Specimen orchids? Lets see your biggest

[WaterWitchin]

I am just OVERWHELMED by these pictures. Jurassic Park indeed!!

More please!!!

[DirtyCoconuts]

Wow Roberta!!! Nice!! Those are magnificent

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

Wow Roberta!!! Nice!! Those are magnificent

Thanks. Early on in my "orchid career" I had just bought a small Den. speciosum at a local show, then went to the bigger one in Santa Barbara, where the Best of Show and just about every other award under the sun (including a CCM/AOS of 99 points) went to this specimen ( 3 m across, 2 m high,400 inflorescences, etc.) that had been growing in an outdoor wine barrel for about 30 years. My reaction? "OMG, I just bought a St. Bernard puppy, I live in a condo!!!!" Well fortunately or unfortunately the one I bought never grew like this and my others are still manageable. But they can turn into beasts with incredible flower power.

[DirtyCoconuts]

I remember when you posted that in the Biggest Orchid thread and i could not wrap my mind around it then and i still cant...where is the barrell??? its so big and so dense!!

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

I remember when you posted that in the Biggest Orchid thread and i could not wrap my mind around it then and i still cant...where is the barrell??? its so big and so dense!!

The barrel is in there somewhere... obviously this plant was not repotted every 3 years... or ever. After that show, Santa Barbara Orchid Estate (which had purchased it from the grower - Don Brown, who grows fantastic specimens of many orchids) broke it up, they're still selling pieces of it (20 years later) so I think that the pieces are also growing well and getting divided. So if one buys a Den. speciosum 'Don Brown' from them, it's a division not a mericlone I'm pretty sure.

A relatively few years ago, a Den speciosum about 4 or 5 feet across was brought into one of my local orchid club meetings... it had essentially no media, was growing in about a 8 or 10 inch shallow bulb pan with mesh on the bottom. And some pretty spectacular specimens end up in all the February-March shows. The most amazing thing about them is that they are actually portable - not that heavy considering the size, since the pot is pretty much irrelevant.

[DirtyCoconuts]

wow, just wow!!!

mind is officially blown

[rbarata]

It would fill my living room...

[Selmo]

Roberta, that ‘Don Brown’ is a WTF plant. You are lucky to have seen it. It makes all others pale in comparison and I bet it could be smelled a half a mile away. Many times these large plants grow right out of the pot. The roots that are in the pot usually die off and the roots outside the pot support the plant, using the pot as a mount. They don’t need to be repotted every few years as long as they continue to actively grow. The trick is to get many growing points in all directions and hope half don’t die on you.

Here is Cattleya ‘Why Knot’, it is considered a small cattleya, I keep saying it needs to be a little bigger to divide and ten years later it looks like this. A reliable bloomer, usually a late spring bloom. Not much of a fragrance, but does put on a nice show. The clusters of flowers are about the size of a mans fist (4”across -10cm) the plant is about 36” (75cm) across it. It probably only weighs about 5-6 pounds as there is not much bark left in the pot.

[Roberta]

All those big Den speciosums are super fragrant... a reason to go to spring shows in California

Any chance your plant is Cattleytonia Why Not (currently Gruaritonia Why Not)? Cattleya (Guarianthe) aurantiaca x Broughtonia sanguinea ... there's as story that Frank Fordyce (wonderful hybridizer of miniature and compact Cattleyas) proposed the cross to his boss at Stewart's Orchids, who said "Why not???" It's a wonderful little flowering machine!

[Selmo]

It could be, if I remember the tag said Catt. Why Knot. I call all cattleya types, cattleya. To hard to keep up on new nomenclature in this family. It is a good bloomer, as it does bloom for an extended amount of time. Nice to hear the back story on it, always wonder how they come up with some of the names.