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Post by sweetleaf on Oct 8, 2007 20:33:24 GMT 1
Hi Sweetleaf. Me? An expert on orchids or anything?!?!?  Oh dear me no! I pretend well sometimes.  In that case, Im not a good judge, because you have impressed me! You must be a "natural" then ;D |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Oct 8, 2007 20:38:14 GMT 1
I *honestly* do not know all the technical terms for the various plant parts or how many hours of light they need to get them to bloom or anything like that. For some reason they do seem to grow, thrive and bloom for me. If you give me an ordinary ivy house plant I assure you it is the kiss of death and it will be an ex-ivy within the month. LOL! Sad but true!
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Post by sweetleaf on Oct 8, 2007 20:43:41 GMT 1
I *honestly* do not know all the technical terms for the various plant parts or how many hours of light they need to get them to bloom or anything like that. For some reason they do seem to grow, thrive and bloom for me. If you give me an ordinary ivy house plant I assure you it is the kiss of death and it will be an ex-ivy within the month. LOL! Sad but true! I cant do Ivy indoors either, Im sure it needs more fresh air around it than it could get inside the house, but most other house plants thrive. I only have one orchid though, it was a valentines gift from OH (the label said "Orchid," very helpful IMO! : ) I have managed to keep it alive, by letting it stay in the garden this summer, but I dont know how it will fare in my centrally heated house this winter!  |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Oct 10, 2007 4:36:29 GMT 1
One of the many blooming Phals now. This guy should bloom for many months to come.  Phalaenopsis. Squirrel stole the ID tag that had the variety name. LOL! ========================== |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Oct 13, 2007 2:15:20 GMT 1
Why would a squirrel want a tag? I don't know. Better than stealing the whole plant like they did a few years ago and I saw the vanilla orchid and tree ferns sticking out of the squirrel nest high up in the willow tree. LOL! Here's someone else: Restrepia brachypus A native orchid of Ecuador and free flowering all year. Sorry the pic. is out of focus. The flower is TINY! Shorter than the length of your pinky finger nail! Thrives in bright indirect light and strong shadowing. (2000-3000 Footcandles.) A cool temperature orchid preferring a range of 52°F min. to 80°F max. The plant likes to remain slightly moist and is planted in an orchid mix rather than soil. Easily grown on a kitchen window sill. |
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Post by emseypop on Oct 13, 2007 8:16:49 GMT 1
I thought it was a pic of a bug on one of your plants! |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Oct 13, 2007 15:24:23 GMT 1
The flower does look like a cockroach or something, doesn't it? But. .. the plant is faithfully blooming all year and looking his loveliest at all times. What more can one ask?  |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Oct 29, 2007 1:15:49 GMT 1
Here's someone else that's blooming: Encyclia bractescens a native of Belize. This is one of many orchid species I have mounted on wood or tree fern bark ... growing as the epiphytes they are in their natural habitat. Sorry the detail of the flowers doesn't show. I don't have the right camera.   This is a marvelous mini-Encyclia with conical 3/4" bulbs each is topped with 2 or 3 very narrow 6" leathery leaves, wiry arching 12" spikes emerge from the top of the bulb in spring, up to 12 long-lasting 2 1/2" starry-shaped flowers per spike, red-brown sepals and petals are narrow and pointed, the broad lip is white with fine lines of purple radiating from the center. This orchid blooms through Spring and Summer enjoying *very* bright indirect light ( 2500-3500 Footcandles .) The temperature range is ideally intermediate to warm at 58°F min. to 88°F max. In general, Encyclias are "easy" growers. Allow them to dry between waterings. For the mounted species I water them 3-4 times a week. |
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Post by 4pygmies on Oct 29, 2007 8:18:44 GMT 1
I had a good look at the Orchid stand in our local GC because of your thread C3D - there was a particularly beautiful one with a deep red spidery-like flower which was very tempting but at £9 a time I decided I'd rather admire yours.....they are interesting aren't they?  |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Jan 8, 2008 4:36:25 GMT 1
This little guy has been blooming for more than a month now in my kitchen window... Dendrobium aberrans a native of New Guinea. It is a lovely miniature of the Latourea section with 3 inch bulbs that are swollen toward the top. He's got 2 to 3 oval dark green 1 inchl eaves with pointy tips and numerous wiry apical spikes each carrying half a dozen long lasting 3/4 inch circular flowers that are creamy white with a pure white bi-lobed lip. Best to keep moist year round and watered 4-7 times weekly ... as needed depending on conditions. They are Winter and Spring blooming and best grown in bright indirect light (2500-3500 Footcandles). Ideal temperature range is 55°F min. to 85°F max. C3D |
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 8, 2008 9:55:22 GMT 1
This little guy has been blooming for more than a month now in my kitchen window... Dendrobium aberrans a native of New Guinea. It is a lovely miniature of the Latourea section with 3 inch bulbs that are swollen toward the top. He's got 2 to 3 oval dark green 1 inchl eaves with pointy tips and numerous wiry apical spikes each carrying half a dozen long lasting 3/4 inch circular flowers that are creamy white with a pure white bi-lobed lip. Best to keep moist year round and watered 4-7 times weekly ... as needed depending on conditions. They are Winter and Spring blooming and best grown in bright indirect light (2500-3500 Footcandles). Ideal temperature range is 55°F min. to 85°F max. C3D I like that - which way does your kitchen window face? I guess my South facing one would be too hot. |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Jan 8, 2008 12:53:52 GMT 1
Hi Mr. C. Our kitchen window faces north. Here's an idea who's hanging out there. I didn't turn the plants around to smile for the camera but maybe I'll do that today or tomorrow. These are 90% of the mounted and S. American orchids I grow. On the window sill, hidden by the closed curtains, there's Masdis, Vanilla, a few Paphs, some other orchids and some succulants. C with 3Ds and a bunch o' orchids ;D |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Jan 10, 2008 1:21:31 GMT 1
