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

Paphiopedilum delenatii 'Karin Schon' awarded AM/AOS

This beautiful orchid originates from the southeastern region of Vietnam (click here for my earlier posts dated May 5th, 2014 and April 19th, 2015). Paphiopedilum delenatii is warm loving and grows well in calcium rich substrates. Arne adds crushed egg shells in the pot and over the years, this particular clone has been producing beautiful flowers.

A) Our awarded orchid with the judging certification

It is with great pride that we announce that our Paphiopedilum delenatii has been recognized by the American Orchid Society (AOS) with the Award of Merit (AM) on March 10th, 2016. In honor of his mother, Arne named this clone, Paphiopedilum delenatii 'Karin Schon'.

B) February 21st, 2016

Arne took this specimen to the Maryland Orchid Society, Orchid Show & Sale, at the Maryland State Fairground in Timonium, Maryland. The award of merit recognized the high quality of the flowers as well as the vigorously growing flower stems. I am not surprised that this orchid was awarded because it has two flower stems and four flowers in total. Although at the time of the judgement, only three flowers were in bloom, each flower is so beautifully shaped. 

C) Our orchid as it sits in our little orchidarium in the basement

D) Developing flower buds in mid February.

E) A frontal view of the four buds.

F) Two of the flowers were opening on February 28th.

G) A closer view the newly opened flowers.

H) The entire plant today, March 12th, 2016.

I) The fourth flower (to the far left) is finally opening.

J) The orchid is also beautiful from the back. The beautiful waxing leaves with spotted patterns is also very interesting.

K) Patterns of purple-pinkish stripes clearly visible.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at our prize orchid today. We are very happy and honored by this recognition. I guest it is worth the hours of care and devotion! Until next post, take care!

Orchid of the day: Stelis quadrifida

Stelis quadrifida

Our mystery orchid has a name now, Stelis quadrifida. In my post on March 16th, 2015, I shared how this orchid 'hitch hike' onto the same tree fern of our Dendrobium jenkensii. Since it grew so beautifully, we have decided to separate the two orchids and now our Stelis quadrifida is growing well on its own.

A) A photo from my post last year, trying to figure out what this orchid was.

B) March 5th, close up of the tiny flowers of Stelis quadrifida.

This year we have 18 flower stems and on each stem, there are 20 flowers, a total of 360 flowers. Unfortunately the flowers do not bloom all at once and as each bloom it withers away rather quickly.

C) The entire orchid has grown very well on its own piece of tree fern. No longer a hitch hiker.

D) A view of the tree fern, holding the orchid in place.

E) A clear mix of the older tree fern piece and the new piece connected with metal wires and fishing line. Eventually, the roots will grow and wrap around the entire base.

F) Last year when our Stelis quadrifida (top) shared the tree fern with our Dendrobium jenkensii (bottom).

G) Up close photo of the flowers. Miniature orchids, and very delicate. The flowers are small, about 1/4 of an inch across from my March 16th post.

A visit at the Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens of Baltimore

Orchids at the Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory & Botanic Gardens of Baltimore

At this time, many of our own orchids are not quite ready for me to post yet. So I've decided to share our experience from 2 weeks ago while visiting the Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory, close to the Maryland Zoo in Druid Hill Park, at 3100 Swann Drive, Baltimore, Maryland. Sometimes the best things in life is for free and just around the corner. So on Valentine's day we walked over to  our local conservatory and enjoyed the beautiful orchids in bloom. 

This beautiful structure was built in 1888. The orchids featured in this post is a gift from the award winning Les and Carol Kirkegaard orchid collection.

One of many  Vanda orchids displayed in the Cylburn room.

This orchid we have to have in our collection this year!

Impressive array of orchid display

Paphiopedilum fairrieanum var. alba. Arne is getting this one for sure.

Aside from the orchids, the tropical plants also attracted my attention. Especially the palms and Malayan coconut palm.

Orchid of the day: Tolumnia Tequila Sunrise

Tolumnia Tequila Sunrise

A) Tolumnia Tequila Sunrise, December 31st. 2015

This miniature orchid has brightly coloured flowers. The name itself is not registered as the parentage of this hybrid is unavailable. This is one of our orchids cultivated on cork, and it grows very well. These photos were taken outside on December 31st, 2015 and amazingly, the flowers are still in bloom and new ones have developed. We featured this orchid last year, in May.

B) The structure of the flowers from below.

C) The main plant attached to the cork.

D) The colours of these flowers are a combination of bright yellow and blood red.

E) At this time, we had at least 4 buds pending to open.

F) Today, February 14th, 2016.

G) The 4 flowers upclose today.

Until next post! Happy Valentines Day!

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!