Orchids around the Yard.

[SG in CR]

Originally Posted by My Green Pets

Oh wow, sounds like you'd need a mesh bag or something around the flowers to keep the bees away.

I just set an alarm the day before to get out like 5:30am to get to the flower before the bees do.

[epiphyte78]

how close are you to miravalles volcano? last november i stayed at paraiso volcano lodge for a few days. while i was there i attached lots of epiphytes to several of the trees in the garden, especially epiphytes that are pollinated by hummingbirds.

[SG in CR]

Originally Posted by epiphyte78

how close are you to miravalles volcano? last november i stayed at paraiso volcano lodge for a few days. while i was there i attached lots of epiphytes to several of the trees in the garden, especially epiphytes that are pollinated by hummingbirds.

I'm not very far away from there. I wasn't familiar with Paraiso Volcano Lodge. But looking it up, I drive past there probably at least once a month. That area is has quite a few orchids. And epiphytes in general are all over the trees wherever the dry season isn't too extreme.

[epiphyte78]

Originally Posted by SG in CR

I'm not very far away from there. I wasn't familiar with Paraiso Volcano Lodge. But looking it up, I drive past there probably at least once a month. That area is has quite a few orchids. And epiphytes in general are all over the trees wherever the dry season isn't too extreme.

cool coincidence! next time you drive by the lodge, and have some time, please check out the garden. the owner's name is jorge and he is super nice. you can let him know that carlos asked you to inspect his epiphyte bundles. they are all located on trees in the front yard. one bundle though is on a big rock.

i attached the bundles at the beginning of the dry season, which really wasn't the best time, but hopefully most of the epiphytes survived and are starting to attract all the hummingbirds.

if you have any epiphytes that attract hummingbirds, i'm sure jorge would be happy if you put them on his trees. i love the idea of turning his property into a botanical garden for hummingbirds.

[SG in CR]

Morning all,
October and November are sort of a low season for orchids in my yard. The blooms have been mostly Catasetums and Stanhopeas for the last couple months here. Though some Epidendrums have flowers almost ready to bloom and Prosthechea fragrans has started to bloom this week too.
Here's some highlights from my orchids since my last post.
I made the cross between Epidendrum nocturnum and E. eburneum a couple years ago and now a lot of the Epidendrums that have popped up around my yard are turning out to be from that cross. Nothing too spectacular but still kind of cool.

Stanhophea season is coming to an end with only a few S. wardii that will still be blooming in the next few weeks. But I had some really nice blooms.



A bit of an odd ball member of the Stanhopinae that you don't see too often, Kegeliella kupperi, is blooming right now.

Epicatanthe Hsiang Yu Gold Coast, which I'm hoping to back cross with Epidendrum stamfordianum as soon as I have some new pollen.

And finally a tiny Lepanthes that seems to be handeling the heat where I live pretty well. Not sure on the species though.

Also, I posted a video on collecting the pollen and pollinating Stanhopeas on Youtube if anyone is interested.
https://youtu.be/YihQpXyWVr0?si=mJFqHUYNrjtHSAVn

[Roberta]

Thanks for the video! and beautiful blooms. It is very interesting to me that Stan wardii and jenischiana do well over a huge range of climate - in your tropical yard and my temperate one.

[SG in CR]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Thanks for the video! and beautiful blooms. It is very interesting to me that Stan wardii and jenischiana do well over a huge range of climate - in your tropical yard and my temperate one.

With S. jennischianna, it seems to come from an area with a pronounced dry season, with some sources online even saying it's necessary to get them to bloom. S. wardii is similar, though maybe to a lesser extent as I've seen it growing wild over a large range of elevations and climates. It's by far the most common of the Stanhopeas in Costa Rica.

[Roberta]

My S. jenischiana bloomed for the first time for me this year (after a lot of years). S. wardii grows well, blooms very reliably (just finished, on 3 plants, 3-4 spikes per plant, the show went on for a month). I don't dry anything, but in my climate, the hard part is keeping the Stans wet enough - in their open baskets, they dry out really fast.

[SG in CR]

Yeah, in the dry season mine are getting hosed down every evening. But they are dry by morning. Whereas right now in the rainy season they might stay wet for weeks at a time. I have a S. reichenbachiana that I got two years ago that has yet to bloom despite growing well and seeming to be pretty happy. S. grandiflora seems to struggle with my climate. It's alive and growing but not as well as I would hope. And I bought some recently deflasked S. tigrina like 3-4 years ago that all but one are struggeling too. Though one, for whatever reason, looks like it might bloom next year. Really looking forward to that.

[SG in CR]

I've had a few interesting blooms in the garden in the last couple months that might interest some of you.
This cross I made between E. wallisii and E. baumannianum bloomed for the first time. It turned out really nice with good traits from both parents. Looking forward to seeing this plant bloom when it's bigger.

And another cross that germinated in my yard bloomed for the first time was this Prosthechea fragrans x crassilabia. I was kind of surprised that the white of the fragrans came through so clear.

Mormodes season has begun here and one of my yellows was among the first to bloom


A homegrown Sobralia hybrid that I'm pretty sure is a cross between S. decora and S. warszewiczii.

An Epidendrum macrocarpum that I got a few years ago as a recently deflasked seedling put on a really nice show. The pollen was all collected and is going to make for some nice crosses as the flowers are very big in comparison to the other reed-stemmed Epidendrums I have.

Erycina pusilla putting on a show.