Here's my kitchen window with the orchids turned around to face the camera.... That's about 90% of the Central and South American guys I grow as epiphytes. There are two Hoyas also in the mix. There's about 7 or 8 more orchids and more plants actually on the window sill. |
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Post by 4pygmies on Jan 10, 2008 8:31:13 GMT 1
I like that! Don't they look good? But is it rather dark in your kitchen.....? ;D They are such oddities, orchids, attrative but definitely strange.... NB I once went to someone's house who was mad about plants and she had put glass shelves in all her windows and had lined them all with plants - it looked fantastic in the sunshine...she did have nice big windows though..and they were all double glazed so the plants stayed there all year. Good idea I thought. |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Jan 10, 2008 13:45:02 GMT 1
Hi 4P. Thanks. There's lots of sunshine on the plants when the curtain is open. It needs to be closed for the photograph because the reflection from the flash ruins the detail. The window looked so pretty 3 years ago when it was truly a "living" curtain of live Spanish Moss, Tillandsias and the little orchids. Someone (we won't mention names but his name begings with the letter M and ends with the letters ike) accidently misted the plants with water and plant food. The Spanish Moss and Tillandsias very much resent plant food and rather quickly turned brown and perished.  The Phals, Dends and who knows what are in another part of the house. |
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Post by Sweetleaf on Jan 10, 2008 20:33:05 GMT 1
You have a fantastic collection C3D, its fascinating how the various types are grown and displayed, I love the way you have them suspended in the window mimicking the way they grow in the wild...... and you said you werent an expert! |
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Post by Sweetleaf on Jan 14, 2008 10:49:25 GMT 1
I saw an orchid at one of my clients houses yesterday which had black leaves with a fine red line in it, the stems were light brown and she said it flowered in white, it was worth growing, IMO just for the leaf, which was short and rather than strappy. Have you ever seen one like it? She had no label, and couldnt remember the name.
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Post by Sweetleaf on Jan 14, 2008 11:06:01 GMT 1
Its close The witch but the leaf colour is definitely red/black not red/green, leaf shape is spot on too. |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Jan 14, 2008 12:59:31 GMT 1
Its close The witch but the leaf colour is definitely red/black not red/green, leaf shape is spot on too. There's different varieties of that kind of orchid too. Some have leaves that are more green and some are very dark with red or yellow streaks. I have the one pictured in The witch's link. |
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Post by maggyd on Jan 14, 2008 17:31:33 GMT 1
I went to an exerbition at a garden centre The witch and was told to feed with a dilute selution of tomatoe feed he said orchid food wasnt compulsary although I had already bought some orchid food when I bought my two plants. |
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 14, 2008 19:17:31 GMT 1
I've never grown them...but I love the ones you've shown us ;D
That's not strictly true!
I bought a little purple woodland one last year at the Malvern Spring Show...it's still asleep in the border but I've got everything crossed that it'll flower again this year.
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Post by maggyd on Jan 15, 2008 13:08:54 GMT 1
I've never grown them...but I love the ones you've shown us ;D That's not strictly true! I bought a little purple woodland one last year at the Malvern Spring Show...it's still asleep in the border but I've got everything crossed that it'll flower again this year. Id love to be able to grow them outside is that the wild orchid cheery that looks like a grape hyacinthe only tiny little orchids? |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Jan 17, 2008 13:35:59 GMT 1
This lovely thing started opening up the flowers yesterday. It is the large basket in the lower right hand corner of the photo of my kitchen window collection. There are at least three more spikes forming. ;D Coelogyne cristata v. grandiflora A native of India. When mature can literally produce thousands of fragrant flowers. Leaves are long dark green six inch straps and the six inch flower spikes can each carry 3 - 8 four inch flowers. The white ruffled sepals and petals are opened starlike around a tri-lobed white lip and a central golden callus. They are a Spring blooming orchid and prefer an indirect bright light or heavy shadowing of 1500-2500 Footcandles. They tolerate a wide temperature range from 52°F to a maximum of 80°F. They need to be kept moist with three to four waterings a week and allow to *slightly* dry between waterings. |
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 17, 2008 14:10:15 GMT 1
This lovely thing started opening up the flowers yesterday. It is the large basket in the lower right hand corner of the photo of my kitchen window collection. There are at least three more spikes forming. ;D Coelogyne cristata v. grandiflora A native of India. When mature can literally produce thousands of fragrant flowers. Leaves are long dark green six inch straps and the six inch flower spikes can each carry 3 - 8 four inch flowers. The white ruffled sepals and petals are opened starlike around a tri-lobed white lip and a central golden callus. They are a Spring blooming orchid and prefer an indirect bright light or heavy shadowing of 1500-2500 Footcandles. They tolerate a wide temperature range from 52°F to a maximum of 80°F. They need to be kept moist with three to four waterings a week and allow to *slightly* dry between waterings. That's a beauty C3D. Clever old thing aren't you? |
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Post by chickadeedeedee on Jan 17, 2008 14:19:01 GMT 1
Well I'll agree with the OLD part. ;D
This orchid also has a very delicate sweet scent! Fantastic combination!
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