Though this is not mainstream for many, I've appreciated the photos and posts re: orchid plant parts that are not about blooms. Todd's article on growing orchids for foliage http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/836/ was a great intro into looking at orchids beyond their blooming parts. A thread about other orchid aspects of interest?
Laurel
June Orchids in 2009
Laurel, what would interest you? Any good ideas?
As I look into the cage this rainy morning, I see roots, roots, lots of wet dangling roots!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=2947539
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=2958498
Some of the webpages linked to have been rearranged since then but most (if not all) are still valid.
Try this one for more beautiful pictures of fuukirans: http://blog.goo.ne.jp/fuuranzannmai
I always like the last link! Amazing tsuke in the second to last Fuukiran. And I don't remember ever seeing a blue line in the center of the leaves.
Yes, that blog is always a delight. I still covet his Nf var. Maizuru. (Plus most everything else)
Which link is good for explaning for example Blc Copper Queen. What does the Blc and other things in front of names mean?
Darla
Darla -
http://www.fendersflora.com/orchid%20newsletter/orchid%20labeling.asp
and then there are name changes....
Darla, the Blc stands for Brassolaeliocatteya. Thus it is telling you that the orchid is a Brassavola X Laelia X Cattleya. I bought a Potinara once and discovered it to be a Brassavola X Cattleya X Laelia X Sophronitis. There are thousands upon thousands orchid types and you need a book to keep things straight. Raymond, Ursula, Todd, Kathy and others are much better at deciphering these crosses than I, but just remember the little letters in front of the name give you an idea as to the type of orchid it is.
Jim
Share some more root photos Ursula. Also, leaves that you think have interesting forms. I remember some nice photos from last year. Perhaps I missed ones from this year? We've been racing to get our garden in after months of being away. I've not been able to keep up with all the news or post my own bloomers.
Thanks for the links, Raymond. I've never seen so many Neos!
Darla, it sounds daunting at first, but the names grow on you like the plants and then, as RUK said, they change them.
Thanks They are just all so beautiful. DH and I went to the local Orchid show back in March. He found one he just had to have. It reminded him of the baby squids he used to enjoy eating in Japan, I believe its called Dendrobium spectabile. I got a Maxillaria tenuifolia, coconut orchid. The smell was fantastic (if you like coconuts, and I do). I bought a small Cattleya from Lowes. It was inexpensive, figured I'd practice how NOT to kill it before I went for the more expensive beauties! But I almost broke down and bought a cattleya that was in bloom and smelled wonderful. Figured I'd better wait until after my trip out of town. That way it might still be alive when I got back. if its still there then...ITS MINE! lol
Darla
Very nice root display Ursula and Raymond. I often choose orchids for their vegetative character, after all most are out of bloom a lot longer than they are in bloom.
Jim, the Psychopsis is really putting out and the Aerides - beautiful.
Speaking about butterflies! Tiger Swallowtail and lilac.
Ken
A couple of my orchids wanted to go out to smell the Lilacs.
Blc Rustic Spots
Odontocidium Wildcat 'White Lip' almost disappears into the background.
Close up of Odontocidium Wildcat 'White Lip'
Cypripedium parviflorum is on display, but I lost my reginae.
Ken
Awww. I should take another pic of Ulla Silkens since I think the third bloom is out.
Pouring here. Ursula if it pours for days on end, do you protect the cage??
Ken, how beautiful is that! Cute Blc and I love the Cyp parviflorum group.
Kathy, it's rain rain rain here too for days, it's depressing.
So far the Orchids haven't complained, I see a lot of growth. So far I have never protected them, but the Stapeliads on the deck haven't been without the Lucite plate above them for more than a day in-between wet spells yet. It feels like a German Summer around here, brrrrr. ( those 9 years between the good wine years ^_^)
My Rhyncholaelia digbyana rarely opens up all buds/sheaths at the same time, this year the plant has 4 sheaths in various stages, I am not complaining. I took it inside for a picture.
