Australia Dendrobium speciosum

[kg5]

These guys are jumping out of their pots. They are just such a health group of plants. Lots of flower spikes starting and leaf buds as well.

This Australian Dendrobium speciosum is still an NOID but when it flowers the nursery where it came from will give me a name so they say. It has two small flower spikes just opening from a bud. Both are facing us in the image.

[kg5]

My Australia Dendrobium speciosum looking real nice ready to open their many flower spikes.




---------- Post added at 01:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 AM ----------

The NOID orchids flower spike.

[smweaver]

Do you know what cross this is? Is it an intervarietal cross or one of the straight varieties? It will be interesting to see what the blooms look like. Dendrobium speciosum is one of the easiest orchids to grow, in my opinion. And the flowers on a good cross can be spectacular. You're extremely fortunate that you have so many growers in Australia whose results with this species are enviable, and who routinely make the plants available to the hobbyist.

I may get some push back for saying so, but here in the US we have a lot of what I like to refer to as garbage speciosums. They're only impressive if you've never seen some of the Australian-bred plants. Take, for example, the excessively praised variety hillii "Don Brown." Its claim to fame is that, when awarded long ago, it was a beast of a plant and its flower display was impressive--from a distance. If you've ever seen a typical version of this plant flower first-hand, it's nothing to get excited about (again, just my opinion). But whenever it's found for sale over here, it unvaryingly has a jaw-dropping asking price. The same goes for several other speciosum crosses. I've purchased from several commercial American orchid companies over the last two decades, and the blooms from all of them, when compared to what's available in Australia (based on photos shared by Australian growers and conversations I've had with), have been, without exception, mediocre at best. So I'm actually pretty excited to see what you get when your plants bloom. Hopefully they will be stunners. Best of luck with your speciosums.

Steve

[kg5]

The yellow flowered spikes are "Sydney Rock Orchid" or The King Orchid". The white flower spike hard right is from an orchid that was given to me about 45 years ago. Which I was lead to believe was the Sydney Rock Orchid and it was the only Australia speciosum.The much smaller white flower spike has flowers that are 1/2 size of its yellow neighbours.

[smweaver]

Outstanding. The spikes are amazing--and I'm certain the scent of so many blooms is overpowering. Equally amazing is that you've had this plant for so long, which in our throw-away society is commendable. Congratulations on the great flowering.

Steve

[kg5]

Thank you Steve!

I'm certain the scent of so many blooms is overpowering

Forgot to mention that!

The beautiful sweet scent travels into our home and many walkers are stopping out the front of our home to smell the orchids. Depending which way the breeze is blowing our neighbours are commenting as well.

[estación seca]

Beautiful!

The staghorns look to be mounted on shade cloth or weed stop cloth? Is there a sturdy backing?

[kg5]

Thank you for the kind words estación seca.

The staghorns look to be mounted on shade cloth or weed stop cloth? Is there a sturdy backing?

The stags are mounted on hardwood bracing x 3 ply that measures 450mm x 450mm x 4mm thick or 17 1/2" x 17 1/2" x 1/8.

The ply can be cut by 5mm or 3/16 in 2 or 3 vertical lines so as to mount a larger stag to a tree.

The other reason for the ply is it is very light for when it comes to mailing.

It has really turned into a very good backing for my stags and elks. Stays in shape, reasonable cost and the warmth of the sun from the back seems to be helping the stags to grow.

[kg5]

Got a beetle that only lives in a very limited area and it surround me. These beetles kill whole large new canes in a day. Can destroy a flower spike in hours. They have done a huge amount of damage. The true amount of damage took a couple of weeks to see it properly.

With bugs I always try to squash them. Hunt them down but it did not work. So I used a very restricted pesticide that totally nuked them and sadly every all other insects in the neighborhood. Only see a wrap now and then on the orchids which makes me think of beetle eggs. On the look out for eggs that may have survived the nuking advent.

Most of my beautiful Den's have recovered and replaced all the dead canes. So nice and so amazing! It is like they are thanking me for getting rid of the warlords. Even my advanced Dens in 50mm or 2" pots are slowly coming back to life. Thought I had lost over 50 small plants. But they are making a come back truly amazing plants.