Orchid of the day: Cattleya Love Knot (and new lights!)

Cattleya Love Knot

Here is one of our Cattleya Love Knot orchid flowering again late in September this year. After we divided the single plant, the new divisions have been producing two flowers at a time. I hope both these new plants it will produce more flower stems soon. Both are doing very well.

This is very inspiring and Arne has invested in purchasing a brand new light. He is quite motivated and has written a little something about this. 

New Lights and a Swedish Supergrower of Orchids ~by Arne

Now and then I check the web-site from the Swedish Orchid Society – you may want to think of it as my alma mater of orchid culture.  One day - I guess it was about one-and-a half-year ago I realized that one single person living in the south of Sweden was dominating the whole society.  In fact, that is an understatement because I think he is one of the greatest orchid grower I know of in the northern hemisphere.  His name is Tommy Ljunggren and you should check out what he is doing at his web-site http://ljunggrens.org/.

The reason why I’m impressed is that he is defying all problems associated with the culture of the most warm and light loving orchids at the 60^th latitude.  That means culture of almost only Vanda in a sun-deprived and considerably cold location that is north of Newfoundland in the USA.  He has been able to achieve all this mostly because of persistence, interest and knowledge.  Nevertheless, since some 10-15 years ago there are also artificial lights nowadays that are so strong that extremely light-loving orchids can indeed be cultured even in a basement.  So from now on, we have our first super-compact fluorescent light fixture in our basement and we expect supergrowth.

To the right, a new 'strong' light has been added to our basement make-shift orchid  sanctuary. This light would be great during the winter months as some of our orchids are from the tropics,  for example our Aerides houlletiana, which is growing bigger in size.

I will conclude this post with two pictures of our very reliable Cattleya Love Knot. A new post will follow next week as we have a few up our sleeves! Until then, have a great week!

Orchid of the day: Aerangis luteo-alba var. rhodosticta

Aerangis luteo-alba var. rhodosticta

Greetings friends! It has been a quiet few weeks, a combination of Summer hiatus as well as distractions of daily life. But I'm back now with beautiful updates of our home grown orchids. But first, let me share a nice picture of our orchids enjoying the Baltimore Summer.

A) Orchids hanging outside enjoying the breeze and sunlight of this summer.

Enough reminiscing about the Summer that has past. It is Fall now and let's enjoy this colorful season of the year. First up, our gorgeous Aerangis luteo-alba var. rhodostica.

In mid September this orchid developed two flower stems but unfortunately, due to the delicate nature, one of the stems broke while being handled. Much to Arne's dismay but the orchid is doing well.

B) September 13, 2015. One of the developing flower stem. No flower buds quite visible at this time.

C) By September 26, we can see distinct buds.

Here's a little story that Arne put together:-

We got our Aerangis luteo-alba rhodosticta in August 2014.  I knew it was supposedly very difficult to culture but it produced four flower stems with cascades of flowers as posted on this blog in February of 2015  According to me, the flowers were beautiful but disappointingly small in comparison to some pictures I had seen.

In May of 2015, the little Aerangis started to grow profusely.  This is when I realized one of the reasons why it is considered a difficult orchid.  The tip of the new leaves turned black and I first thought it was rot, which would have been really bad.  Later I understood that the tip of those leaves were about an inch too close to the fluorescent lights.  I have it hanging from a chain so it was easy for me to just move it down from the light a bit. 

In August it produced two flower stems.  This is when I realized how frail these stems are.  When I moved the orchids around, one of the flower stems broke totally when a leaf of another plant touched it.  Now I just hoped that the single flower stem left wouldn’t disappoint me further.  It didn’t!  This time the flowers are huge compared to before.  The largest of the flowers is close to 2 inches and there are 11 of them.  Their shape is also much better.  This is a wonderful little orchid, simply.~ Arne.

D) October 18th, most of the flowers are happily opened and larger than they were in February.

E) The orchid today.

F) Another photo of our Aerangis luteo-alba var. rhodostica with our adorable dog, Marcus Anthony.

Did I mentioned that we now have more orchids and extra lights and shelves? We are making more space in our little basement. How we'll manage, I have no idea but at least the basement will get organized!  Well I'll keep you posted!

Orchid of the day: Eurychone rothschildiana

Eurychone rothschildiana

Did you know that Eurychone rothschildiana was called Angraecum rothschildiana? It is still the synonym. The flowers are about 2.5 inches in diameter and emit a slight fragrance. Although it was very mild to almost absence in our hand. It started to produce flower stems and buds in early August this year and now almost all the flowers, on one of the stem, are open and some have wilted. 

A) August 30th.The first flowers stem showing at least six buds.

B) The second flower stem is not very visible (to the right) here but we can see the roots shooting upwards.

