Monthly Status Reports - December

[shakkai]

Originally Posted by Angurek

Lc. "Imperial Wing's Noble" (One flower spike, with two very large blooms. The fragrance is so strong in the mornings I can smell it from my living room )

Now that's a nice way to wake up in the morning!! Good going!

[shakkai]

Finally got some photos to show the flowers on the way!
First the ones that are some time off - i.e. spikes just starting...

Sedirea japonica & Gastrochilus japonicus - I had to draw arrows (and a box) to point out the spikes, they are just poking through...


A little bit closer to bloom, but still some time off, Epidendrum pseudoepidendrum (or paniculatum) waiting to see the flowers before confirming which one it actually is!


Even closer, Octopussy. I love this plant, it has such elegant growth!


And the 'any day now!!' Rhynchostele rossii:

[Ross]

Originally Posted by shakkai

Finally got some photos to show the flowers on the way!
First the ones that are some time off - i.e. spikes just starting...

That's what winter is all about... waiting for the 'chids!

[shakkai]

Wow, Jim... all those Paphs must look simply wonderful all in bloom! Nice going with the number of flowers per spike, too. Are you going to post some photos of these beauties? I'd love to see a 'wide-angle view' of the group of them!

[cb977]

shakkai, everything looks great!

I learned yesterday of a Den tetragonum giganteum! The blooms are the same as ours...but 4-5 inches tall!!!
Of course, now I'm on a mission
Photo and some information about Dendrobium tetragonum Var giganteum

Did you happen to see the Den cuthbertsonii v. bicolor listed at Petite Plaisance? It's GORGEOUS!!!
Scroll down on this page:
Petite Plaisance - Orchid Species, Dendrobium forbesii, Dendrobium falconeri, Dendrobium victoria-reginae, Dendrobium finisterrae, Dendrobium spectabilis, Dendrobium anosmum, Dendrobium gordonii, Dendrobium trigonopus, Dendrobium guerreroi, Dendrobiu

[shakkai]

Thanks, Sue! I did come across references to the var giganteum... apparently there are four sections of tetragonum, and I was trying to determine which one we had?!

Here is the info (taken from this web page: Dendrobium)

Named from the Greek tetragonal meaning four angles and has the common names of spider orchid, windmill orchid, bowtie orchid , butterfly orchid, so with all these names one is always better staying with the correct botanical names and up until recent times this was a plant of three varieties which were. Dendrobium tetragonum var.tetragonum Dendrobium tetragonum var. giganteum and Dendrobium tetragonum var. hayesianum but for those that are interested these names are now -

* Dendrobium tetragonum var. tetragonum = Den. tetragonum
* Dendrobium tetragonum var. giganteum = Dendrobium capitisyork
* Dendrobium tetragonum var. hayesianum = Den cacatua

While the one from the North coast of N.S.W. near the Grafton area which I think we used to refer to as the Island form and grew on the Melaleuca trees is now Dendrobium melaleucaphilum. There is a plant growing in the Wattagon mountains near here and found only on the Myrtle trees that is almost identical to this new named species perhaps it could be named Dendrobium myrtlephilum. Other names it was known as are Callista tetragonum (Cunn) Rev. kuntze 1891. Dendrobium tetragonum (Cunn) var. variabilis Gilbert 1937.

Maybe you could find the giganteum under the name Dendrobium capitisyork?

That cuthbertsonii is stunning!!!!

If mine continues to do well and flowers for me, I was going to try getting a flask or comm-pot to see what variation I could get. I'm kinda kicking myself now, as the guy at the show where I bought mine had others and he specifically said that they were all showing up as different colours. But I didn't know whether I could grow it or not, so I didn't want to take the chance of getting more than one and having them all die on me!

This place offers flasks with 30+ seedling ready to transplant:
Equatorial Plant Company Flasks

[Undergrounder]

yeah i didn't know about the different variations but i know now that after the recent update there are now 4 distinct 'Spider Orchid' species:

Cacatua: Completelt greenish yellow, 1-4 x 6-8cm tall flowers, pure white labellum without red or yellow marking of other specs.
Capitisyork: Large, 1-4 x 7-12cm tall flowers, greenish yellow with red blotches or spots. Also has a sharply pointed labellum, like a sharp tongue.
Malaleucaphilum: Greenish yellow flowers, medium-sized, some red blotching, has a very broad lebellum.
Tetragonum: Greenish yellow flowers with definite thick, red margins on all three sepals.

And by the way the damn splitters have decreed that these species now come under the genus name 'Tetrabaculum'.

[cb977]

I'm kinda kicking myself now

No kicking!!!

...and that cuthbertsonii is killing me!!! Now there are TWO that I can't have!!!

[jim blanford]

OK.. As shakkai requested, here are some of the plants in our kitchen the rest are in the basement. The Paphs are single flower type so those are spikes per plant. Hope you enjoy them as we do. Thanks Jim.

[cb977]

Jim, what a wonderful look! All those beautiful blooms up against a pure white background...fantastic!!!