Orchids on a Balcony

Still here...

2015-10-19T22:03:00.001+02:00

It has been a while since my last update. I'm still alive, as are most of the plants. A move of house - which we now own rather than rent - moving the green house and a change of jobs has rather cut into my "free time"; my orchid exploits - and this blog in particular - have suffered as a result.

Speaking of moving, Senior Management and two of our friends nearly died moving the greenhouse in about 7 pieces back in February - the roof in one giant section was a particular challenge, as it had to be taken around the house on its side, making it rather unwieldy (no photographic evidence, as all hands were needed elsewhere!). Fortunately, we only had to walk it a grand total of a single property line over. A massive ivy "fence" was demolished between the properties, and a precast wall put in its place; we took advantage of that activity to move the greenhouse and plants without going "the long way around". I bought a modular greenhouse in part because of being a renter - I hadn't expected to move less than a year after putting up a greenhouse, but the rent became unreasonable and a good offer to buy came up... Still, moving a greenhouse is quite an operation!

The orchids spent several months under deep shade, being very infrequently watered whilst the greenhouse was moved, and the basic connections were hooked up (power, water), and the backlog of "most urgent" DIY for human habitation was completed. Once the greenhouse was more or less up, I neglected to erect adequate shading, and some of the plants have really taken some strain lately (particularly things like Phalaenopsis that do not enjoy full sun as we move towards spring/summer down here). I predict some casualties. Another more minor "catastrophe" was hooking up misting without fans in place; some plants rotted away seemingly overnight. It's surprising what just a few days of changed weather, neglect or poor cultural conditions can do to a plant. (On the other hand, it's impressive how tough some other plants are!). Usually, it's too much of something that seems to kill orchids; they're seemingly often naturally quite resilient to shortages.

I've also been encountering more pests. Things are wholesale eating my plants, or chunks of them; for example, my Onc. Sharry Baby has had its latest pseudobulb firmly chomped, but it's still soldiering on (it's just started to spike); the Laelia sincorana f. coerulea which I have waited for YEARS (since March 2011) to flower threw out a spike this month (clearly it enjoyed the massive increase in light and neglect). Something ATE IT. I strongly suspect molluscan activities (slugs and snails) and must deploy counter-measures!

Onc.Sharry Baby 'Sweet Fragrance' with slug/snail damage.

Laelia sincorana f. coerulea - first bloom - EATEN!

It's not all bad news of course; some things have quite enjoyed life; our Vanda flowered for only the second time, and some other light-loving plants have also put on quite a show.

Vanda Manuvadee "Blue" - second flowering; October 2015.
This won the first prize in the "Other" orchid category at the recent
Grahamstown Flower Festival Facebook (but not best orchid on show).
Having slowly learnt a little of what orchid judges look for,
I can see the "faults" (compare it to a really flat, round Vanda like one of the
"Roberts Delight" range). It's an old hybrid, so a lot has happened since.

It's grown quite a lot since I first got it.
Compare the size when it was bought and when it last flowered.

Going through my cellphone camera gallery, there are quite a lot of stories to come! Watch this space...

Stanhopea whittenii - first blooms

2014-02-10T17:16:00.000+02:00

Back in October 2011, I received three small Stanhopea plants as part of an order from Plantae. They've been quietly growing away for the past couple of years. One of them has finally decided to do something "useful" and put out some flowers!

The particular species that has assented to put on a show is Stanhopea whittenii, which is apparently fairly closely related to Stanhopea oculata. Primary differences are in the number of flowers (2-3 as opposed to many more), the shape of the flower and the scent. It was only described just over a decade ago, in 2002.

Speaking of scent, ours (to my nose) smells like menthol-vanilla, particularly heavy on the vanilla, perhaps with a touch of cinnamon. It's mounted quite far above head height, so I've only caught whiffs of it here and there, rather than my usual method which involves a deep inhale right into the flower!

Stanhopea are all very fragrant orchids. Their scent is a cunning ploy to attract their pollinators, a group of tropical bees called Euglossine bees, sometimes commonly known as "orchid bees" for this behaviour. The males of these bees seek out various strongly scented substances to impress their females - I guess it's the bee equivalent of a nice Eau de Cologne, except instead of buying a bottle, you have to zoom around the forest gathering your own essential oils first! These mostly solitary bees are generally spectacular metallic colours, in green, blue and gold livery; they also commonly visit Catasetum, which I covered briefly in my previous post. These chemicals are, for the most part (but not always), quite pleasant to humans too, and Stanhopea generally produce them in copious, room-filling abundance. Almost all of these orchids flower by sending a spike downwards (through the potting medium); for this reason, they're almost always grown in baskets of various sorts, or mounted, so this flowering habit can be accommodated. If you have the room, and suitable cultural conditions, they're well worth the effort.

In terms of cultural conditions, apparently they like "breezy" conditions, and [very (>3000 foot candles, no direct sun)] bright light - perhaps the move outdoors into severe winds covered the "breezy" part of their cultural preferences, and the light certainly increased; being outdoors, I tend to water more - and moisture is a key part of their cultural needs... Sadly, the flowers are typically short lived (typically in the region of only three all too short days) but in that time they certainly pump out some fragrance!

The best article I found on this species is here, and covers its discovery and naming and has various additional pictures and information on distribution; IOSPE has a page too as does Wikipedia. The genus Stanhopea and the derivation of its name is extensively covered here. Cultural information is covered here and here. Essence of Stanhopea is an orchid blog from Australia that covers this genus extensively.

Pictures, I hear you cry? Certainly!

Stanhopea whittenii buds, 5/2/2014
You can see it gets some morning sun, but is protected for the rest of the day by the roof and garage.

Stanhopea whittenii buds - two days later (7/2/2014)

Stanhopea whittenii
Two days later they opened
(this is from today [10/2/2014], the day after they first opened)

Stanhopea whittenii
You can clearly see the big black blotches that might have confused people into classifying these as Stanhopea oculata.

Stanhopea whittenii
View from underneath
Stanhopea are sometimes known as "upside down" orchids as their flowers usually face downwards

Stanhopea whittenii
lateral view

Pictures from cellphone camera.

Darwin and the Lost Art of the Naturalist - and Orchids

2014-02-08T19:31:00.000+02:00

Earlier this week, I had a "guest post" published on the travel/ocean science blog Moving Sushi, entitled "Darwin and the Lost Art of the Naturalist", in which I briefly sketch out some of the problems with modern science and how we need to cultivate not only excellent science communicators, but a new skill-set that allows us to draw together and interpret all the many scientific discoveries and ongoing monitoring to deliver meaningful knowledge to society at large. Or is it really the return of an old skill-set - the naturalist? You can read it over at Moving Sushi; it's a little shorter than I might have liked (they gave me a word limit to stick to!).

In it, I rather briefly mention Darwin's interest in orchids. Seeing as I have a blog on that subject, I thought it might make an interesting post...

Darwin devoted significant research to this group of plants, as you can see over at Darwin Online, which freely publishes much of Darwin's work online in electronic format. In particular, his interest was in how orchids are fertilised (in the wild), which is indeed a fascinating topic. He spent around 10 months of his time absorbed solely by that subject, which ultimately culminated in a book, On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing, which was published after his most famous work. In it, he adds further weight to his concepts around the necessity for sexual reproduction to maintain "fitness" - remember, he made these intellectual connections without any knowledge of genes or DNA:

"THE object of the following work is to show that the contrivances by which Orchids are fertilised, are as varied and almost as perfect as any of the most beautiful adaptations in the animal kingdom; and, secondly, to show that these contrivances have for their main object the fertilisation of each flower. In my volume 'On the Origin of Species' I have given only general reasons for my belief that it is apparently a universal law of nature that organic beings require an occasional cross with another individual; or, which is almost the same thing, that no hermaphrodite fertilises itself for a perpetuity of generations. Having been blamed for propounding this doctrine without giving ample facts, for which I had not, in that work, sufficient space, I wish to show that I have not spoken without having gone into details.

I have been led to publish this little treatise separately, as it has become inconveniently large to be incorporated with the rest of the discussion on the same subject. And I have thought, that, as Orchids are universally acknowledged to rank amongst the most singular and most modified forms in the vegetable kingdom, the facts to be presently given might lead some observers to look more curiously into the habits of our several native species. An examination of their many beautiful contrivances will exalt the whole vegetable kingdom in most persons' estimation. I fear, however, that the necessary details will be too minute and complex for any one who has not a strong taste for Natural History. This treatise affords me also an opportunity of attempting to show that the study of organic beings may be as interesting to an observer who is fully convinced that the structure of each is due to secondary laws, as to one who views every trifling detail of structure as the result of the direct interposition of the Creator."

Charles Darwin (1862) On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. London: John Murray pp1-2.

