Brassia seedling - and Oncidium orchids generally

[ArronOB]

I think Oncidium alliance orchids are pretty much my favourite type of orchid.

There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly they are so easy to grow (in this district, anyway). Outside or in a shadehouse, rarely ever a pest or disease, no real care beyond making sure they get water, sun, and optionally some fertiliser.

Secondly I love their diversity of flower form. Phals are nice but every phal looks like another phal - just the flower size and colours change - and only within a restricted palette. Ditto cattleyas (my other specialty).

I even like that with a small but diverse collection of oncid alliance orchids there is always something in flower. Spring flowering ones keep going right across summer until they merge with autumn flowering forms, and then it repeats with places reversed in winter.

This brassia is a good but not exceptional example. It’s a seedling cross between two well known forms. Cheap and cheerful, as I lack space I relegated it to one of the low-light spots and didn’t expect it to flower this year. The photo doesn’t do it justice - the labellum has a lovely crystalline texture on a crepey surface. The colours are much more pleasing then my limited photographic abilities suggest, too.

Each flower measures 340mm from the tip of the dorsal sepal to the furtherest petal-tip. Generally I’m not enthusiastic about the limited separation provided by green flowers against green leaves but size alone makes these flowers stand out.

Visitors always react to this flower shape because it exemplifies what orchids are to most people - decadent. By that I mean it has an extravagant and inexplicable elegance to its form. Most people have no idea why nature would produce these shapes and why they are so pleasing to humans. I give them the full story about parasitic tarantula-hunting wasps but it’s not a very satisfying explanation to most people and I can see them thinking surely there must be an easier way to get pollinated.

Anyone else specialise in the Oncidium alliance, or maybe just have a good collection ?

I get the feeling that among hard-core orchid growers the Oncidium alliance is maybe considered a poor-mans orchid, or maybe just a good beginners orchid. Have people found that to be the case?

Cheers
Arron