Dendrobium speciosum
 

Finally figured out what this plant likes in order to flower: abuse. This is a tough-as-nails species that handles direct sun in our hot and humid summers, and the cool, dry winters in the sunroom seem to be to its liking too. Four flower spikes this year (so far). The one that's got all of its blooms open is longer than my arm, and I gave up trying to count the blooms after I got to seventy-five. Very nice honey fragrance on sunny days. Even though the individual blooms don't last very long, the spikes all don't arrive at once, so it makes for an extended blooming season.

Steve

Those are some lovely flowers and the plant overall looks very happy. Enjoy the blooms !!!!!

That's a really cool Den. Steve!! Nice growing!

OMG! :drool:

What a gorgeous bloom! Looks kinda like a bundle of snowflakes. And what great pictures you took!Nice job!

Crisp clear photos of a beautiful plant. Thanks !!

This plant is gorgeous, reminds me of a winter wonderland. Beautiful flowers on this and I love the overall size of the plant. I think I want one now.

Absolutely gorgeous! I agree with Ethan, it looks like a bunch of snowflakes from a distance.


And it likes abuse?? Now that's my kinda plant :poke: ....it just got added to my want list :evil:

Holy Cow!!!! That's really amazing....a little too big for me but WOW!!!

Steve, you are right, D.speciosum requires very bright light to flower well, almost to stage of leaf yellowing. Yours looks a little too green to have flowered but well done. In their natural habitat they grow in near to full sun for many hours during the day.

Roy, do you mean that I didn't abuse it enough?! I'll give it more sunlight next summer. It might just appear a bit darker than it normally would because it was an overcast and snowy day yesterday and I didn't have the flash on when I took the picture of the entire plant. I will say that it's one tough plant. I have it growing in nothing but crushed brick and granite pieces (found out a couple of years ago that it didn't seem to like the bark mix I had started it in), and even though it hardly ever gets fertilized, its new growths over the last two years have consistently gotten larger. Thanks for your feedback. I'll see how far I can push it by sticking it out with the cacti next summer.

Steve