In particular, he was taken in by the extraordinary flowers of the Catasetinae, which to those who are not "orchid geeks" might be unfamiliar - they possess remarkable "hair trigger" mechanisms which effectively "shoot" the pollinator with their polinnia after they touch the mechanism. It's really quite amazing:

Another of the key findings in the book was a prediction - a hallmark of good science:

"I fear that the reader will be wearied, but I must say a few words on the Angræcum sesquipedale, of which the large six-rayed flowers, like stars formed of snow-white wax, have excited the admiration of travellers in Madagascar. A whip-like green nectary of astonishing length hangs down beneath the labellum. In several flowers sent me by Mr. Bateman I found the nectaries eleven and a half inches long, with only the lower inch and a half filled with very sweet nectar. What can be the use, it may be asked, of a nectary of such disproportional length? We shall, I think, see that the fertilisation of the plant depends on this length and on nectar being contained only within the lower and attenuated extremity. It is, however, surprising that any insect should be able to reach the nectar: our English sphinxes have probosces as long as their bodies: but in Madagascar there must be moths with probosces capable of extension to a length of between ten and eleven inches!"

Emphasis is mine. Indeed, some time later (1903), this very beast was discovered, initially named Xanthopan morgani praedicta Rothschild & Jordan, 1903. Indeed, fellow "co-inventor" (whose letter on the subject spurred Darwin to get around to publishing his most famous work) of the theory of evolution, and entomologist extraordinare, Alfred Russel Wallace, suggested that it would be a hawkmoth, noting the existence of a moth with a proboscis almost long enough in East Africa; this species and the one from Madagascar are currently considered the same species Xanthopan morgani (Walker 1856). Wikipedia has an article on the beast. And there's also this video:

Darwin also made an interesting observation that such tightly co-evolved species ultimately depend on each other:

"If such great moths were to become extinct in Madagascar, assuredly the Angræcum would become extinct. "

And indeed, this is a great threat for many such co-dependent species, and one of the many reasons in situ conservation is (wherever possible) always better than captive breeding of the last few of some endangered rarity.

We have an Angraecum sesquipedale - it nearly flowered once... Angraecum longicalcar (which we don't yet have) has an even longer spur - up to 40cm. Somewhere out there in Madagascar must be a moth with an even more impressive "business end"! These interesting relationships are further explored in a 1991 paper by Gene Kritsky, published in American Entomologist, available here.

I won't cover the rest of the book - if this has piqued your interest, you can of course read it yourself!

Not so much "balcony" any more... and other tales.

2014-02-07T16:29:00.003+02:00

At the end of November last year, Senior Management and I moved home, from flat-with-a-balcony to house-with-a-garden. This now somewhat negates the title of this blog, but I don't see why that can't just be the name of the blog anyway - it's where this madness started - so I'm keeping it! :)

Orchids... in a garden.

So, for the last two months, the orchids have been slumming it in temporary accommodation along the side of the garage. The first few days were certainly a learning experience. Strong winds and neighbourhood cats took their toll on the potted plants, with plenty found on the ground looking very sad. Fortunately, there have been very few casualties from the move so far, and some of the plants seem to have responded quite well to their more "natural" environment, increased air movement and of course, more light.

We addressed the cats and wind with a combination of hastily erected shadecloth windbreaks, tying pots to shelves with gardening "twist ties" or wire and repotting into heavier (clay) pots with rocks at the bottom. So far it seems to be working.

Orchids in a garden (well, along a wall next to a garden, anyway)
The contraption to the left with all the mounts is an old folding clothes horse used for drying clothes, we re-purposed it for orchids by hanging it from a pole above the roofing beams. Cable ties!

Orchids-in-pots
Note the piles of potting mix scattered here and there...
The shadecloth windbreak barriers can be seen to the left and right (white "cloth").

One of the nice "pluses" of this particular home is that it has a 1,500l rainwater tank in the back garden, which cuts right back on the number of trips I do every week to buy R/O water for the plants (and fish) to make up for the terrible quality of the local municipal water.

Of course, this little town in Africa gets a bit chilly for most of our plants, so we've been turning our attention to what will happen in a month or two when the weather takes a turn toward the chilly. Senior Management decreed that a greenhouse was the best solution, and I'm not arguing that point!

So, we've bought a greenhouse from Easy Greenhouses, a 8'x12' (about 2.59x3.83 meters) Rion plastic affair; Easy Greenhouses calls the model they sell a "Grand Gardener 46", but it seems to be a sort of hybrid between Rion's "Prestige" and "Grand Gardener" range in terms of features. The extra vents this model offers over some of the less costly models will certainly make a difference under that hot African sun!

Senior Management ponders the future spot for the greenhouse.
The amount of digging involved will be... painful.

Of course, installing this thing will now take quite some preparation to get into the ground and erected, and the appropriate services (particularly power) safely out to the spot where we'll erect it. There's currently a massive pile of boxes in our garage, pending clearing out the "vegetable patch" where it will live, levelling of the ground and installation of the plastic foundation. And of course, the construction of a suitable trench and laying of suitable conduit to carry power and some low voltage electronics (aka ethernet cables and security system cables) down there (in separate conduits for the mains and low voltage stuff, naturally!). Because, really, how can a greenhouse not have 1) power 2) internets 3) the option to not have all your plants going "walkies"?

Greenhouse-inna-box.
Well, quite a few boxes...

The serious purpose for the ethernet is monitoring conditions in the greenhouse with the InterSeptor. I haven't decided whether I'll put the main body down there or just the sensor - in any case, because pulling cables is a major pain, I'll have two ethernet cables going down there anyway. (One of the many things I do at work is networking, and I know how to do structured cabling for LANs. Of course, I'd love the outside link to be fiber, but that's a bit over the top). I'm leaning more toward leaving the main body in the house as it's then going to be on the UPS.

I'll be sure to keep you all updated on the progress of the greenhouse build, and I should really do some updates on the status of some of the plants...!

Pictures from cellphone camera.

Orchid Flask Review

2013-07-06T16:16:00.001+02:00

Last week, fellow South African orchid blogger David Vaughan, who blogs at http://phalaenopsisspot.blogspot.com, offered to send me a flask of Dendrobium crystallinum to review. I did point out that I was quite inexperienced at deflasking, but he still insisted it was a good idea... Never one to say no to plants, I quickly agreed. David enjoys growing orchids from seed, a topic I am intrigued by, but have never gone through the effort of doing, due to the difficulties of creating the sterile growing conditions and meeting the other requirements (like space...!) for successful in vitro germination and propagation of orchids.

If you're not particularly familiar with the topic, orchid seeds are mostly almost microscopic and dust-like, with little if any "food" in them (compared to the larger seeds of other plants, which have the embryo and a parcel of "food" to give it a head start in life). Orchids take a slightly different strategy - they make millions, even billions of tiny seeds that are little more than embryos without any "food" stored away. So in nature, they have to be really lucky to grow up. What happens with most orchids is a few of the seeds happen to settle somewhere where the right kind of fungus (called an "orchid mycorrhiza") just happens to be growing, and the orchid baby then basically germinates and then steals nutrients from the fungus, which is where it gets the energy to grow big enough to start producing its own sugars from photosynthesis; in some cases the orchid may ultimately give something back to the fungi, but I believe most orchids are quite "selfish" in this relationship, and many seem to keep leaning on the fungus throughout life to supplement their food supply; a few orchids don't photosynthesize at all (so-called "achlorophyllous" orchids) and get all their nutrients from fungi [many plants have fungal partners (mycorrhizae), which they give sugars in return for micronutrients and water; some plants "root systems" end up being mostly fungi; many garden plants will benefit from such fungi and you can buy cultures of them]. Interestingly, the kinds of fungi orchids "team up" with are often pathogenic (cause disease) in other plants. Really young orchid "seedlings" are made up of strange "lumps" of cells called "protocorms" - they look quite unlike any seedling you've ever seen. A little later in their development, the "protocorms" differentiate and produce roots and shoots.

Obviously, growing orchids this way (using fungi) is mostly really hit or miss, so several decades ago, people came up with the idea of giving the orchid embryos everything they need to develop in a sterile "petri dish" (known as a "flask"). Of course, if you put something in a rich nutrient broth, other things are also going to take advantage (bacteria and fungi) so you have to ensure not a single one makes it into the flask with the orchid - which is perhaps the hardest part of the process (of course, getting the growth media right is an art and science in itself...).

Anyway, after that little diversion about orchid seeds, germination and fungi, on to the flask itself!

Review
I asked David to randomly select one of the flasks he'd prepared to send to me. As David asked me to independently "review" the flask, I'll split this up into a couple of sub-sections.

Packing/packaging
The flask was very well packed, nestled in bubble wrap and packing "peanuts" and arrived the day after he sent it. Once unpacked, the flask was nicely labelled with a picture of the flower of the adult plant, along with the name, and on the back, useful unflasking instructions and of course records of when the plants had sown and been put (replated) into the current flask on the lid. The lid is also well sealed with tape, which should help prevent too much inadvertent contamination, or horror-of-horrors the flask opening in transit. Perhaps it's no coincidence that as someone who cares for living things as a profession (when not mucking about with orchids, he's an aquarist specialising in fish health) David is evidently well versed in how to pack living things for travel!

