIOPEDILUM DELENATII ('In-Charn' X 'Cherry')

PAPHIOPEDILUM MACABRE X PAPHIOPEDILUM BLACK FLAME

Dendrobium Anosmum

Pictures below are of "first blooms" on this plant.  I purchased the plant as a seedling three years ago.  The Dendrobium Anosmum likes a cool, dry winter.  From October 2009 - March 2010, I did absolutely nothing to this plant.  It hung under my peach tree all winter long.  We had an unusually cold winter in South Florida this past year, one of the coldest since the 1940's.  The plant suffered no damage and it has good blooms with a strong fragrance.

From April - September, this orchid needs water and fertilizer.  Just be careful to not rot out the new growths.  I have this plant mounted on tree fern fiber inside a plastic basket.

For six months out of the year, this orchid is nearly CARE FREE!

Cattleya Love Castle

This cattleya is a complex hybrid with approximately 8 differenct species in its background.  These pictures were taken just after a rain.  It is hanging in a wooden basket underneath my peach tree in Miami, Florida.  This hybrid takes relatively high indirect light and does best with intermediate temperatures.  It is a little warm in South Florida for it, but as you can see it did bloom after a long winter rest.  The plant is a compact grower with small blooms.  This plant is still very small.  As the plant gets bigger, it will have multiple blooms at the same time.