Orchid of the day: Paphiopedilum dianthum

Paphiopedilum dianthum

Paphiopedilum dianthum is endemic to South Eastern Yunnan, South Western Guizhou, Western Guang Xi in China and in Northern Vietnam. I've posted about this orchid on February 23rd with photos from 2006. Well these photos are brand new and fresh! The three flowers are still in bloom.

A) June 20th, three buds appearing.

B) The three buds up close. At this time, we kept the orchid in our orchidarium in the basement.

C) July 21st, 2014. As the inflorescence grew bigger, we placed the Paphiopedilum dianthum up in our study and right next to the window.

D) Two of the flowers opened leaving one bud waiting to open.

E) View of the flowers from the back.

F) July 28th, 2014. A beautiful photo of all three flowers. 

G) Today the Paphiopedilum dianthum resides next to our study window sill.

Orchid of the day: Bulbophyllum frostii

Bulbophyllum frostii (close up).

This orchid is found in Vietnam in the evergreen lowland forests. The flower size is about 1 inches or 2.5 cm. The inflorescence is short (~2 cm) with a cluster of 3-4 flowers. The common name is the Dutch shoe and this is very obvious! I love this orchid because it looks so cute! Right now we have about 9 flowers but 3 have already wilted. At least 3 more inflorescence are developing and we will have another 9 flowers soon!

A) January 29th 2014. View from above. This orchid is planted in a clay pot with moss covering the surface.

B) The beginning of one of the inflorescence.

C) Up close, the beautiful moss blanketing the top of the pot. I find the moss as beautiful as this orchid.

D) June 20th 2014. All 3 inflorescence produced 3 flowers.

E) View from above.

F) All 9 flowers were still developing at this time.

G) July 19th. Flowers opened and the 3 to the left were actually wilting.

H) See how pretty these little Dutch shoes look like.

I) A close up photo of my Dutch shoes.

I hope these photos will give you a brief introduction to this lovely orchids. 

Orchid of the day: Broughtonia sanguinea var. alba 'Karin', AM/AOS

Broughtonia sanguinea var. alba 'Karin'

After Arne's first experience at the National Aboretum in Washington DC on June 7th, where his Paphiopedilum philippinense ‘Khairul-Bariah’ got the Award of Merit from the American Orchid Society (AM/AOS), he had the courage to try again. This time he took his Broughtonia sanguinea var. alba on July 5th. He had this orchid since 2011 and mounted it on a cork piece. I forgot we had this one, so I didn't get a chance to chronicle the flowering process at all. The main reason being that he had left it growing in his laboratory! "It needed space," he said to me.

Well, this orchid received the Award of Merit for one main reason and it is because it is beautifully grown. It has many flowers (27 fully formed flat flowers with 6 buds on 4 of the primary inflorescences) and HUGE! The length of the stems were ~ 22 inches (56 cm). There is a funny story I have to share. Arne met a rather experienced orchid grower while he was showing this orchid. The nice gentleman asked if Arne had a glass house and Arne said, "No,  I just have my orchids growing or hanging near the window". This gentleman just looked at him and then at the orchid and then turned to Arne and said, "How big is your window???". Needless to say, he was very impressed and was very encouraging. 

You see, Arne being a scientist, has the lab as his 'office'. Hence he had the luxury of hanging this specimen in the many different large windows at different times of the year and different times of the day. Undoubtedly, the Broughtonia sanguinea var. alba flourished. A different kind of orchidarium you might say. And that is the secret to this beautifully grown orchid.

A) July 5th, 2014. Broughtonia sanguinea var alba 'Karin'.

In honour of his mother, his has given this clone her name. Hence the full name is now Broughtonia sanguinea var. alba 'Karin'. She has been waiting for me to post this, so here it is mamma Karin! Isn't it nice to have an orchid with your name on it? Grattis!

B) The base of the root system of this orchid. One should really re-mount this orchid within 2-4 years for optimal growth. A VERY delicate process because you have to remove all of the roots.