I took a couple of quick shots when I unpacked on Friday (28 June) last week:

Well packed!
Under the "peanuts" was a nifty construction of bubblewrap
that suspended the flask in transit

Helpful labelling.

Name of plant and picture of flower of this species, Dendrobium crystallinum.

Why, postman, why?
Of course, the post office completely ignored the "this way up at all times" stickers, and the box was handed over to me on its side. I suspect the flask spent some of its journey in the wrong orientation, as the "plug" of medium in which the seedlings are growing was lying at about 45 degrees across the container (it still is as I haven't really had the heart to slam the flask hard enough to dislodge it back into place). The plants seemed unscathed, and the agar wasn't too shaken up. Of course, there is little the sender can do to prevent this sort of thing in transit; I've seen parcels make it through the South African post and even deliveries by courier companies looking like a herd of elephants has used the packaging as a trampoline, so this was relatively pristine! Pictures below are immediately after unpacking.

Dislodged plants and medium - not too bad!

Dislodged plants and medium, other side

Impressions
I've had the flask in my possession for a week now, and everything still looks great; the flask has been sitting on a seed germination/propagation "heat mat"/germinator (supposedly should keep them at 19) as it is midwinter here, and David suggested they'd prefer being kept more around 18 degrees or above than suffering through the 10 degrees or so the balcony is currently experiencing at night.

The seedlings all look very healthy to me; they seem large enough to make it through the "deflasking" process, and the leaves and roots seem well formed. They'll still be happy in the medium for a little while; I'd like to only deflask when I get to try out a product (AgriSil) I cover below under "tips".

Some shots from today (Saturday 6 July):

Good roots.

Strong, healthy shoots

Healthy baby orchids

It is quite hard to take good macros through slightly cloudy plastic which is all fogged up!

A few of the plants around the edges were looking a little "ragged" - this is either from transport damage or from where they ended up sitting in a "puddle" of water - I've since tipped the flask at an angle to stop this from happening; the damage is quite minor however - and no fault of David's.

Some tips from David
I discussed the difficulties I'd had with deflasking, most notably with fungi, and David recommended trying a supplement rich in silica to help "harden off" the fragile seedlings; this is a fairly unusual supplement that doesn't seem to have yet made its way into the general gardening realm in South Africa, so is only really availble from agricultural suppliers, who tend to sell it in large volumes. It's not particularly expensive, but the courier costs I was quoted for delivery were outrageous (in the region of 5 times the cost of 5 litres of the product), so I have yet to acquire any. The supplement is called AgriSil K50, manufactured by Plant Health Products, and distributed in South Africa by Madumbi. They also do some very interesting looking "bioweapons" for plant health! The product he mentioned, AgriSil, is basically a solution of Potassium Silicate. Plants use silica to build stronger cell walls - essentially out of glass - and that helps keep out invaders like bacteria and fungi. The dose he recommends is 2.5ml of AgriSil per litre of water adjusted down to pH 6.5 (AgriSil starts at pH 11!); the rinsed seedlings (roots only) are then soaked in this for 12 hours before being potted up in a community pot ("compot").

I'm quite keen to try out this approach, as it makes sense to me. Armour coating an orchid in glass from the inside? I'm in!

He also noted he'd experienced more success deflasking into (small!) bark chips than any other medium, as he'd also found media that retain a lot of water (like sphagnum) tend to encourage problems with fungi and bacteria. My previous deflasking trials lead to the complete loss of all the cattleyas in pure moss, and I only got 4 out of the one which was mixed moss/bark (bacteria and fungi). Later on some scale moved in and started wreaking some havoc...It's possible I also was too cautious in maintaining high humidity for too long - I left the propagator lids on the plants for many weeks; typical "hardening off" times are apparently more like a fortnight.

David currently has flasks of Dendrobium crystallinum available for sale (presumably only within South Africa due to shipping complications with orchids across international borders), with several other species and hybrids close to being ready. He keeps a list of what is available on his blog at http://phalaenopsisspot.blogspot.com/p/the-availability-list.html. Each flask is about R175 plus postage, and contains roughly 30 plants. It will probably take several years before you see your baby orchid flower, but it's quite rewarding, and if you want lots of one plant (or maybe some spares to share/sell) it's a good way of getting plants, and often a great way of getting unusual plants.Given the sample of this species I've received, I can't say I have any hesitation whatsoever in saying that if he has something you're interested in acquiring, you should get hold of him! It's also often quite interested to raise a bunch of the "same" plant up and notice how much variation there can be in a species or especially a single hybrid cross, particularly in the flowers.

If you'd like to follow these seeds from their "birth", check out these two posts from his blog:
http://phalaenopsisspot.blogspot.com/2013/04/dendrobium-crystallinum-babies.html
http://phalaenopsisspot.blogspot.com/2013/05/may-babies.html

Deflasking seedlings is an interesting additional "angle" to growing orchids; it's not quite as easy as growing many "normal" plants from seed, but most of the hard work is out of the way when you get a flask of seedlings that are ready to be de-flasked and potted up. Give it a go!

Orchids on a Balcony featured on Orchids Made Easy

2013-06-28T10:01:00.001+02:00

The team that runs the website Orchids Made Easy featured my blog on a guest post at their website today, complete with an interview (and, shock horror, a picture of me from our wedding taken by Adrian Frost) of yours truly. Have a look at here to see the full article. Orchids Made Easy offers a newsletter with regular tips, as well as selling an orchid care (in print and/or electronic format) book.

Orchids on a Balcony featured at Orchids Made Easy

Any new visitors from Orchids Made Easy, welcome to Orchids on a Balcony, I hope you'll find some interesting reading here, and don't hesitate to ask questions in the comments below the posts!

Several other fairly prominent orchid blogs have been recently featured there, including:

Brooklyn Orchids
Florida Native Orchids
Backbulb Blog
Maria’s Orchids
and now us!

Click on the links above to read more about them at Orchids Made Easy. You'll also find more interesting Orchid-related reading in the sidebar at the right - the top has a list of (mostly) orchid-related blogs I think are well worth following; it lists them based on the most recent post made by that blog.

EPOS Annual May Display - and the Misadventures of Orchid Photography

2013-06-13T00:50:00.000+02:00

We managed to get to Port Elizabeth after all on the last weekend in May, when our "local" orchid society, EPOS, was having its Annual Display (see previous post). Sadly, although we had a few things in bloom (some paphiopedilums, a dendrobium and some cymbidiums), none of the OOAB menagerie made it down to be on display (they need to be dropped off during the week, and Port Elizabeth is a not inconsiderable distance away from OOAB HQ, about a 280km round trip; this doesn't mesh well with having a day job!).

Christo did a great job of displaying the plants members had brought in. There was a very tempting section of plant sales too, but we (somehow...) managed to resist the temptation, although a Paphiopedilum insigne very nearly persuaded us (it looks like Senior Management might have a weak spot for paphs, possibly because we can get them to bloom reliably and they aren't massive plants. Also, they're Paphs, and you can't argue with that).

Talking of Senior Management, she's decided the Big Camera is kind of fun to use, so the pictures below may be taken by either of us; pictures with an fine artistic sensibility are likely hers, or art directed by her, pictures that are of single flowers, boringly framed, are likely mine. It is great to have a partner that's also interested in photography (as Ron at Orchids in Bloom will attest); it makes hanging about taking endless photographs of things less awkward, and it's nice to have someone to share the results with too!

When pulling some camera gear out of my bag, someone asked me if I was "from the Newspaper" - I guess that's one of the perils of carting around a large DSLR with a big flash and fairly large looking lenses!

So, on to some photographs! As a "display" rather than a "show", there was no judging, and all the plants were integrated into displays.

First, some general pictures of the display (this doesn't capture everything on display - there were tons of plants in there!):

Yours Truly cunningly times blink to coincide with flash firing

The lighting was a bit tricky; a mix of natural sunlight and fluorescent and quite dim. Small apertures, dim lighting and no tripod are not a great recipe for photographic success... I'm also not a huge fan of flash photography of large areas, nor high ISO settings, which generally compounds the challenge.

Next, we had some fun getting a little more up close and personal with the plants (being mindful not to damage anything with dangling camera straps, wayward toes, bags and flash cords etc). Not all the orchids are named as I couldn't always see or easily reach a label and I didn't want to unduly disturb all Christo's hard work or risk damaging anything; and of course some plants are inevitably NOIDs! I have also not looked any of them up to check if their names have changed in the Taxonomy Wars, so some of the names might not be up-to-the-minute.

Senior Management was quite taken with a little Phalaenopsis equestris tucked in next to masses of Laelia anceps:

Senior Management with Gryffindor-themed scarf
(her most recently completed crochet project),
Laelia anceps, Phal. equestris and a mini-catt

Senior Management gets dangerously close to a flock of wild Paphs.

