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.

[wintergirl]

Nice one

[dendro king]

Yours has beautiful thick leaves! My plants are from a flask I got 4 years ago and some are just about to open their blooms. However mine have much much thinner leaves and Lighter foliage ( because it's subject to the same light as my vandas ) Did yours always have such thick dark leaves?

[Plodde]

one of my favorite genus'

[RosieC]

Beautiful!

[Fairorchids]

Originally Posted by dendro king

Yours has beautiful thick leaves! My plants are from a flask I got 4 years ago and some are just about to open their blooms. However mine have much much thinner leaves and Lighter foliage ( because it's subject to the same light as my vandas ) Did yours always have such thick dark leaves?

The leaves are substantial, but not thick (at least in comparison with Rhy gigantea). As the grow to maturity, they do get fairly broad in the leaves though.

That pretty much goes for all my Aerides (odorata (3), houlettianum (2), lawrenceae, rosea and a couple of others, which I have not added to my database yet).

[Leafmite]

What a beauty!