Den. speciosum v. hillii in full swing

[stonedragonfarms]

My friends in the Bay area and south have said it's been a disappointing season for speciosum blooms this year--stellar a bit 'further' up the coast
[which probably means next year will be inverse...]
Enjoy!

[DirtyCoconuts]

boom!! well done!

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by stonedragonfarms

My friends in the Bay area and south have said it's been a disappointing season for speciosum blooms this year--stellar a bit 'further' up the coast
[which probably means next year will be inverse...]
Enjoy!

Maybe your record heat last summer? Where I live, the summer was unusually cool - and my Den. speciosums were "meh"...

[camille1585]

Gorgeous plant! Are Den speciosum fragrant? If so, I can imagine that the scent could be almost overpowering in a small greenhouse.

[isurus79]

Oh, that's really nice! Where did you get this one from? I love the white varieties.

[stonedragonfarms]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Maybe your record heat last summer? Where I live, the summer was unusually cool - and my Den. speciosums were "meh"...

It may have been, though there were only a couple days that it was 100+ in the greenhouse. I should start to track when that happens [and perhaps hang a mature plant up near the peak of the greenhouse to mimic those conditions] to see if there's a correlation. It wouldn't surprise me if there was--hanging Cym. canaliculatum [and its hybrids] high in the greenhouse so it 'bakes' during summer [and elsewise] often yields copious blooms [and dumpy rigid growth]

---------- Post added at 09:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:21 AM ----------

Originally Posted by camille1585

Gorgeous plant! Are Den speciosum fragrant? If so, I can imagine that the scent could be almost overpowering in a small greenhouse.

Most of them are fragrant--the varieties often so at different times of the day. I have var hillii & I believe var blackdownense in bloom right now; hillii is extremely fragrant from about noon until sunset--it's sort of a honeysuckle type aroma. Blackdownense, if that's what it is, kicks aroma out about 2 hours before sunrise and continues until about noon. It has a sort of dusky vanilla aroma.
Yes, I too imagine the aroma could be overpowering in a small greenhouse--though these are nowhere the intensity of Cym. goeringii [at least to my sniffer ]--I can tell they are in bloom from outside the greenhouse and across the yard!

[Roberta]

Since Den. speciosum tends to bloom for the spring show season, and lots of people grow it where I live, exhibit areas can be overwhelming with the fragrance. Been so long since I have been to a show, hard to remember now...

[stonedragonfarms]

Originally Posted by isurus79

Oh, that's really nice! Where did you get this one from? I love the white varieties.

Thanks I purchased this from a hobbyist here in Oregon that was downsizing his collection--something about it taking up too much bench space
D. speciosum v. hillii & speciosum v. grandiflorum can both be beasts of plants [though nothing like Grammatophyllum speciosum...]; it'd be interesting to see a bunch of them benched firsthand

[Roberta]

There are very few plants that I see at shows that I remember in detail, but Den speciosioum v. hillii 'Don Brown' CCM/AOS is one... very early in my orchid career, I went to the Santa Barbara show and saw this beast...(AOS award description)

"A truly majestic, magnificent specimen plant two meters tall, three meters wide with approximately 100,000 flowers and 173 buds on 400 inflorescences displayed in a symmetrical sphere; flowers cream white; lip maroon stippled."

I had just purchased a fairly small Den. speciosum at an earlier show, and thought, 'OMG, I just bought a St. Bernard puppy!" Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't grow these quite so well...

[stonedragonfarms]

Originally Posted by Roberta

There are very few plants that I see at shows that I remember in detail, but Den speciosioum v. hillii 'Don Brown' CCM/AOS is one... very early in my orchid career, I went to the Santa Barbara show and saw this beast...(AOS award description)

"A truly majestic, magnificent specimen plant two meters tall, three meters wide with approximately 100,000 flowers and 173 buds on 400 inflorescences displayed in a symmetrical sphere; flowers cream white; lip maroon stippled."

I had just purchased a fairly small Den. speciosum at an earlier show, and thought, 'OMG, I just bought a St. Bernard puppy!" Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't grow these quite so well...

Hopefully that was in a trailer all by itself...I can't imagine being cooped up with it on a warm car ride...