Senior Management notes that mini-catts
are better than big catts.
I happen to agree.

This is what happens when you accidentally put the camera into timer mode and hand it to a neophyte photographer:

Underexposed Rock

Blurry Leaf

Almost an Orchid

"Why is this camera so slow and hard to use?" quoth Senior Management. That said, this would have happened to me too if I was taking handheld macros with the timer turned on... Indeed, it's entirely possible one or more of those happened to me, because I distinctly remember going "hmm" and working it out quite fast after getting the camera back from a somewhat miffed Senior Management. After The Timer Incident, things went better... As always, feel free to click on an image to see a much bigger version of it (orchids usually repay a view of a larger version of the picture!).

A Dendrobium [I think...] (no label)

The so-distinctive-I-don't-need-a-label
Prosthechea cochleata

Psychopsis papilio

Psychopsis papilio, detail

Zygopetalum Violetta von Holm

Zygopetalum Violetta van Holm

Phalaenopsis (probably manii)
Quite different from the hybrids most people are used to seeing in shops everywhere!

Phalaenopsis equestris
a charming miniature species

Vanda tricolor 'suavis' x Vanda coerulea
detail of lip

Vanda tricolor 'suavis' x Vanda coerulea"get the whole flower in", says Senior Management

Vanda tricolor 'suavis' x Vanda coerulea"No, the other way around"

Vanda tricolor 'suavis' x Vanda coerulea"Can't you get the background less dark"?

Vanda tricolor 'suavis' x Vanda coerulea"He looks really cool from the back!"

If you look carefully at the stem above, you'll see it's twisted, showing that this is a resupinate flower, like many orchids. Resupinate flowers twist through 180º as they develop; in effect, the orchid flowers you're used to mostly grow "upside down" (if the lip is at the bottom, it's resupinate). If you think that's crazy, gastropod mollusks (snails) undergo torsion which is (to me) even crazier.

Oncidium alliance

Odcdm. Tiger Crow 'Golden Girl'

Odcdm. Tiger Crow 'Golden Girl
"Get the detail in the flower"

Odcdm. Tiger Crow 'Golden Girl'
"No, from the side".

Odcdm. Tiger Crow 'Golden Girl'
"And stop taking a picture of just one flower".

~~? some kind of Cattleya alliance? quite small.~~
Coelogyne fimbriata Thanks Silje!
I posted a thread about this plant on OrchidBoard requesting an ID

Coelogyne fimbriata, zoomed out a bit.

Phragmipedium (not sure which one, couldn't find a label)
Pretty sure it's got some besseae in there!
I suspect this is the same flower pictured in the flyer for the Display!

?Oncidium alliance?

Unknown vinicolor Paph.

Paphiopedilums
probably Paphiopedilum spicerianum (rear two) and insigne (front)

Not sure now if this is a parvisepalum Paphiopedilum or a Phragmipedium!

Dendrobium ???

Masdevallia Mary Stahl

Paphiopedilum supardii x Paph. Alma Gavaert

Cattleya alliance of some kind
Very shiny!

Slc. Tangerine Jewel 'Southern Cross' x Bright Angel
Mini-catts are perfect for very bright windowsills!

Ett. (Eplc.) Volcano Trick 'Orange Fire'

Lc Mari's [< not 100% sure of this, label hard to read] Song 'CTM217' x Sc Beaufort 'Luna Rousse' 4N

Pot. Little Toshie 'Golden Fantasy'
(Blc Toshie Aoki x Sc Beaufort)

Gigantic Cymbidium dominating the center of the display area

Detail of Cymbidium spike.

We hope you've enjoyed this brief visit (or re-visit if you made it to the display that day!) of the EPOS May Display 2013; I'm sure most of my readers are from even further away than I am, so I doubt many of you will have seen these first hand!

Annual EPOS Orchid Display 2013

2013-05-24T16:30:00.000+02:00

Some publicity for our Orchid Society's Annual Orchid Display this weekend, 24-26 May 2013, at the Sherwood Garden Centre in Port Elizabeth. Entry is just R5 and there are orchid potting demonstrations, as well as corsages and orchid plant sales together with various orchid growing sundries like potting mix and fertilisers, along with a tea room to quench that inevitable thirst! If you're in the area or within driving distance, drop in for your fix of orchid-y greatness. :) If you're not sure where Sherwood is, here's a handy map.

I'm not sure if we'll make it as our weekend schedule is looking pretty full, but if we do, expect a follow-up post with pictures.

As always, if you live in or around PE and like orchids, I can only encourage you to join the Eastern Province Orchid Society!

Dendrobium harveyanum

2013-05-05T13:59:00.000+02:00

This is another one of my Dendrobiums that flowered for the first time in 2012 - again, it needed a dry winter "rest" period to trigger the flowering. After seeing the crazy fringed flower edges of Dendrobium harveyanum in flower, I knew I had to have one, which was one of my earlier acquisitions. The flowers were worth the wait, I think you'll agree.

Dendrobium harveyanum
3 October 2012

Dendrobium harveyanum

Dendrobium harveyanum
showing why people wash the leaves of their orchids
prior to shows and serious photo-sessions!

Dendrobium harveyanum

Dendrobium harveyanum
detail of flower edge, 2:1 macro

Dendrobium harveyanum
detail of flower lip, 2:1 macro

Take a moment to click on some of the photos to see the detail full screen.

For more information on this species, refer to the IOSPE page.

NB I should point out that several of these shots are quite underexposed; the colour is actually more yellow than orange.

Some Angraecoid "first blooms"

2013-05-05T12:38:00.000+02:00

Some time back, I decided to finally use the coir (coconut husk fibre) planting mats Senior Management bought me for Christmas in 2011 (from a shop called Gady Gady in Krakow, Poland of all places) to mount some plants on. These nifty products are intended as backgrounds in terrariums. One ended up covered in Tillandsia, but the second I decided to make into an angraecoid mount. I ended up using a hot melt glue gun to fasten it onto a plastic chopping board, as I didn't think the wall would greatly enjoy the moisture that would permeate the mount. Plants were secured to the mount with nylon fishing line, using a curved upholstery needle to go through the coir. I was somewhat anxious that the Aerangis luteoalba var. rhodosticta (which was in spike at the time) would resent the move, but I needn't have worried. It put on a good show, with three spikes:


Aerangis luteoalba var. rhodosticta 1 March 2013

Aerangis luteoalba var. rhodosticta

Pictures from my phone, so sorry if they're a little bit on the rough side.

If my botanical Latin isn't too off, the name and variety mean something along the lines of "yellowish-white with red spots", which is a fairly accurate description. These flowers are quite rewarding; they have only now (in May) died off; they've been going strong since February. Aside from the coir background, the planting pockets are filled with hydroton brand LECA, and a little bit of sphagnum moss is covering most of the roots for a little added moisture. I can't see any reason someone wouldn't want one of these charming little plants! We've had this plant since October 2011, and this is the first time it's bloomed. It will be interesting to see how the mount develops, but given the glacial pace at which angraecoids grow, I imagine it will be a long process!

Our Angraecum distichum, which also arrived in October 2011, was mounted on a small piece of Ecoweb, and has been limping along since then. I eventually decided it was perhaps a little on the dry side and added some sphagnum moss to the mount, and since then, it's perked up a lot - to the point of flowering. The flowers are very small, but I quite like them, and the unusual growth form of the plant, with its overlapping leaves, is pretty cool. They have a crystalline texture to the flowers which comes out quite well in flash photos. When I water these plants, I water the entire thing, including the leaves, as roots seem to occasionally emerge from between the leaf "nodes" so it makes sense to me to encourage that. The plant is pretty waxy, so water doesn't sit on it for very long.

Angraecum distichum
16 April 2013

Angraecum distichum

Again, photos from by phone, so apologies that they are not the most accomplished of macros!

More sadly, our quite large Angraecum sesquipedale was developing very two promising looking buds which just decided to turn brown and die one day. I'm not too sure why, but I suspect they didn't enjoy the slightly colder weather that blew in as they were developing in late spring.

Even more sadly, our little Sobennikoffia humbertiana dropped all its leaves and died shortly thereafter. I suspect it got too much water and decided that a life of excess was not for it. Sobennikoffia are supposed to be quite hard to grow, and come from some of the drier regions of Madagascar (one account suggests they get much of their water from dew, which isn't exactly a deluge of water!). Again, these are plants that are supposed to have a winter dry rest, which this did not really have, although I watered it quite lightly, I guess this watering wasn't nearly light enough...

It's pretty crazy to think I haven't actually bought a new orchid since October 2011.

