orchids for fuerteventura (spain)
 

greetings fellow orchidlovers,
just wondering if anybody has any suggestions for warm growing orchids that would grow very easy here....my net greenhouse get's up to 29 degrees in summer and at night drops to 24...humidity is a good 85% at night and 55%-65% in day...in the winter 23 degrees and 14 at night is the coldest...humidity stays the same....in the summer we can have heatwaves of 35 degrees easy...
what kind of orchids do you guys or girls suggest?

thanx and sorry for any bad writing....ijijijijij
i like epyphites a lot and have a lot of tillandsias aswell...

Seems there should be no shortage of orchids that should do well in those conditions ...

Phalaenopsis, Den-phals, many Cattleyas and Laelias ...

I have to mostly stay away from true warm to hot growers, but I am sure other members will be able to give you specific suggestions.

thanx Sonya,
here in Fuerteventura there are no orchid shops...
don't even know about any in the canary islands...
i'll check them on ebay,thanx for the tip,i mostly grow cymbidiums, phalaenopsis,brassavolas...they go very well here...again thanx

I know from other members that there are some good European orchid sellers online - hopefully someone can supply the names of them ...

My quick suggestion is Encyclia, Broughtonia, Myrmecophila, Tolumnia.
As Fuerte is part of the European community, shipping from many European nurseries and sellers is easy without much paperwork.

Thats sadly wrong. As the Canaries are ultraperiferic region with a distinct fiscality compared to Spain, you risk to lose the plants when importing via ebay shops. And you will have - if the case - to pay double taxes. If you are lucky, you get the delivery. If customs stops the delivery you may even lose patience..lol

With those conditions, I'd say sky's the limit! Almost. Everything warm to hot growing will be happy in that greenhouse of yours. I'd say stay clear of the cool growing types, but intermediates should also be ok in your conditions.

Regarding living in a place where orchids are difficult to get hold of and where you will need to expect considerable paperwork and additional hassle to get your plants, I've got this to say:

The bureaucratic papermill might be intimidating, but check out the rules and regulations for importing plants. There will for sure be several orchid nurseries in Europe that are willing to do the phytosanitary certificate and their part of the paperwork if the order is large enough, so you just need to find out what you need to obtain and get permits for.

Double tax and import duties etc etc is an additional cost that you just have to add on to the price. It's just how it is.

The whole situation just makes your purchases more conscious and deliberate. You will have to do your online homework and search through nursery catalog to decide what you want to buy. Since the nursery might have a minimum amount needed for an export order (and this amount can sometimes be fairly large), you will need to save up your money and your plant wishes and make one or two big purchases per year instead of dashing off to the local nursery on a weekend and pick up a few plants. Do I wish I had the option of going to the local nursery? Oh yes! But I find that, depending on how orchid-obsessed you are, it is possible. It just requires a bit more for us that live in places with limited/no local supply.

I agree with Silje, the sky is the limit for you :)
As far as i know, there are three vendors within EU that are willing to take the extra work it is for them to provide a Phyto.sert.
I have imported orchids from Schwerter orchideen and Elsner in Germany, and they have always delivered exellent and healty orchids. The third company is Orchids&More, and they all have a lot of orchids to choose from :)

I know the 3 vendors that ingse named, they have interesting plants and I bought from them and made good experiences.
When travelling to Fuerteventura from European mainland, I have never heard of detailed custom controls, but I did not check the specific regulations.
What's about the quality of your water. Is it rainwater?
As for the selection of plants, I would start with strong established plants from hot dry regions. A few more came to my mind: Ansellia africana, Brassavola nodosa, Rhyncholaelia digbyana and glauca, Cyrtopodium, Oncidium onustum (now Zelenkoa), rupiculous Laelias.
Eventually you can grow Cyrtopodium polyphyllum and desert growing Eulophias (euglossa, petersii, graminea, speciosa) in the sandy soil of your garden.

you are right,Fernando!i've bought orchids on ebay and had to the purchase order or some dhl makes me pay 34€ for 5 cymbidiums that came from China,i payed 15 for them...it helps if the seller sends them as gifts or puts on a price like 1,50€...i've learned to stick to european sellers,as well for the time they take to arrive...
thanx for the reply...don't know to write in spanish or in english...jijiji

---------- Post added at 12:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:23 AM ----------

euplusia:thanx for the species you named,they all look great....
good question about the water,it's a bit of a problem 'cause her we get recycled water from the ocean...
we don't even drink from it!!!
and it rains like 1cm a year...
what kind of water would you use?
and any miniatures you suggest?