Dendrobium speciosum spike watch...

[Keysguy]

It does look like spikes and I agree with Roberta it would make me very suspicious of whether it's a pure speciosum. I was wondering about that with the first spikes because they stayed so straight. Had you staked those? Fellow grower here in NH had one in our Feb show every year that always won all the trophies. It was massive! The spikes always drooped pendantly downward they were so large and heavy with flowers.............and that's all you could smell when you walked into the ballroom where the show was held...........heavenly.
I don't believe this species would bloom out of season. Especially for a species that has such demanding requirements.

[Jeff214]

No, I've never staked them. The pot is hanged at a ~30o angle but all the spikes so far grow parallel with the p-bulbs. The flowers are small relative to the spike thickness and are able to hold its upright position.

Some of the photos online show Den. speciosum with straight spikes, but of course I can't say if those are actually "pure" Den. speciosum.

[Roberta]

If those are new spikes, I'm suspecting a fairly complex modern hybrid... even Den. x-delicatum (Specio-kingianum) blooms just once a year. But some of the more complex ones may indeed do it twice. Fred Clarke, Sunset Valley Orchids, has been doing a huge amount of work with the Aussie Dendrobiums... he may have some thoughts on the subject.

[Orchonubee]

Exciting! I look forward to mine eventually blooming

[Jeff214]

Ok, it looks like these are all keikis.

These keikis are quite vigorous. I broke off a keiki that grew earlier this spring and it started two new growths in less than a month.

I messaged the grower on facebook for the ID of this plant but I, unfortunately, got no response.

[Jeff214]

I was repotting this today and became curious about the variety again. Rereading the RockLillyMan's descriptions of the varieties, boreale stood out: upright spikes with a certain amount of peduncle, and lots of keiki production (the anecdote of the Rocklillyman's growing area filling with small pots of var. boreale keikis hit a chord with my situation).

dendrobium-speciosum-var-boreale/

I contacted Wayne Turville of Australian Orchid Nursery and he agrees that it's likely a var. boreale.

No spikes this year but IDed!

[Keysguy]

Jeff--- your plant looks pretty happy. Keep up the good work. I have a speciosum I bought a couple years ago from Santa Barbara Orchid Estate and it hasn't bloomed yet either and plant maybe isn't quite as developed as yours so hang in there with it.

FWIW- Those new growths you get every year are technically not keiki's. A keiki on a Dendrobium is typically produced mid cane on an older, existing cane. What yours are is just normal annual new plant growth.

[Jeff214]

Thanks, it bloomed well last year but it's been sulking a bit after I moved. What variety did you get? I hope it blooms soon for you.

Ok, so it's only called a keiki if it grows from middle of an old cane but not the top nodes? I guess it's an "aerial" growth. These growths can be as big as the main growths - weird seeing them floating on top of the plant. Supposedly, this characteristic is common in var. boreale but less common in other varieties.

[Keysguy]

I hadn't noticed that new growth on there before. That's interesting. I've never seen that on mine. Let me check with the friend that has the huge specimen I mentioned earlier and see what he thinks but now I'm leaning to maybe those are keiki's.

[smweaver]

Your speciosum looks very happy in its net pot, Jeff. How do you keep something as top heavy as Dendrobium speciosum from tipping over when grown in a net pot? Do you place the net pot within something heavier (a large clay pot, for example)?

I have never seen a speciosum with a growth coming out of the top of a mature pseudobulb. Perhaps there's no reason why it couldn't happen (kingianum does this), but it is (in my experience, at least) rather odd. Do you give the plant a dry and cool winter rest?

Gerry Walsh is a character, and his website and newsletters are informative and entertaining. If you ever have an opportunity to acquire one or more of his seedlings, I highly recommend it. I have several of his near-blooming size variety grandiflorums (along with a piece of his "Creek Aureum," which is becoming a bit of a real-estate hog) and they appear to be pretty high-quality plants (will have to wait and see as far as the blooms go, but with the parentage listed I can't imagine that they'll be dogs).

Good luck with your plant. It looks great.

Steve