Orchid species for December
 

Some new eye candy!

Southern California Orchid Species Society

Awesome Roberta!

Trichoglottis pusilla is in my top 5 orchids. Love everything about the plant and flowers, including the surprisingly powerful scent.

I think I need to mount my praestans, the buds always blast for me.

That Angraecum germinyanum is way cool. I don't think I've ever seen one of those.

You have an enviable collection of blooming orchids, Roberta. My favorites are the ansellia and the Angraecum longicalcar. I have a couple of Ansellia africana plants, and they're quite spectacular when in bloom. I'm really envious of your angraecum, however. My longicalcar is a healthy seedling, but it's got to be one of the slowest growers in my collection. I've had a number of cacti that have grown faster than this orchid. Congratulations on all of the blooms. They're quite wonderful.

Steve

Thanks! For what it's worth, most of my Angraecums grow pretty slowly. (Probably do beat cacti, though) I figure that the environment they get (temperature, humidity etc.)is in the range of what they will tolerate, but not what they really want, probably far from ideal. So it's all a compromise.

Beautiful blooms Roberta and outstanding photography talent as well. I really like this Dendrochilum magnum among many others!

Thanks! Dendrochilums in general are really rewarding for flower power. (Ddc. cobbianum will be putting on a show for next month) Ddc. magnum has a spicy, almost smoky fragrance. (Some people like it and some don't, but everybody can smell it) And it's not fussy... grow it warm or grow it cool, it still thrives and blooms.

You’re welcome Roberta. Oh, and I just saw your Stanhopea embreei. 9 years waiting to bloom; congratulations, how rewarding that must have been. Those warm sunset colors on that center too!

And I almost missed the blooming. I had a vacation planned... the buds were getting fatter and fatter. They popped before I got home, but I think only the day before, so I got to enjoy them. That is always a hazard with Stanhopeas since the flowers are so short-lived... I have had others that did their thing in my absence and I had to wait another year. Last year the plant tried to bloom, but the buds blasted. So this year, I was hoping against hope that I wouldn't miss out again. Whew!

I’m glad you witnessed it this year. I think I mentioned last month in my post when my oculata showed buds that I was needing to stay overnight in 2 houses all week. Back and forth all week. I felt the same anxiety watching the buds swell so I drove the stanhopea with me in my car all week. Lol. Someone on here (think it was DC) made me chuckle saying that vacations should be canceled for stanhopea blooming events. lol 😆