Dendrobium hercoglossum

2013-05-04T11:37:00.000+02:00

Dendrobium hercoglossum27/12/2012

After a proper winter drought, this plant finally decided to flower (I've had it since Feb 2011 - it's grown quite a bit since then). It seems that it's cruel to be kind to many Dendrobiums, which really require a full on winter drought before they'll even think about flowering. Under this new treatment regime, several of my more recalcitrant dendrobiums decided it was time to flower.

I've recently moved this plant from its location right into a window, where I think it will enjoy the additional light. It's getting close to the time I ought to start reducing watering those winter rest plants too.

Vanda Manuvadee 'Blue'

2013-05-03T20:00:00.000+02:00

After a long time (we got this way back in Feb 2011), our Vanda Manuvadee 'Blue' decided to flower (it aborted a spike the previous year). This plant gets a disproportionate amount of love (in terms of the amount of time spent watering all those massive roots) compared to the other OOAB denizens. I guess it finally paid off!

Vanda Manuvadee 'Blue'
21 Dec 2012

Vanda Manuvadee 'Blue'
26 Dec 2012

Vanda Manuvadee 'Blue'

Vanda Manuvadee 'Blue'
Note the masses of roots!

Pictures from my phone, so apologies if they're not quite up to spec :)

Vanda Manuvadee has a strong "dose" of Vanda coerulea in its ancestry, so it should be pretty cold tolerant (handy during OOAB winters). The hybrid Manuvadee was first registered in 1985, and is a cross of V. Pompinol with V. coerulea.

It doesn't have any medium in the tiny basket it is in, so its roots get a pretty thorough daily soaking (via pressure sprayer); twice daily in summer. "Pretty thorough" means the roots get sprayed once, the water is allowed to soak in while I do the potted plants than need it, and then thoroughly sprayed again. Like most vandaceous orchids (which include Phalaenopsis) the roots take a little while to have water soak into them - when the root covering layer (velamen) is dry and whitish in colour, it takes a little while to hydrate. So, to really water such roots effectively, you need to soak them so the entire root is green and glistening wet. Places where these orchids naturally grow get a lot of water on a regular basis, but then dries out before the next drenching, so these plants appreciate replicating this. At least, that is the case where the leaves are strap shaped. Round/cylindrical leaves (terete) generally come from drier climates. Vandas also seem to appreciate being fed; mine is probably under-fed as I tend to fertilise based on the requirements of the more sensitive species in the collection.

I suspect it would do better with a daily soak for 10-20 minutes in a large bucket/tub, but OOAB's floorspace has nowhere large enough to accommodate such an object. Beside the floorspace issue, given my trepidation about transferring "nasties" between plants, I am loathe to install a communal "dunk bucket" into which plants are plunged. It would be a lot easier, but the risk is too great. Before I learned about the risks of transferring plant pathogens (particularly fungi, viruses and bacteria) in this manner, I used to give plants a soak in communal baths (either the kitchen sink or a large cooler box) every so often. No more!

Having seen some of the absolute monster Vandas other EPOS members bring in to plant tables, this still has a lot of growing to do!

Lycaste aromatica

2013-05-02T15:44:00.002+02:00

I have been extremely quiet of late; there are quite a few pictures lurking around waiting to be uploaded, so there should be a flurry of activity just as things are quietening down on the balcony as we head into winter.

Lycaste aromatica is a very rewarding orchid to grow, as it has interesting yellow/slightly green flowers - but the main pay-off is in the interesting cinnamon scent its flowers produce. If you'd like to experience this smell, find the nearest packet of artificially flavoured cinnamon confectionery/chewing gum and give it a sniff - bingo! Of course, a better bet to really experience it is to own a plant of this species...

Lycaste aromatica. 21 Dec 2012

Late last year (Dec 2012), I finally abandoned Nokia/Symbian and moved to Samsung/Android with a Galaxy S3, which has a fairly decent camera, which is what took this image. As I always have this to hand (unlike my SLR, which is usually packed away) expect to see more images from this device!

Most Lycaste orchids are deciduous, including aromatica. This means they lose their leaves during the dry season (which roughly corresponds with winter). During this time, you can basically ignore them, particularly with regard to water. They only need to be watered (thoroughly) once they are in active growth. The first sign of activity will be the flower buds emerging, shortly after this, the new pseudobulb(s) will sprout leaves, which is a fairly good indication the plant might be getting thirsty after a dry winter rest! Old pseudobulbs don't seem to regrow leaves. I quite like the leaves, but they can get pretty large for a small growing area. The psuedobulbs are protected (once the leaves are gone) with some surprisingly vicious thorns, which I commented on and illustrated in a previous post.

There are several good pages about Lycaste online if you'd like to learn more:
As always, the AOS culture sheets give you a good basic overview
A good overview of the entire genus
Some more information about Lycaste culture.

Brassocattleya Morning Glory

2012-10-11T22:05:00.000+02:00

Some time back, a member of the EPOS (Margaret) gave me part of a Brassocattleya (Bc.) Morning Glory that another member had given her, as it more or less fell in two when she repotted it - orchid society plant insurance is to spread divisions of your plants around in case anything untoward happens to yours!

After a long wait, four of the buds have opened:

Bc. Morning Glory; detail of lip

Bc. Morning Glory

Bc. Morning Glory; detail of lip

This is the orchid with the largest individual flowers the OOAB collection; we tend to steer away from the giant Cattleya-type blooms for the most part, but this is quite a nice plant to my eyes, and it's very hard to say no to a free orchid. :) Incidentally, this plant is another one of the casualties in the taxonomic name wars; its parents, which constitute a first generation (primary) intergeneric hybrid are (for the moment) classified as Brassavola nodosa and Cattleya purpurata. Cattleya purpurata used to be in the genus Laelia, so many people may have seen this plant labelled Bl. (Brassolaelia) Morning Glory; however, for the moment at least, Brassocattleya (Bc.) Morning Glory is the right name! If you look at the two parents (click on the links above), you'll see that the colour and lip patterning must come from the Cattleya parent, whilst the huge lip and somewhat narrower petals and sepals seem to be inherited from the Brassavola parent. This is quite an old hybrid, first registered in 1958; this cross has since gone on form part of at least 27 other registered hybrid orchids (according to version 8 of OrchidWiz).

It arrived at OOAB HQ with some scale; careful ministrations with cotton buds soaked in surgical spirits and drizzling a little Bio Kill into the leaf axils where we couldn't reach seems to have knocked out those menacing little beasts. Talking of menacing little beasts, the fellow EPOS member who gave me this division lost about half of their first flowers (which developed a month or so earlier than mine) to a slug, which devoured several promising buds overnight!

Oerstedella centradenia

2012-10-10T21:34:00.002+02:00

This little Oerstedella has been fighting a long, hard battle against scale. Eventually, I put this little plant in a ziplock bag, added some Bio Kill, and shook it around until the entire plant was wet with insecticide. This seems to be a pretty effective small-scale way of applying pesticides, and is particularly nice as you don't get any overspray - particularly handy for indoor growers with no garden (like us here at OOAB) to use for a quick spray. After that, I potted it up in some Hydroton (LECA). This seems to have finally knocked out the scale, and the plant has responded with some pretty little flowers.

Oerstedella centradenia

I hope it will now decide to start thriving a little more now that its energy isn't continually sapped by vicious little bugs!

Dendrochilum glumaceum

2012-10-06T18:14:00.000+02:00

I often find small things repay close attention; the natural world is full of miniature marvels, and orchids no less so. You can spend quite a long time looking at things through a 1:1 macro lens (a microscope even more so) - and adding a 2x teleconverter to your macro lens can get you some really interesting images. Once you get those images back and look at them full screen, the results can be quite amazing. The pictures below were taken at a 1:1 macro setting through a Canon 100mm macro lens at f16 1/60th second exposure with total flash lighting.

Dendrochilum orchids generally have long flower stems with many flowers growing off them in very close proximity, giving a "bottle brush" effect. Grown to specimen size, these plants look great with gracefully arched stems dotted all over the plant (mine has a long way to go...!). But take a closer look and you'll see more obviously "orchid-like" flowers hidden in there.

Dendrochilum glumaceum

Dendrochilum glumaceum is quite strongly scented - I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but it's a sort of sweet, creamy smell - the sort of smell you sometimes get in "creme" hand soaps that I absolutely hate, but many will find very pleasant! Googling the scent of this species brings back a lot of hits for "hay scented" - I can't imagine hay smelling anything like this, because in my mind hay would be freshly cut grass, a smell I'm familiar with from mowing lawns. As far as I can tell, Dendrochilum seem to like being kept quite moist. If you're interested in learning more about this genus, make sure to check out dendrochilum.com!

Aerangis fastuosa

2012-10-05T17:23:00.000+02:00

You may remember this plant from last year. It has again decided to bloom for us in September (it's still going strong now).

