This Dendrobium nobile hybrid blooms like crazy!

[DanielBear]

I always feel intimidated regarding orchid culture - when to water, how much light, what to feed and when. But I try anyway because they are so beautiful! I figure that, if 1/4 of the plants that I try actually thrive and bloom, that's a success. So I try a variety of varieties.

I have 4 varieties of Dendrobium nobile. Two are NOID that seem to match photos in the Yamamoto Dendrobium site, and two that had tags and are also Yamamoto-type. I try to follow the instructions for them as close as I can - full sun in the summer, now cool dry and bright, outdoors in my yard, in a suburb of Portland Oregon where it's getting into the 40 and 50s at night currently.

Except this one. This NOID variety appears to be Fancy Angel "Lycee", although I can't be sure. It only matters if someone wants one like it, I suppose. It was blooming when I bought it in January, then bloomed again in May, and it's blooming like crazy now, much more than when I bought it! I'm so psyched about this, even though I think it's the plant that knows what it's doing, and not me! I thought it was supposed to be dormant right now, but it's in full bloom instead! I take it into whatever room I happen to be in, sometimes even the bathroom, it's so cool to look at this Dendrobium that is blooming even though it's me that's growing it! (That might be an over-share!)

The other varieties, Oriental Smile "Fantasy", "Yellow song "Canary", and (tentative ID) Love Memory "Fizz" are doing what I think they are supposed to be doing, which is basically not much right now, in the cool outdoors in the sun while I'm trying not to water them and when I do, it's no fertilizer. Love Memory "Fizz" does have 2 little keikis near the bottom of an old stem, and one at the top with what appear to be near-open flower buds attached to the keiki - probably my fault for not stopping orchid food and water sooner - and the other two are about to drop some leaves, but I think that's normal for them. I hope.

Anyway, I wanted to share. Even within the same family of hybrids, it looks like there is some very different ease of growth and behavior. This NOID makes me feel like I can grow orchids