Orchid of the day: Dendrobium jenkensii

Dendrobium jenkensii

Our Dendrobium jenkensii has been in our care for ten years now. This orchid is native to the cooler and elevated region of Eastern Himalaya which includes the Hainan region in China, Burma and Assam in India.

You should checkout my post from April 13th, 2014, which shows how small this orchid was. Since then it has been doing well due to Arne's care and devotion. We are fortunate to have thirty five flowers this Spring.

A) Flower buds were already developing by April 14th.

B) What a contrast compared to how it looked four years ago.

C) Today, April 29th, almost all of the flowers were fully opened. Due to the unpredictable Spring weather this year, we still house our D. jenkensii in our basement in the orchidarium.

This orchid did really well once we separated it from the hitch hiker orchid, Stelis quadrifida, see my post from May 25, 2015.

D) Zooming into an individual bloom. These flowers are relatively fragile compared to our other orchids, and would only last for about one week after fully blooming.

E) A view from above. They do look like ladies with ballgowns and wearing full reamed hats!

Well this is my post for this weekend.

I hope these beautiful flowers brightened your day a little.

Until next time, have a great week.

Orchid of the day: Paphiopedilum delenatii 'Karin Schon' AM/AOS

Paphiopediulm delenatii 'Karin Schon' AM/AOS

This orchid was awarded the Award of Merit (AM) from the American Orchid Society (AOS) on March 10th 2016. This slipper orchid is a native of the cooler regions in Vietnam, named after the French orchid enthusiast, Delenat. We named this orchid after my mother-in-law, Karin.

A) The orchid on April 14, with a total of four flowers. There was not too much sun when taking this photo.

B) By March 4th, we noticed the two flower stems stretching upwards with two flower buds developing on each of them.

C) March 18th, the buds were slowly opening to unfold the blooms within.

D) The sun was cooperative that day, April 1st, and we can clearly see the beautiful colour contrast of the lip and the petals of each flower.

E) A view from above showing the pitcher-like lip of this slipper orchid.

F) I really love the beautiful mosaic-like patterns on the leaves of this plant.

G) A final image of the flowers up close.

A short and sweet post for this weekend.

I hope you enjoyed the photos today.

Until my next post, have a great week.

Orchid of the day: Leptotes pohlitinocoi

Leptotes pohlitinocoi

This orchid is a Brazilian native, known as a twig epiphyte. I posted about our Leptotes pohlitinocoi twice before, once in April 2016 and again in March 2017.  Today we have nine flowers and these flowers can last between two to three weeks only.

A) Today, April 1st.

B) Flower buds appearing on March 4th.

C) This orchid came attached to a rather thin stick, which Arne then removed and mounted on this piece of cork.

D) This orchid is a slow grower in comparison to our Leptotes bicolor.

E) Some of the flowers were blooming on March 18th.

F) A view from a side profile.

G) Anthony giving you a sense of proportion.

H) March 27th. A photo in our orchidarium.

I) Beautiful photo with natural sunlight outdoors.

J) The flowers have different shades of purple. 

K) A zoom of an individual flower. In detail, the sepals have the whiter shade while the lip has the darkest hue of purple. The other two petals have dark purple towards the end of their tips.

L) A final photo of our Leptotes pohlitinocoi today. Some of the flowers are beginning to show signs of wilting.

Well, that's my post for today.

I wish you all a great week until next time.

Happy Easter!