C) Another angle of our Broughtonia sanguinea var. alba

Aside from the Broughtonia sanguinea var. alba, which has white flowers, we also have Broughtonia sanguinea with the brilliant red, to sometimes lavender to purple flowers. Both orchids are now hanging outside on our front porch as the weather in Baltimore is pretty warm and humid!   

D) July 12th, 2014. Broughtonia sanguinea. Continuously flowering until September. We've seen humming birds pollinating the flowers during Summer. This will be a separate post another week.

In general the Broughtonia species are found in Northern Caribbean and the Bahamas from sea level to 800 meters. However, Broughtonia sanguinea are endemic to the Jamaica. These orchids grow well in hot and arid conditions and are intolerant to overwatering. They best grow on corks, coconut husk and even hard driftwood. They do extremely well in a milieu with  a lot of light and good air flow. These conditions are essential to prevent rot. 

E) July 12th. Fewer flowers yesterday but will continue to flower.

F) Individual flowers up close. The flowers are white with faint pink flush at the front and back and buds; the lip has a tiny yellow patch under the column. The texture is matte & the substance is soft.

Let's end this post with Anthony. My ever willing model to give you a sense of proportion!

Orchid of the day: Encyclia mariae

Encyclia mariae

On February 2nd, I posted about our Encyclia mariae which at that time produced a single inflorescence with 3 flowers. But now, there are two inflorescences and each with four flowers. However not all of the flowers are well developed. Arne contributed to this blog by writing a 'little' piece about his experience and knowledge about this orchid. At one point, he was considering taking this particular orchid to Washington DC for evaluation. But because of the imperfections of some of the blooms, he decided not to do so. He selected another instead. That would be our next post, with interesting outcome!

A) May 18th, 2 flowers stalks emerged from the leaves.

B) Close up of both flower stalks in (A), above.

C) By June 7th, the inflorescences developed into 4 clear flowers in each stalk.

D) Another angle of the two stalks.

E) June 14th, the flowers began to open up.

F) June 20th. Most of the flowers have opened up.

G) Up close of the individual flowers.

Below is the piece Arne put together for this post on Encyclia mariae. Do enjoy his insight!

"They say the best things in life are free.  For instance, our dog Anthony is a rescue and he turned out to be the best friend we could wish for.  Our Encyclia mariae is actually also something of a rescue.  Almost exactly three years ago today, I walked into a local gardening place that always has some orchids in a corner of their greenhouse.  Some of the orchids are just the average ones you will find anywhere but they always have a few very interesting species or hybrids.  This time I saw an Encyclia mariae with four flowers on two flower stems nicely mounted on a piece of teak.  I always wanted to have this particular species because the flowers are so beautiful and different and almost oversized for the little plant.

 But according to what I had read from the time I started culturing orchids in Sweden, this plant was considered difficult because it needed cool and humid conditions and would rot immediately if given too much water during winter.  So I didn’t buy the plant that day.  I couldn’t forget the plant though and I was continuously thinking that no one would buy it, especially not if the flowers started to wilt.  A month later I happened to drive by the gardening store again and I couldn’t help myself so I walked back into the greenhouse to check if the plant was still there.  I was right; no one had bought the plant and all the five flowers had now wilted.  The price had also been reduced to almost nothing and the sales person explained to me that I probably didn’t want to buy this orchid because I couldn’t expect any flowers on the plant anymore.  When I told him that I definitely was going to buy the plant I realized how much care he had spent on this particular orchid.  Maybe he even planned to take it home.  I brought it home and mounted it better on cork (more crevices for the roots) and put it in our orchidarium in the basement.  The plant grew without any problem whatsoever.  I followed the instructions and gave it a dry winter rest for almost five months (maybe I watered it twice during winter) and the next year it flowered again.  This year it awarded me with eight flowers (although one flower is deformed).

I don’t think Encyclia mariae is a difficult orchid to grow.  As always, it is different maybe, but if you know what it wants it grows and flowers nicely.  One more thing, Encyclia mariae got its name from a Swedish engineer that worked for the telephone company Ericsson (at the time called LM Ericsson) in Mexico, who named it after his wife Marie ӧstlund in the early 1900’s." By Arne Schon.