Aerangis fastuosa

Aerangis fastuosa
Note the long spur

Aerangis fastuosa

Again, it won "Best Miniature" on display at the EPOS September meeting plant table (we also took along the Jumellea comorensis you may remember from the previous post and our Dendrochilum glumaceum). It was pure white when we displayed it, but there seems to be a little damage to the blooms now (the slight brown discolouration at the back of the lip), presumably from being jumbled around during the ~260km round trip. The blooms aren't as profuse this year; I'm chalking this up to less humidity (because our humidifiers have all broken). Still a very charming plant, and one day I may get around to mounting it, which will let it show off its flowers to best effect! Again, it has a fairly heady jasmine smell, but not nearly as pronounced as last year (when it had more than twice as many flowers).

Jumellea comorensis

2012-10-03T21:10:00.000+02:00

Here is our Jumellea comorensis, which has been in bloom (just the one flower) for over a month now. I really like Angraecoid orchids - and a lot of them come from countries in the area the project I work for studies (only we study the sea - not too many orchids there...!) and it seems like quite a cool idea to grow things that come from more or less where you live. I took this one to the last EPOS meeting in September; it looks like the transport (or maybe just time) has done some damage; it's going a bit brown at the back there; it was initially pure white.

I've actually been to the island of Grand Comoro (Ngazidja) (comorensis means "from the comoros" - this species is known from Grand Comoro) - way back in 2003 - for a grand total of about 5 hours, hopping off a ship, taking a taxi to a tiny village, deciding the weather was too rough to dive from the beach (massive boulders making an eerie low pitched crunching noise) and then back to the ship. The roads there are incredibly narrow, and we noticed that many cars were missing wing mirrors. Amazingly, the taxi we took still had one. By the time we got from the capital, Moroni, to the village (Itsandra), the wing mirror was gone...

Anyway, enough words, let's look at some flowers!

Jumellea comorensis - front

Jumellea comorensis - lateral

Jumellea comorensis

The long spur seems to have stayed caught up in the node where the flower originated (see the second picture above); if you do a google image search of this species, it seems to be quite a common trait.

Some new flowers

2012-10-02T21:54:00.000+02:00

Thing have been quiet on this blog again lately, but not so much on the balcony (and certainly not in Life!) - plenty has been in bloom, several plants for the first time!

First up, Masdevallia Snowbird (M. tovarensis x M. meijiana), which has lovely, white, long lasting blooms that - at least in my plant - are scented with a lovely mix of a clovey-cinnamon spice together with a floral scent that reminds me of jasmine. You'll notice it within a few feet of the plant, and definitely if you put your nose anywhere near it! This one hasn't flowered for me before, but when it got around to it, it certainly put on a show!

Masdevallia Snowbird

It's grown a fair bit since I received it just over a year and a half ago (wow, time flies!).

Another first time bloomer is my small Dendrochilum wenzelii, which when well established can put on quite a show. This is one of the plants Senior Management noted - at last year's (2011) EPOS Show - would be allowed into the OOAB house if one happened to find its way home. It did, mysteriously. :)

Dendrochilum wenzelii

Next we have our Dendrobium kingianum that went absolutely crazy with flowers this year - sadly, they don't last too long. There were a lot more flowers than last year - clearly the "it's kind to be cruel" rule of withholding winter water in (many) Dendobiums works well with this species. Sadly, my plan to take more photos of it once more flowers had opened never happened, but the profusion of buds gives a good indication of the show it put on for us!

Dendrobium kingianum

NOID mini Phalaenopsis

You may remember this mini Phalaenopsis from last year - it's back in bloom again this year; I think I need to step up my fertiliser dosing for the phalaenopsis (I tend to cater for the more delicate plants more in my regular watering, so fertiliser is minimal).

And now for some non-orchids (gasp!)

This is one of Senior Management's favourite plants and its blooms stay open for a very short time indeed, so I thought I'd try and take a picture that might make a nice desktop backgroud. If you'd like to see some awesome time lapse footage of similar plants opening, have a look over at Plantgasm's Timelapse section.

Although commonly known as Amaryllis, these are in fact a cultivar of Hippeastrum.

I'm not sure what this little semi-succulent plant is, but I just love the anthers.
It has a slightly odd, pungent garlicky smell when in bloom.

As always, don't forget you can click on any of the pictures if you'd like to see a larger version!

EPOS Annual Show 2012

2012-08-14T17:18:00.001+02:00

The Eastern Province Orchid Society is having its Annual Show this weekend, 17-19th August 2012, at the Sherwood Garden Centre in Port Elizabeth. Entry to see the show costs just R10 a person; entering plants is free.

Here's a map for your convenience:

View Larger Map

Show opening times are:

Friday 17th : 13:00-17:00
Saturday 18th : 09:00-17:00
Sunday 19th: 09:00-16:00

Judging takes place from 09:00 to 13:00 on Friday; during this time, only the judging team and their assistants will be permitted into the exhibition.

As well as the various show entries, there will also be plants and orchid supplies for sale, a tea room and various talks and presentation. As one of South Africa's biggest orchid societies (in terms of member numbers) we can expect quite a lot of fantastic entries.

If you would like to enter the show, with a chance to have your plants judged and possibly awarded by the South African Orchid Council, please note that entries have to be delivered to the centre on Thursday 16th August from 09:00 to 18:00, and must be accompanied by a Exhibitor Entry Form. There is a NOID category, so don't be afraid of entering orchids whose exact identity is a mystery, and there is a category for novices too! Plants can be collected after 4PM on Sunday.

Sadly, my own orchid collection is not in a showy mood - being some distance inland, winter is longer and colder than at the coast, so it's a bit early for OOAB to score any great glory! (We had the same problem last year).

If you'd like a look at last year's show, or need some inspiration to get in your car and go, have a look at these posts. I imagine this year will be quite similar!

If you'd like some tips on entering plants into shows, here is what EPOS' August 2012 newsletter has to say:

Even if you are a small grower with only a few plants, your blooming orchids will enhance the orchid show and add to your enjoyment of the hobby. Don't hesitate to enter them. Here's how to exhibit them at their best.

Make sure there are no insects or diseases lurking about. Spray your plants with a broad spectrum pesticide / fungicide well before the buds open. Carefully examine under the leaves and remove all signs of scale or other stationary pests.

Remove moss or weeds from the potting medium. Remember no other plants except orchids may be displayed and weeds are “other plants”.

For the Cattleya alliance and similar orchids, wet the pseudobulbs under a tap or spray with clean water and remove all dead bulb sheaths and other dead tissue.

Remove yellow or dead leaves or leaf tips. Also remove any flowers that are starting to go off or probably will not last through the show. Use a separate new, disposable razor blade for each plant or sterilise your cutters between plants.

If your plant shows salt residue from hard water, go over it with a solution of detergent and water with 10% household bleach. Thick leaved orchids like Phalaenopsis and Cattleyas can take some light washing with a washcloth. Rinse with plain water and dry immediately with a soft cloth. The cleaner and healthier your plant appears, the better impression it will make on the judges.

Staking is extremely important. Don't expect the show committee to do this for you. If you don't have a stake, make one from a piece of fence wire or a coat hanger. Long inflorescences, such as on Phalaenopsis, should not be staked in a rigid upright position, nor should they be allowed to flop down. They should be staked just below the first blossom, and the upper stem should be allowed to curve gracefully. Do this as soon as the first buds reach a noticeable size. Keep the buds facing the light until they open. On a plant with multiple flower stems, arrange them in an orderly way. They should radiate outward as naturally as possible, not all facing front.

Buds in the Cattleya alliance often need some help. There is much controversy over what is ethically permissible to do, but minor manipulation seems to be acceptable as long as all the “helps” are removed (and all evidence thereof) before the show. If the buds tend to crowd together, push them apart with spacers made from Styrofoam pieces or cotton wool.

Cotton wool, tissue paper or bubble wrap can be used to protect flowers on the way to the show.

Make sure the plant is identified and labelled accurately. Much embarrassment can be caused if your plant is named incorrectly and is thereby disqualified. If you don't have the plant's name, it can still be entered in the NOID (No identification) class. A beautiful unnamed orchid can still win you an award.

If you have at least part of the name, or only the parents, consult the Orchid Wiz programme or similar source for the correct name or ask someone with access thereto to assist you.

Make sure the plant label is stuck firmly down in the pot or attached to the pot so it is visible.

Complete the entry list with your name and the names of your plants beforehand. All this will make life much easier for the setup people and the show committee, as well as those taking down the show. Make sure the setup people mark all your plants with your unique number before they are placed in the exhibitors area.

Keep a copy of your plant list and make a note of the identifier number allocated to you. This will make it so much easier when you collect your plants after the show.

I'll be sure to take some pictures over the weekend - we plan to go on Sunday. Hope to see you there!

