Orchid of the day: Angraecum sesquipedale

Angraecum sesquipedale

We've featured this orchid twice in my blog before (Jan 27, 2014 and  Feb 21, 2015). I really love Angraecum sesquipedale because of its unique look and the fact that in nature, only a particular night moth can pollinate it, the Xanthopan morganii.

A) December 31st, 2015.

B) The two flower buds up close. They do resemble aliens to me...

C) Skipping 4 more weeks, the flowers had developed completely on Jan 31st, 2016.

D) The flower to the left had opened at least 2 weeks earlier. Unfortunately, the tips of the petals are browning at this time.

E) A closer picture of the flowers, contrasting the older bloom (left) to the newer bloom (upper right).

F) The length of the spur is more than 12 inches (~ 30.5 cm). The length from petal to petal is about 7 inches across (~17.8 cm).

Until the next post folks, I hope you will continue to follow my blog. We have many orchid photos to share!

Orchid of the day: Dendrobium lindleyi

Dendrobium lindleyi

Dendrobium lindleyi is one of the easiest orchids to culture if you like leaves and no flowers.  For the normal enthusiast who cares about flowers, however, it is one of the trickiest plants to bloom.  Arne acquired the lindleyi in 2007 and, as expected, it was difficult and didn’t want to produce any flowers until 2013.

During the following years Arne did exactly the same thing but no flowers appeared until December of 2015.  So what triggered the plant to suddenly start to grow a flower stem in December of all these months?  That’s the plant featured in this post.  

A)  This photograph was taken on December 31st, 2015. A relatively 'warm' winter to be outdoors.

Dendrobium lindleyi, which is native to the mountains of Southern China and Southeast Asia, loves the cooler mountainous climate. This orchid is supposed to be dormant right now.  It should suffer from cold temperatures without any water from November until February and then reward us with flowers in March to April.  With this particular plant, we have no control obviously. Unexpectedly, we had flowers bursting from the  single inflorescence! Having said all this – some people really get the culture of this plant right and can show off plants completely covered with thousands of flowers.

B) We have around 26 flowers. But others have more than a 1000 cascading flowers. Perhaps we will be fortunate in the future with this specimen.

C) An 'aerial' view of our Dendrobium lindleyi. Still in bloom today, January 10, 2016.

I hope you enjoyed this orchid. We certainly did. Until next post, have a great work week!

Orchid of the day: Laelonia Dave's Dapper Dandee

Laelonia Dave's Dapper Dandee

Our Laelonia Dave's Dapper Dandee has seven flowers this year. The seventh bud is still waiting to open but I figured, it is so beautiful and I wanted my first post for 2016 to be this orchid.

This orchid is a primary hybrid between Broughtonia negrilensis x Laelia crawshayana. The name is registered to Joseph Francis, a well known orchid grower living in Herndon, Virginia. See previous posts, November 10th  & December 15th, 2014.

A) On November 8th, the weather was warm and we could captured a photo outdoors of the extending flower stem

B) By November 29th, the flower stem kept elongating but a sure sign of buds were appearing.

C) Developing buds on November 29th.

D) December 20th. Seven buds are coming!

E) Up close.

F) January 2nd 2016. In full glory but still one more flower to open! The length of the stem is more than 60 cm (~2 feet).

G) Beautiful blooms if I say so myself.

H) Angle from below. The weather was cooperating.

Well folks, this is the first post of 2016. I hope you like it! Happy New Year. 

The year of the Monkey, my year!