House Orchids 2021

[ruweiss]

Dendrobium kingianum

[Diane Whitehead]

Beautiful!

Mine is in bloom also, but it is mostly leaves and only a few flower stems.

Do you fertilize yours?

Diane

[Maggi Young]

Dendrobium kingianum

Wow! Rudi - that is wonderful - I expect  it  smells very  good too? I love the  scent, but  I've  never  had   so many flowers!!

[Jeffnz]

Great display Rudi. This sort of profusion can only be achieved with a large plant, and of course good conditions that facilitate flowering. When in flower the smell will fill a room with a pleasant honey odour, the warmer the room the more pronounced is the odour.
The length of the inflorescence on Rudi's plant is longer than I recall seeing with plants of the same species, Rudi is it possible that your plant is a hybrid? There are many hybrids miffed using Australian dendrobium species.

[Diane Whitehead]

Coelogyne cristata

[ruweiss]

Dear friends, many thanks for your kind replies. Dendrobium kingianum is the easiest orchid to cultivate
for me. I place this plant at a light shaded place in the open garden during the warm season and give it
a low dose of liquid manure from time to time. The scent is very strong (Elke says too strong) so it resides
in an extra room during the flowering period.
In Germany Coelogyne cristata is recommended as a beginners orchid, but I was never succesful with it.

[shelagh]

I'm looking for help. For our Golden Wedding in March Brian and I were given a lovely orchid. The label was useless, no name, moderate light, moderate water. The most useful piece of info was a knife and fork with a cross through them. The orchid is now beginning to lose it's flowers so if anyone knows what it is could they please give some advice. Thanks.

[ashley]

Hi Shelagh,
Lovely plant.  It looks like the intergeneric cross x Odontocidium, maybe 'Tigersun Orbec' or similar (Odontoglossum 'Sunmar' x Oncidium tigrinum). 
Care is as for cool-growing orchids generally (see e.g. here).  And no snacking

[shelagh]

Thanks Ashley. Instructions so simple even I should be able to follow them.

[cristoff]

Phragmipedium Olaf Gruss

[GordonT]

Very nice Phrag, Cristoff. Houseplants are always welcome during the winter months. This past week saw the first snow stay on the ground here in southwestern Nova Scotia. Outdoor temperatures have been really erratic (Today's forecast is for a high of 15 C, by Wednesday our daytime high will be -2 C).

At least there is something new in bloom in our sun room. This is Vanda (formerly Ascocenda) Princess Mikasa 'Blue', blooming for the first time under my care. It arrived over 6 months ago, via mail order. The plant looked as if it had been flattened when it emerged from the shipping box. Needless to say, it seems to like its new location!

[ashley]

That's a lovely blue Gordon.

My paternal grandmother's name was Vanda, according to family lore referring to a 'black' orchid from India, but I'm not sure that even deep purple occurs in this genus.

[GordonT]

Thanks for the compliment, Ashley. The flowers are a bit more violet purple than the photo illustrates. Love the name Vanda... previous generations had style! I guess you'll need to find a plant of Vanda Karina Motes to add to your collection.

[Nik]

Ashley, a quick search online and I found this, I was very surprised too:

https://flowerpowerdaily.com/on-national-orchid-day-meet-the-first-black-vanda-orchid/

Gordon, that looks great!

[GordonT]

Nik, Thanks for the compliment, I'll pass it on to the plant!

 I looked up Vanda "Mote's Midnight" and it is impressive. The nice thing about hybrids with Vanda tessellata, is that they usually inherit fragrance. Sadly, "Princess Mikasa" has no scent. The flowers appear more blue in the photograph (iphone), than they do in real life... they appear more purple.