Miltonia moreliana and Dendrobium mousmee

2012-03-18T16:18:00.000+02:00

Miltonia moreliana

At the EPOS meeting last Thursday, one of the members brought in this spectacular specimen of Miltonia moreliana. This plant was at one stage considered to be a variety of another species - Miltonia spectabilis var. moreliana, but it has since been elevated to species level. Clearly this plant is worthy of wider cultivation. The previous South African Orchid Council (the AOS of South Africa, if you like!) award to this species was given to a small plant with just two flowers in 2010. There seem to be quite a lot of AOS awards at the 70-odd flower count, and there are a couple or awarded plants with over 100 flowers from Australia and the USA. I imagine the South African judges would have fallen off their chairs if presented with this. Sorry the photos aren't that great - cellphone cameras are not DSLRs!

The other spectacular specimen we saw that night was a Dendrobium mousmee 'Coleen' which is growing in the speaker's garden centre business; unfortunately, this was only photographically, but nonetheless, the statistics are impressive. He had the plant for several years without blooming and then gave it away. Ultimately, he bought it back a few years later. The plant is perhaps 30-35 years old and in that time has grown to a monster of around 5m in circumference! It has over 5,000 flowers and buds:

Dendrobium mousmee 'Colleen'
Photo courtesy Colin Silver, Stoneage Orchids

Not surprisingly, this plant has previously been judged; in 2005 it had 3,500 flowers. I can only imagine it will continue getting larger and larger. You can see more photos of it at the Stoneage Orchids facebook album here.

New spikes and flowers

2012-03-06T16:12:00.000+02:00

Things are definitely deciding to bloom again.

Dendrobium Mini (White with Red Lip)

Our Dendrobium Mini has not one, not two but three separate flower spikes - pictured above is one of them. They're getting longer every day and the buds are starting to take shape now.

Even one of our two cymbidiums has had enough of sitting around doing nothing and is busy putting up two spikes. I have no idea what has triggered that, as I understand it usually takes cooler temperatures to trigger it, and it's been boiling hot around here, but I generally find that plants don't actually spend a lot of time reading books and sometimes resolutely resist such conventions! Given a few weeks, I suspect we'll see some flowers, but you never quite know when an orchid is going to be showing its blooms (at least, I never do!). I'd been starting to think that our little balcony just doesn't get enough light for these plants which have remained fairly unexciting grassy looking houseplants for quite some time now, but it seems - at least on that windowsill - there is just about enough! I wonder if it might be having a bit more water (Cymbidiums apparently quite like to be kept on the damp side), as it receives the run-off from a Vanda that sits above it and is regularly sprayed.

Our Stenoglottis Ganymede also has two spikes on it:

Stenoglottis Ganymede
Flowers beginning to open.

Stenoglottis Ganymede

If last year is anything to go by, this flower spike will get at least three or four times this length and be covered in blooms.

Towards the end of last year, I received an Aerangis citrata from Plantae which had two spikes on it; the flowers are now starting to open.


Aerangis citrataFirst flower to open.

Aerangis citrata

Aerangis citrata
showing spur

I really enjoy the angraecoid orchids, which have a delicate and graceful elegance to them (at least, I think they do!). I haven't detected a scent to this one but I have yet to sniff it in the evenings, when this group is usually most strongly scented. The flower has a very slight yellowish tint to it (hence the botanical name, I suspect) which isn't coming through in these photos very well.

Stelis ?vulcanica? - surprise flowering

2012-03-02T13:37:00.000+02:00

Usually I notice when plants throw out a spike - I tend to watch them like a hawk for any signs of interesting growth. Well, actually, I doubt hawks look at their orchid collections much, so I watch them like any (obsessive?) orchid-grower watches their plants... Somehow, I missed this one that sprung up in between several leaves that had grown on top of each other; I was having a look at the plant and noticing several other promising-looking growths on the leaves, and then this spike peeped out at me, in full bloom!

Stelis nanegalensis

For those of you who just like the pretty pictures, stop reading now. Beyond this point Taxonomy Alert!

I obtained this plant, labelled Stelis vulcanica, last year; it appears not to be a valid name (RHS says it should be Stelis nanegalensis), but this name still seems to be commonly used. It's also possible that this is mis-identified. We first saw a "Stelis vulcanica" at an EPOS meeting last year (the first one Senior Management and I attended together, I think); someone noted (when the plant table was being discussed) that vulcanica wasn't valid and suggested it was perhaps argentata, but it seems they probably actually meant nanegalensis! In any case, Senior Management expressed the opinion that such a plant should be encouraged to appear at OOAB, so this was duly accomplished.

Anyone have a handy (up-to-date) monograph on Stelis, preferably with keys?

http://speciesidentificationtaskforce.blogspot.com/2010/07/additional-information-stelis.html has some scans of various books that are somewhat helpful; one of the references notes that argentata has a small hook on the lip of the flower, which this flower has (zoom in on the full size versions, or see crop below); at the same time, there is a nice botanical illustration of nanegalensis which clearly also shows such a "tooth". It's possible one of the authors got this wrong (such a thing is not unheard of). At the same time, I'm an absolute neophyte at plant taxonomy, so I could be totally mistaken. To me, this looks most like Luer's illustration of nanegalensis, so I suspect that is what this is

Stelis, detail of lip (crop)

Illustration of Stelis nanegalensis
from Luer in Icones Pleurothallidinarum
Note lip detail.

The initial Species Identification Task Force (SITF) blog post on Stelis nanegalensis shows the detail of the lip structure well in one of the close-up photos.

Luer's monograph contains some other little gems: interestingly, it seems that Nanegal is the town where this species was originally collected from and described (by Lindley in 1858 - the suffix -ensis in a latin name can be thought of as "comes from"); Schlechter later described (what is ultimately the same species) as vulcanica in 1915; the rules of taxonomy dictate the earliest validly published name takes priority, so hello, nanegalensis! "vulcanica" apparently stems from it having been collected in or around the Pulalagua Volcano. Apparently, one can distinguish the apparently rather similar Stelis superbiens from nanegalensis on the basis of the teeth on the lips - which suggests at least some orchids identified as superbiens are not - see for example this which clearly has 3 teeth on its lip! Sadly, I don't have access to the Icones Pleurothallidinarum, so I can't leaf through the Stelis section for general inspiration, nor see what they have to say about argentata.

S. argentata is also noted to have a (single) tooth in the center of the lip - an email from Luer suggests that argentata is very variable, and may occasionally have extra teeth (argh!); ultimately though he seems to decide that the plant the SITF is looking at is nanegalensis.

These plants seem to be quite variable in both colouration and the amount of "hairyness" on the flowers; this may be simply variability, or it may just be an unrecognised species complex ; given the diversity, range and potential habitat isolation of Andean pleurothallids, that does not seem beyond the bounds of reason. Luer's email linked to earlier suggests it's simple variability; I'm not sure if he's a "lumper" or a "splitter". "Lumpers" are taxonomists who are conservative in assigning things species rank; "splitters" tend to like to recognise diversity as valid species.

Until otherwise noted, this does indeed seem to be "vulcanica", only the valid name for this species is Stelis nanegalensis. Time for a label update!

Names, Names, Names!

2012-02-23T07:30:00.000+02:00

At the last EPOS meeting, before the main talk, the speaker (Hendrelien Peters) gave an overview of some of the craziness around orchid names and how they keep changing at the moment, and usefully, how to wade through the morass to the right name for your plants.

If you're "in" the orchid world, no doubt you'll be familiar with the upheavals in plant names, if you're not, it's kind of interesting (not to mention frustrating), so here's what I recall of the topic, plus some useful tools. I sit right in the middle between the two camps - the hobbyists that don't like change, and the taxonomists that want to get it right, even if it's a bit annoying - I spent some time as a taxonomist-in-training, so I'm sympathetic to that, but it's quite frustrating to find many of the names you've painstakingly learnt have changed.

First up, the useful tools. It's generally a good idea to know what your plants are called, and keep this up to date, particularly if you have any intention of showing your plants, and especially if you intend to breed them. There are two notably useful online tools for this, the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (which conveniently for our purposes includes the Orchidaceae) and the International Orchid Register.

WCSP website

First up, let's deal with the simpler case of natural orchid species . Kew maintains a World Checklist of Selected Plant Families at http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/home.do. Here, you can figure out what the correct current name of a species is (both genus and specific epithet), barring human error. (NB: This will not work with intergeneric hybrid "genus" or grex names; this database deals only with natural species). Take for example Sophronitis coccinea, a pretty, miniature red Cattleya Alliance plant that is prominent in the background of many "Mini Catts". Type Sophronitis coccinea into the box and click Find Name. This returns a list of several options, including the species and several varieties. You'll note none of them are in bold, which denotes a currently valid name (that is, the general consensus of plant taxonomists agrees that constitutes the "correct" name of a species). Next, click on the species you want - the first one for Sophronitis coccinea. This will then take you to a page that lists all the information about that particular species. You'll note that Sophronitis coccinea is currently considered a synonym for Cattleya coccinea which is the currently valid/accepted name for this plant. If you'd like to see what this little plant looks like, check out this IOSPE page. You'll note they still have it as Sophronitis - either they disagree or they haven't gotten around to updating it!

