Aerides species

[Fairorchids]

I love the Aerides genus, and have quite a few. Most do well together with Cattleya, though I do not allow them to dry out between waterings (except in Dec/Jan).

I have recently acquired Aer rosea, which is a cooler growing species from China. That plant is somewhat larger than odorata & lawrenceae, with leaves spaced more like a Renanthera.

This year I had good budding, but a mouse or chipmunk proceeded to eat many of the buds off the spikes. One of the few that avoided that fate, was the Aerides lawrenceae.

I bought this plant from a web site a long time ago, the plant that came in was nowhere near blooming size, so it has taken several years to get it to grow up. It gave me a single spike with 4-6 flowers last year. It is full blooming size now, so it flowered much better this year.

When the plant matures (it is just starting the first basal keiki), I hope that the spikes will be somewhat longer.