Orchid of the day: Haraella retrocalla

Haraella retrocalla

Haraella retrocalla is a vandaceous miniature epiphyte from Taiwan.  Considering the small size of the plant, the flowers are large, about 2 cm (almost an inch), with an impressive fringed lip. The flower is slightly fragrant. It is a warm-growing plant that prefers to spread its roots on a mount rather than to be potted.

After buying this plant last year in December, Arne decided he would mount it and I happen to have a coconut shell, left over after cooking chicken rendang, a Malaysian dish. I gave that to him and he was delighted to try using the coconut shell instead of the regular tree bark. He was excited to transfer this orchid from its pot and mounted it onto the coconut shell where today, it has attached itself so well that the nylon thread can be completely removed.

A) Immediately after mounting to the shell in December last year.

B) The Haraella retrocalla came with two flower buds when we purchased it. By the time Arne decided to mount it, the flowers were opened.

C) By July 7th, a new flower had emerged and a rather large one too, considering the size of the entire plant.

D) The roots have successfully adhered to the coconut shell.

E) A view of how small this Haraella retrocalla is in the hands of our grower, Arne.

I hope you enjoyed my post for today. I'll share another soon as I have been 'away' the last 2 weeks. I'm constantly taking new photos of our orchids but just haven't gotten to posting it as regularly as I would like. Until my next post, have a great day!

A beautiful miniature flower, gorgeous!

Orchid of the day: Vanda testacea

Vanda testacea

I first posted about our Vanda testacea on July 9, 2017. We didn't have this many flowers and as usual with Arne's loving care, this clone has done very well this year. There are three flower spikes and forty flowers in total this time around.

A) Each flower has a rather prominent blue/purple lip which fades over time.

B) This orchid is native to Sri Lanka, India and throughout the Himalayas.

C) Basking in the Baltimore sun in June.

D) I cannot resist to show a photo of this orchid from 2017. It has certainly grown a lot in two years.

E) A closer look at the individual flowers.

F) Although Vanda testacea has the smallest flowers among the Vandas, each flower is well shaped and the purple lip makes the flower stand out.

As usual, I hope you enjoyed my post for today.

Until next time, have a great week.