Dendrobium Parishii in bloom

[ewcia1028]

I though I should share with you my dendrobium Parishii which is blooming for me right now I am so happy with this dendrobium and it is so fragrant

[gnathaniel]

Beautiful! This is one of my favorite orchid species, I really love the contrast between the 'bunch of bones' look in the winter and the amazing color in the spring. Mine is also in bloom at the moment, I'll try to post some pictures in the next few days.

Unfortunately, I'm having a weird problem with mine this year: instead of smelling strongly of raspberries (like it did last year), it has kind of a faint chemically odor almost like burnt hair .

My Nestor (parishii x anosmum) bloomed much earlier and smelled VERY strongly of burnt hair (to the point that my wife made me move it as far from our bedroom as I could get it in the house ). At the time I chalked it up to strange scent genetics in a primary hybrid, but now with my parishii doing the same thing I'm not sure... I guess it's some kind of cultural issue, although otherwise they're growing and blooming wonderfully.

Anyway, sorry to semi-hijack your thread! Beautiful plant and nice growing!

--Nat

[camille1585]

Beautiful! I like the pink spots in the lip, they sure pop out. I didn't know these were fragrant. So does yours smell like raspberries, burnt hair, or something else all together?

[ewcia1028]

Camille and yes it smells like raspberries and I love it every year it blooms.Nat this is very strange ,I am wondering what can cause to change the smell?Maybe is fertilizer?what kind do you use?Thank you guys for nice words.

[RosieC]

Really nice. Wish I could smell it as well!

[gnathaniel]

Originally Posted by ewcia1028

Camille and yes it smells like raspberries and I love it every year it blooms.Nat this is very strange ,I am wondering what can cause to change the smell?Maybe is fertilizer?what kind do you use?Thank you guys for nice words.

Could definitely be a nutrient deficiency of some sort. I fed both plants mostly with a compost tea product throughout last summer. Supposed to be a balanced nutrition source, but very dilute. They both grew well, but who knows, maybe they were missing something essential?

The light I give these is about as high as I can manage growing in my windowsills, and throughout the winter they had night temps in the mid- to upper 50s and day temps from 60-65 F. Bud set was great this year, so at least the plants look pretty even if the smell is somewhat repellent!

Now (since new growth started again earlier this spring), I've been feeding these along with my other plants on a regimen alternating between MSU tap water formula and Dyna-Gro 'Grow,' sometimes with a bit of Pro-Tekt added in. I'm trying to be more consistent in my fertilizer applications, so I use these at around 100 PPM N several times weekly, which should put P, K, and various other nutrients at reasonable levels as well.

So far, so good; I guess I'll see if there's any improvement in odor next year...

--Nat