We have 2 flowers stems; the first had seven flowers and the second stem, still has three buds waiting to open. This orchid is found in Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, basically in the central region of Africa. It loves moist and shady conditions to flourish. These orchids are monopodial and are small sized.

C) By early September, two beautiful flowers had emerged. A slight fragrance was noted but nothing too strong.

D) View from above. Here you can see the second flower stem growing to the right side of this picture.

E) The flowers up close. Note the delicate white surrounding the apple green color of the petals.

Below is a paragraph that Arne put together for me to share with you. Everyday is a learning experience for me. The flowers only last for about 2 weeks once it is open.

"The orchid family has more than 25,000 orchid species and no other plant family in the world can beat that.  It is therefore no surprise that every real orchid enthusiast once in a while suddenly stumbles upon a beautiful orchid species that he or she never heard of before.  That happened to me some nine months ago when I was searching for a small-sized orchid with relatively large flowers and found Eurychone rothschildiana.   I had simply never ever heard of it!  Eurychone rothschildiana is a rather small Phalaenopsis-like plant from Africa and has beautiful white and green flowers with a dark throat that disappears into its spur.  I gave it a try and I must say that it has grown surprisingly fast and is now awarding us with astonishingly large flowers on two stems.  Actually, the flowers are larger than average which makes me thinking of taking it for judging in the future.  I bought this plant from a nice botanical company in Montana and they advised me to have this epiphyte potted rather than mounted and I can see why.  I put it in a clay pot with large chunks of bark and it really seems to like it that way." By Arne.

F) The orchid, September 20th. The second flower stem is definitely much delayed in its development but here we can see the three buds.

G) Zoom in the see the details of each flower.

I hope you enjoyed the photos. This is a new favorite of ours!

Orchid of the day: Phalaenopsis lindenii

Phalaenopsis lindenii

A) This is our Phalaenopsis lindenii with a total of eight flowers, September 20th, 2015.

We have had this orchid since March 2011 and it began to actively produce flowers in 2012 and hasn't stopped since. This orchid is endemic to the island of Luzon, the Philippines. Unfortunately, this beautiful orchid is in the endangered list due to deforestation.

B) We hang our orchid outside to enjoy the warm Baltimore summer, photo taken July 19th, 2015. We see a flower stem shooting to the left of this photo.

The fern attached at the top of the bark has really thrived over the years and the Phalaenopsis lindenii thick waxy leaves really developed, showing the beautiful 'batik-like' patterns.

C) Three flowers opened showing the purple colors and yellow specks within. Photo taken August 30th, 2015. Five flower buds still waiting to bloom.

I asked, as usual, for Arne to write a little piece about this orchid or orchid family. I think it is only fair that you readers get to hear what he constantly tells me. A little orchid knowledge from this post to you. Do enjoy the paragraphs below!

"Of the orchids sold commercially today, more than 90% are hybrids of Phalaenopsis.  Because of the mass production of these orchids with huge long-lasting flowers that have been made easy for everyone to have and even grow, it is easy to forget that the true Phalaenopsis species are wonderful plants that are almost getting extinct in nature.  Phalaenopsis lindenii is one of those orchids.  Although not a cold growing orchid, Phal lindenii likes it colder than most Phalaenopsis species and is considered difficult to culture. 

To be a Phalaenopsis orchid, maybe it can be considered difficult at least if you want to show it off in its full glory.  When I grow an orchid I always try to envision how it grows in nature.  Because of that I grow Phal lindenii mounted on a piece of cork bark in rather low light in our basement.  The temperature is around 70 - 77 °F (21 - 25 °C) in summer and 59 – 68 °F (15 – 20 °C) in winter.  A fern came with the plant and I have a feeling that they like growing together". By Arne.

D) A clearer view of the pattern within  the flower. Especially the top bloom.

E) A total of six flowers on September 8th, 2015.

F)  See the contrast from July (A) to today. From a single flower stem a beautiful cascade of flowers. The fern that grew on the top of the bark is really doing well.

Orchid of the day: Bulbophyllum frostii

Bulbophyllum frostii

It's time to update one of my favorite orchids, 'the Dutch Shoe' or Bulbophyllum frostii. Our Dutch shoe did very well last year and we divided it into 3 pots. We gave one to a friend, and from the last I heard, it is doing well with possibilities of flowers developing. We kept the other two and they have been flowering ever since. The orchids were actively flowering at the end of June and right through July. Today most of the flowers are gone but recently we noticed some flower buds developing. A very happy orchid in Arne's care. Below, (A), is a photo from last year.

A) June 20th,2014

I asked Arne if he could put a little story together for every post. Do enjoy what he wrote below about his Bulbophyllum frostii.

