Dendrobium Gillieston Jazz 'Steven' x D. (Tosca x Rutherford Starburst) 'Red Wine'

[Fiacre]

It's absolutely gorgeous! The plant itself looks healthy and happy too. I'm sure it'll be blooming happily for you for many years to come.

[Salixx]

Wow- what a gorgeous Dendrobium! Wish I wasn't afraid of Dens... I never kept them alive very long and have kind of given up... for now... this one makes me reconsider.

[estación seca]

It always surprises me that people kill Dens. There are Dens from all different climates. Some very much need to dry out between watering, and others can't take it. A little reading will help.

I could see how it would be hard to grow the cold-growing high-altitude plants in many parts of North America.

The warm-all-year growers won't be happy without a lot of heater use where it costs an arm and a leg to heat the growing room in winter. The Den phal hybrids are very touchy about being watered too much when it's cooler than they like.

But there are plenty of other Dens that don't mind cool winter days and nights. These Australian hybrids like mine have ancestors that get near to freezing on winter nights, so they do fine if cool and dryer in the winter.

I think they're very much easier to keep alive than Phals.

[Salixx]

I'm sure you're right and I haven't tried Dens in a very long time. My first orchid was a Den from Kmart... I potted it in pure shredded peat moss... I'm sure no one is surprised it died. ...

I tried again a few years later after I kept some other orchids alive, that one died too. I probably have an unfounded "fear" of killing them now- probably didn't help that my only ones were all NoIDs and I got them as a teenager.

Yours makes me want to try again at some point. I truly find it gorgeous and not quite like a typical den... if there is such a thing.

[Serge78]

Wow, what a beautiful Flower. Congratulations!

[fishmom]

That is very pretty. I bought a Den. Tosca last winter, and I can see where yours got that nice rich coloring from. My Tosca spent the winter outside with my kingianums, protected from hard freezes and prolonged rain by a plastic cover. It did well, bloomed, and has new growth coming.

[pipsxlch]

That is a beauty! I haven't tried the Aussie dens yet, although I've been sorely tempted... maybe now that speciosum is appearing as a bag baby and some local growers have kingianum. I remember when Australia Orchid's offerings would appear on ebay searches, ones like Botanical Fireworks, I really wanted to try but didn't dare then. Had about decided to get something from SVO at Redlands only not to be able to make it this year! Wonder how they'd like my climate, with the wet seasons flipped from a Mediterranean climate? As you say though, "cooler and dryer winter" which is what we have.

Back home in South Florida I had terrific luck with hardcanes and spatulatas are about my favourite orchids. New Guineas seem to grow about the same as them- have spectabile and some hybrids. Sadly we get a bit too cold here for them to be happy and I don't have a greenhouse or room I can keep them in all winter. I do have some softcanes (nobiles, anosmum, have had primulinum and pierardii) that grow well here.

I'm really tempted to try the speciosum as a tree mount.

[fishmom]

How interesting, pipsxich, that we have the same growing zone, you in central Florida and me in the north end of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Do you get any hard freezes? We had almost two weeks of less-than-30 degree nights two years ago, but this year just a few nights of frost. I only had to move my plants into the garage a few times.

[u bada]

Really great one, SVO's table at the shows here are always loaded with colorful guys like this one... almost got it, but alas, something else caught my attention... drats! well another show this weekend so...

was in palm springs last weekend, thought about the heat you put up with out there! What a cool raised pond you have! the waterlilies do well?

[estación seca]

The hotter the water, the better water lilies grow and bloom. You see in the photo a hardy white lily sold as Gladstone, but I'm not sure it's properly identified. I've had it since 1986. The tropicals haven't awakened yet.

When it's over 105 F / 41C, though, and humidity is low, some petal edges brown slightly. If I keep up the fertilizer regimen each plant has 3-4 flowers open every day from when it gets hot to first frost (if any.)

My pond is 4 feet / 1.27m deep, with half below ground to keep it cooler in summer and warmer in winter. I wanted it elevated so I could sit on the edge and smell the delicious tropical water lily fragrance. Also, the deeper the water, the farther the tropical lilies stand out of the water. I stand the 5 gallon / 19 liter tropical pots on bricks in the spring to get going near the warm surface, then lower them to the bottom. I can stand in the pond, bend over, and grasp the pot edges with my chin in the water, but my mouth in the air.

It froze over just once, the extreme freeze of December 1990. I have paper photos of a frozen Albert Greenberg flower standing high above the frozen surface.

I would never be without at least one tropical water lily, for the fragrance. There are a few that will bloom in a half barrel. The blue ones are true blue, and tolerate a little shade. The other colors need at least 6 hours of direct sun to bloom in most climates.

It's too hot here to grow lotus (Nelumbo) in the sun. I'm told they survive in 50% shade here, but I don't have a dog-proof shady area. Dogs will stick their faces into water to pull out and eat lotus tubers, which are quite expensive.