Results for Sophronitis coccinea

There are a couple of other useful functions. You can use wildcards to figure out something you've forgotten or aren't sure of the spelling for - if you're sure of the Genus, but not the specific epithet, just put the genus in and it will list every plant (valid or otherwise) described in that genus - look through the list for the one you want. If even the genus is uncertain, try a few letters with a * character. For example, pretend you're looking for Bulbophyllum rothschildianum, but you're not sure of the spelling. Try searching for Bulb* roth* and you'll get there! If you use the Advanced Search, you can check just the family Orchidaceae, which may be handy to speed up your hunt.

Many, if not most of the orchids people grow are hybrids between various orchid species. Most have been given variety ("grex") names. Many hybrids are even made and registered between different genera of plants, so you end up with what are called "intergeneric hybrids"; these are given a new "Genus" name - there are lots of these (78 pages and counting...), and a list is maintained by Kew here. Most of these are also given abbreviations, because writing out "Brassolaeliocattleya" gets tedious when you're labelling hundreds or thousands of plants, so there is an accepted abbreviation for pretty much every orchid genus (and intergeneric) - for example, "Brassolaeliocattleya" is Blc. If you're trying to work out what a particular abbreviation is, just search that page for the letters, or use the abbreviation document - http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/Plant-science/Plant-registration-forms/orchidabbrev. One of the effects of the taxonomic shake-ups is that these intergeneric hybrid "genera" change; some become invalid (because if genus X is subsumed into genus Y and intergeneric genus Q was X crossed with Y, then Q is no longer needed). Simple intergenerics are usually two or three genus names mashed together (portmanteau); after a while though, this gets unwieldy and people invent new names. Another listing is maintained by Jerry Bolce in Canada 2011 version here; 2014 version here. This is more up-to-date than the Kew one, which seems to have last been updated in 2005. This one by OrchidsAustralia is also quite good.

I was looking through that list for Iwanagara and couldn't find it. Why? Because as BrooklynOrchids tells us, Iwanagara is Cattleya x Caularthron x Guarianthe x Laelia x Rhyncholaelia x Sophronitis and several of those genera have been subject to big taxonomic shake-ups. Iwanagara Appleblossom is a fairly common plant. What is it called now? Now we turn to the International Orchid Register, http://apps.rhs.org.uk/horticulturaldatabase/orchidregister/orchidregister.asp (what an easy URL to remember... I usually just google it!).

International Orchid Register Search

Iwanagara is no longer valid, so we can't search using that, but we can use Appleblossom. So, click on Grex Name Search, leave the Genus blank and put Appleblossom into the second box. And...

Three hits for Appleblossom. We can discount Dendrobium right away. But is it now Jackfowlieara or is it Rhycholaeliocattleya? Click on each one to find out. When we click on Jackfowlieara Appleblossom, the page tells us that Iwanagara is a synonym. Bingo. Iwanagara Appleblossom is now Jackfowlieara Appleblossom. I next tried to find out what constitutes a Jackfowlieara, but the RHS site did not list it in their list of intergeneric names - but Jerry's list does. Jackfowlieara (Jkf.) = [Cattleya x Caularthron x Guarianthe x Laelia x Rhyncholaelia] What's missing? Sophronitis, which as we saw earlier, has been collapsed into Cattleya! If you're searching for something uncertain, you can use % as a wildcard at the front, or leave the back end off (try searching for Apple and then %ssom).

So hopefully you now have the tools to undertake your own plant label detective work!

But what is driving all this change? Are plant taxonomists sitting in their labs trying to make our lives as difficult as possible? Are they being foolish? Read some of the rants about name changes online and you might come to think that plant taxonomists are terrible, terrible people!

In fact, the taxonomists are trying to follow best practice in phylogenetics and systematics in making sure that the names plants have accurately reflect the relationships and evolutionary history between different plants. Biology is messy, and it can be quite challenging to separate out two species, let alone decide what is related to what and how closely. In the past, all such studies have relied entirely on what could be seen and measured - shapes, colours, sizes and that sort of thing. Modern science has placed at our disposal genetic tools that let us examine in unprecedented detail just how closely related various plants are to each other by examining their DNA. Hobbyists, of course, still rely on what they can see and measure - very few people have PCR machines and sequencers at home...

Essentially, with these new tools, it has been discovered that old relationships are wrong - sometimes we've been too zealous in assigning genus names (Cattleya and Sophronitis are too similar to be "worthy" of splitting) or we've been fooled by somewhat superficial similarity in form and "lumped" groups, which are then split apart. Laelia is another casualty of the "name wars"; many of them have moved across to Sophronitis - and then Cattleya, leaving relatively few species as Laelia!

A summary of the major changes:

Sophronitis = Cattleya
Laelia are now mainly Cattleya except a few species from Mexico
And whilst many things have been moved into Cattleya, others have been moved out! Quite a few Central American "Cattleyas" have been moved into Guarianthe.
Schomburgkia have been moved into Myrmecophila or Laelia
Odontoglossum are all Oncidium
Encyclia has seen a lot of things hived off.
Here is a good overview of the Cattleya Alliance changes.

For a long time, the RHS orchid register didn't recognise Rhyncholaelia digbyana, keeping it as Brassavola digbyana. This has fairly significant repercussions as this species is quite important in Cattleya Alliance breeding - for example, most Blc. are probably not!

As for their impacts on your plant labels, this PDF is a pretty handy list for plants with Sophronitis and Laelia in their ancestry! Australian orchid genus name changes are extensively covered here. Just wait until the taxonomists sink their teeth into the mega-groups like Dendrobium and Bulbophyllum, and perhaps some of the Pleurothallids!

Ultimately, your best bet is probably to put the grex name (without the genus) into the search engine and figure out where it has been pigeon-holed for the time being. I have plants affected by this - my Slc. Kagaribi Dawn is now Cattleya Kagaribi Dawn. My Lc. Tropical Treat is now Cattlianthe Tropical Treat and so on! I don't have many Cattleya Alliance plants, so it's not too frustrating, but those with big collections of "Cattleyas" are probably banging their head against the desk next to a huge pile of blank labels right about now. If you have the software program OrchidWiz, it tends to be quite up to date, but also works with the old names, which is very handy!

If you're interested in learning more (this post is already quite lengthy), much of the work is done using the ITS ribosomal RNA region; this is roughly equivalent in usefullness to the COI mitochondrial DNA used in separating animal species. Although plants have COI, it evolves/mutates much more slowly than in animals, so is less useful in studies. One eventual hope is we'll have "barcode scanners" that can identify species by genetic markers alone.

Once you get into learning about how these decisions are made, and discover the fact that quite often (at least it's the case in animals) the people that make sweeping changes are molecular biologists with no traditional taxonomic training at all, you can see why you can have flaming arguments at systematics conferences, and perhaps why there can be so much flip-flopping! On the other hand, a surprising amount of taxonomy goes on "gut feel" and years of familiarity with a group (which perhaps explains why some keys are so impossible to use. What is "moderately long" when you've only ever seen one example? If you've measured hundreds of them, you'll know "moderately long" when you see it, but us noobs who haven't spent 30 years studying that genus? No...). Another problem of course is that the datasets are incomplete - if we had comparable sequences of every one of the ~30,000 species of orchids, it might be possible to create the One True List of Names, but that's a long way off - in the interim, the only constant is change!

Paphiopedilum Onyx

2012-02-22T15:43:00.002+02:00

Our Paphiopedilum Onyx is in bloom again. Clearly we're doing something right! The plant has loads of new growth and was repotted a few months ago (most paphs enjoy annual repotting). The flower spike is surprisingly tall. Paph. spikes seem to be quite easy to "bruise", although it did have a rough time in the car on the way to the EPOS meeting last week, falling over several times before I found that it fit quite happily in the cup holder. Fortunately nothing broke! Strangely, I have another plant of this type that shows no sign of flowering, yet is cared for essentially identically.

Paphiopedilum Onyx

Paph. Onyx, detail of staminode

Paph. Onyx, Staminode and pollinium

Paph. Onyx, Leaf Detail

The guest speaker, Hendrelien Peters (who coincidentally saw this plant last year in February too), noted that the staking could be improved by holding the flower by the ovary at the back (rather than lower down as I had it); this would pull the flower more upright; the ideal paph to an orchid judge would pretty much be a perfectly vertical round circle with a pouch on it!

This plant not only has great flowers, but is one of my favourite orchids out of bloom too, thanks to its blocky variegated leaves. Paphs make quite good windowsill houseplants (these so called "Maudiae-type" [like this Onyx] paphs particularly so), as long as they don't get direct sunlight or get too dry. If you want something a bit different to a phalaenopsis for a fairly forgiving plant, try a paph! If you're short on space, many of them are quite compact growers (unlike Phragmipedium). I'd quite like to get a so-called "vinicolor" paph, which has burgundy red-ish blooms, and often purpleish leaves at some stage in the near future.