House orchids

[Anthony Darby]

I agree Maggi. Beautiful.

[Maren]

It's Khadija's superb photography that shows up all the little hairs.

[Nova]

Thank you Maggi, Anthony and Maren.
Another orchid I would like to show is Dendrobium harveyanum. Frankly I am not fond of yellow, but the flowers are simply gorgeous. Mine is just a young plant, imagine a bunch of those lightly honey scented golden flowers!
D. Harveyanum is not difficult to grow if you know the culture. It comes from a classic monsoon climate with heavy rainfall in spring and summer and no rainfall in autumn and winter.

[Bart]

That is lovely Khadija! What sort of temperature range do you grow them at? Especially interested to know the winter minimum- and light levels.

[Nova]

That is lovely Khadija! What sort of temperature range do you grow them at? Especially interested to know the winter minimum- and light levels.

Ik grow it at moderate temperature with bright light. The temperature goes down at night to 16 C, but they definitely can take lower temperatures. You can find an extensive growing tip here: http://marniturkel.com/Pages/orchids/o.articles/dendharveyanum.html

[GordonT]

At long last one of my plants has grown up. I bought a seedling of Paphiopedilum Louise Jernigan when I lived in Vancouver, and brought it east when we moved to Nova Scotia at the end of 2009. Earlier this year it decided to bloom for the first time, and this was the result. Needless to say- very happy here! The parentage of this one traces back to three species: Paph concolor x Paph godefroyae = Paph Wellesleyanum x Paph rothschildianum= Paph Louise Jernigan.

[Maggi Young]

Really good-looking plant , both flowers and foliage. No wonder you're delighted.

[monocotman]

Gordon
Very nice clone!
This form of crossing can produce some real dogs or distorted flowers
David

[hud357]

Now this last paph has just reminded me of a question ...

Would godefroyae, bellatulum and similar be suitable for a 'terrarium'?

I'm thinking of 'installing' a helenae but have always liked the above too. Suggestions?   

[monocotman]

I don't think many orchids will like a terrarium.
They all want some air movement.
They are quite likely to rot.
Ferms would be better!
David

[Maren]

As Monocotman says, they all need a bit of air movement. Stagnant air will lead to rot, especially since you would want to maintain a certain level of humidity in the air. You could install a small fan in the top. I've seen that somewhere. And you could have small ferns as companion plants to keep up the humidity.

[SteveC2]

I am sure that a London Orchid Show a few years back there was an entire display devoted to growing orchids in a terrarium, by Helen Milner I believe.  The terraria were basically fish tanks equipped with a water reservoir, fitted lights, and as Maren suggests, a fan.  They looked most impressive, but I seem to remember that setting one up and maintaining it was a bit complex, at least for my liking.  The recommended plants were pleurothallids, small orchids which like it damp and humid.  I doubt that paphs would be particularly happy in one.

[Maren]

The terraria shown by the Milners cost about £350.00.

A friend of mine makes terraria that are a bit less expensive and contain all that's necessary for growing orchids including lights, heating and a fan.  His name is Andy Phillips (andy@justinglass.co.uk or call 07910 245 690) and he is a terrific grower of Phragmipedia, a genus quite closely allied to Paphiopedilum.

Why not contact him and he will give you an honest assessment about whether the Paphs you have in mind would grow well in that environment.

[GordonT]

David and Maggi, thank you for the compliments... I am really happy with this one, though its growth pattern caused a bit of confusion. The original fan of leaves grew to a point, and then stopped, sending out a secondary fan. It was the secondary fan that bloomed earlier this year. It is now sending out a secondary fan of its own, while the original growth has re-started. With any luck, there may be more flowers in 2015.

Hud 357- I agree with Maren and David about Paphiopedilums in a terrarium. My fear would be condensation in the growth points... probably an open invitation for bacterial or fungal rots to set in. Moving the air about using some sort of fan might be helpful. I'd probably stick with pleurothallids and other orchids from cloud forest environments.

[monocotman]

This dwarf cattleya species has growths and leaves no more than 4-5 inches high but has large flat tomato red flowers that last several weeks.
Such was the interest in the species that a strain was developed in Japan with double the number of chromosomes which resulted in larger flowers and more vigorous vegetative growth.
It grows in pure sphagnum moss in a 3 inch clay pot and spends the summer outside and the winter in the kitchen.
It likes coolish temperatures ( nothing over 25c) so our Uk conditions suit it.
It also likes to be kept damp at all times and watered with rain water with a tiny bit of feed.
David