Dendrobium Phalaenopsis. A Blue Orchid???

[Flowermum]

Hello, I am a newcomer here, and good afternoon to all of you. I do have a very specific topic to ask about if anyone may care to oblige.

My friend has a facial oil which lists amongst its ingredients the flower extract of this plant Dendrobium Phalaenopsis. It calls itself blue orchid oil dispite containing other smelly ingredients too.

She likes the smell of this, and as I dabble in home made perfume as a hobby, I was curious about the plant with a view to making her a perfume oil like it. Does anyone have any knowledge about blue orchids and their scent? I see there are many in this family of orchids. I looked it up on the smelly orchid thread and couldn't see it.

Whilst looking for it, I stumbled across some hair preparations listing blue orchid as their scent, and some candle fragrances too.

I wondered why Blue orchid should be so popular in perfumery against other orchids? Is it just a perfume myth using a rare flower name and an unusual colour as a sales leader to infer exclusivity, or does the real Blue Orchid as such exist and get highly prized for its scent?

I didn't know and would welcome any comments.

[dounoharm]

i have a couple dendrobium phalaenopsis orchids, and several of them are blueish.....i love the blues...but none are fragrant to any degree...i think its an adv ploy of some sort....the most fragrant orchids in my collection are the whites, greens, and browns....

[Flowermum]

Thank you. This is the answer I had hoped not to get, but suspected was true. I had hoped there may be a blue fragrant wonder plant.

I have an interest in reading about the highly scented ones for perfume making reasons. I had not even realised vanilla was an orchid either. How very ignorant of me. I wonder if all or any of the other orchids produce fragrant seed pods like the vanilla ones. I am completely ignorant on this subject. I need to do some reading here.

[trdyl]

Welcome to OB!

Seed pods of Leptotes bicolor have also been used for a flavoring.

[trdyl]

Originally Posted by Flowermum

I had hoped there may be a blue fragrant wonder plant.

There are several blue orchids that are very fragrant such as Rhynchostylis coelestis, Cattleya mossiae coerulea, Cattleya lueddemanniana coerulea and many others.

[Flowermum]

Fabulous, thank you very much. I shall go on a hunt for those to see if I can smell any. They did have that wonderful stinker at the botanical gardens last year with the foot long maroon flower. It wasn't an orchid but was spectacularly stinky. I'm sure I've seen orchids there.

[Flowermum]

Originally Posted by trdyl

There are several blue orchids that are very fragrant such as Rhynchostylis coelestis, Cattleya mossiae coerulea, Cattleya lueddemanniana coerulea and many others.

Have you smelt these? If so what do they smell like?

[Rosiefuture]

There's an advertisement on here in Oz at the moment for shampoo and conditioner and it says

"infused with the fragrance of orchid and vanilla"

LOL it really annoys me and I'm like "Duh! Vanilla is an
orchid! And which other orchid are we talking about? There are a few! LOL"

hehe

Marion

[trdyl]

Originally Posted by Flowermum

Have you smelt these? If so what do they smell like?

Rhynchostylis coelestis - Not yet , but I have had a couple of hybrids. One was 81.25% coelestis and it reminded me of grapes. The other is 50% coelestis has a sweet floral scent.

Cattleya mossiae - I have a few and I would describe its a medium to stong floral scent.

Cattleya lueddemanniana - Not yet. My plants have not bloomed for me yet, still too small. But I here is is similar to jasmine.