"Bulbophyllum is the largest genus in the orchid family.  It is also the only genus that has species growing in all tropical areas on earth including Asia, Africa, and South America.  On a completely different note, most of them have very fragrant flowers but the fragrance is usually anything but appealing to humans.  Bulbophyllum frostii has a bit of an odd fragrance as well but it is so weak that it doesn’t matter and besides, the flowers are so incredibly cute anyway.  This orchid should be grown quite moist year around.  I have it growing on tree fern with sphagnum moss tucked in here and there. I water it very often and some other moss has formed some charming carpets in the pots because of that.  When I bought the mother plant several years ago, I read that it liked shade.  I later learnt how wrong that was so I moved it close to the fluorescent light bulbs.  If given a bright spot and frequent watering, Bulbophyllum frostii turns out to be quite an easy orchid to grow. " by Arne.

B) July 5th, 2015. Very sweet.

C) A profile of the three flowers from the same pot on July 5th, 2015.

D) July 19th, 2015. Here are the two remaining pots in our care. The Bulbophyllum frostii seems to do well in the plastic pot. As long as it gets enough aeration and flow for water to run through when watering. This will keep the roots nice and healthy.

E) The beauties up close.

F) It is fascinating to see the blooms spreading sideways from each pot. There is not much height but a great deal of spread on the ground. Imagine an entire area of the forest covered by these beauties.

This native and endemic orchid of Vietnam, Thailand and the Malay Peninsula, grows well in several little clusters in the wild. I hope we are still able to enjoy them fully in its natural habitat in the future.

Orchid of the day: Broughtonia sanguinea

Broughtonia sanguinea

Update on our Broughtonia sanguinea, previously posted on August 3rd, 2014. The orchid is thriving over the years and produced many flowers from June and is still flowering today. Hummingbirds are 'notoriously' pollinating the flowers resulting in wilted flowers, much to Arne's dismay! Below is a nice paragraph that Arne put together about this orchid, which has been with us since 2003.

A) July 5th. Four flower stems with flowers had outgrown our study window. We moved it out onto our front porch to allow our Broughtonia sanguinea to enjoy the warmth of Baltimore summer.

"Broughtonia is a small genus of some very Cattleya-looking orchids.  They are supposedly miniature orchids according to most sources.  According to me, they are small compared to some standard Cattleyas as long as they are not in blossom.  I bought the mother plant of my red Broughtonia sanguinea in 2003.  I wanted to have it because it was supposedly small and could fit in my newly acquired orchidarium.  But when this orchid flowered, it did so in a grand way.  The flower stems can easily be up to 25 inches (~ 63 cm) or more.  Once we moved to our own house I made sure it is hanging on our front porch from June to the end of August when it keeps producing flowers all the time.  In a way it is my best orchid because it is a reliable bloomer the whole summer.  Because of that I bought another one that is virtually an alba variety of Broughtonia sanguinea.  That one turned out to be even better and it was awarded in 2014, (see post dated July 13, 2014).

Broughtonia sanguinea is easy to care for as long as you don’t give it too much water.  First of all, have it mounted on a piece of cork bark and grow it warm the whole year.  Most plants put in pots will die unless you have a very strict watering regimen.  I wanted to get a “backup plant” so I phoned an orchid company in California but when the guy said that this orchid is easy to kill, I asked him why.  Obviously they had all their Broughtonias potted so I decided not to buy any because they didn’t seem to know the basics of how to culture these plants.

Right now there is one single person that knows all the Broughtonia species and has all the genetic material available for each species and that is Claude Hamilton in Jamaica where Broughtonia sanguinea can be found growing in situ."~ Arne.

B) Side profile of the 'overgrown' orchid.

The main plant has been divided from its original tree bark as the roots have totally overwhelmed the surface of that bark. We have the original plant still hanging on the pillar in our front porch and the other half in the backyard, under our deck.

C) The 'new' division of our Broughtonia sanguinea.

D) The new off shoot has two main flower stems with at least twelve flowers on July 19th.

E) Still flowering today, both on our front porch and the back deck. A long lasting beauty all summer.

The bright purple color of the flowers, still attract our local hummingbirds. I have tried to get a photo of these humming birds in action, but they are so fast! I will keep working on that frame and one day, I hope to share it! Please enjoy our beautiful Broughtonia sanguinea for summer 2015.

Orchid of the day: Paphiopedilum dianthum

Paphiopedilum dianthum

This orchid is definitely growing well in our hands. The last time it flowered was January 25th (see post in January of 2015). Now it flowered again with three flowers. I have a few orchids to feature in the next coming weeks but for now but let me share the photos from our Paphiopedilum dianthum.

A) July 5th, three flower buds were already developing.

B) The buds up close.

C) July 19th, one bud is still waiting to open up.

D) Another close up of the flower. This beautiful slipper orchid with the spiraling petals.

E) July 26th. All three flowers are in full bloom

F) The entire plant from the front

G) The flowers from the back