Raymond, that is the plant you gave me years ago!
and the whole plant -
I grow this one under light levels which are suitable for Cacti, really bright/full sun. The tough leaves take on a nice color, which is ok.
Ken, the Cypripedium is just beautiful.
Ursula, very nice digbyana.
Jim
I actually covered them with my famous frost tarp for most of the day. And now it's sunny so they are under the shade cloth but they look happy to get the breezes. Love you digbyana, Ursula. Great job. Gives me hope for mine!
Beautiful stuff, all. So nice to see.
Ursula, glad the Rhy digbyana is doing well.
My newest orchid open is this Brassanthe Maikai 'mayumi', with 2 little 5cm flowers.
Pretty little guys...nice color.
Jim
Nice one breeindy!
I just bought 2 orchids from Fred Clark: C. violacea (C. violacea v. flamea x C. violacea v. flamea ‘Flared JEM’ AM/AOS http://www.sunsetvalleyorchids.com/htm/photo_detail.php?prod=975 and (L. Seagulls Tangerine 'SVO' HCC/AOS x L. milleri 'Dr. Koopowitz Red' HCC/AOS). Here's one parent http://www.sunsetvalleyorchids.com/htm/photo_detail.php?prod=594
I now have quite a collection of rupicolous laelias and 2 Catt. violaceas (hard to find).
Nice. boojum. Is that last red flowering plant a epidendrum? Is it a epi. x laelia or something?
It's a rupicolous laelia (they grow in rocks) and they are small plants and I love them all.
Meanwhile, Cypripedium Ulla Silkens has 3 flowers in the shade garden (forgive the blur but it's pretty dark at 6:30 AM).
Here's C. reginae.
And Cypripedium reginae forma albolabium.
Kathy, I like your new purchases a lot! And the Cyps are beautiful, the Ulla Silkens displays beautifully.
Breeindy, cute one.
I started yesterday a thread about other aspects of Orchid growth here.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1001894/
A LOT can be added to this, surely many of us have a different focus on this subject.
More downpours here. It just stopped a bit, so I looked around in the cage. Not all was charming, I am picking dozens of Mulberries out of my plants, which drop from my neighbors unkempt "garden". And with the very wet weather come pill bugs, slugs and tiny snails which like the cozy bench under the Jap. Maple on the backwall. I picked up 3 small slugs, luckily I didn't see any damage. So far so good, but we could sure use some prolonged sunshine!
Here is one which is not objecting at all to the cooler and wet conditions, Pleurothallis tripterantha.
Perreiraara Motes Leprechaun 'Haiku Mint' is opening a spike very slowly. It seems that many of the buds on other Orchids also open much slower than usual.
Encyclia brassavolae seems to start flowering a little earlier every year. I remember it blooming late August into September, but nowadays it starts showing early spikes in late Spring, early Summer.
Nice stuff, Kathy & Ursula.
Ursula, your Pleurothallids must think they're back in the Andean foothills. Your pic of the Encyclia prompted me to go look at mine - it's budding, not through the sheaths yet.
Raymond.
Yes, the Pleurothallis are as happy as Clams at high tide right now, along with the other cooler growers.
Geeez, Ursula, even you hangers look good. What beauties you have.
Hap
Cochlioda noezliana 4N - a second spike, opening now. This one had an earlier spike in April (I posted a pic in the April thread). I find it hard to capture greater detail of the petals/sepals because the fluorescent nature of the red tends to throw off the metering of the camera.
Raymond.
Cochlioda noezliana - a wider view.
p.s. - It's a three-fer of sorts: Above it is the Eria pannea I had posted before, with two flowers open now (the 1st is still going strong), and behind it is the blurry image of the Seidenfadenia mitrata, fully open now for a month.
Raymond.
Sarcoglottis sceptrodes. The vegetative growth is winding down (it was three times as leafy a few months ago) as it flowers.
Raymond.
Sarcoglottis sceptrodes - close-up of inflorescence.
Raymond.
