Orchids Autumn 2009

[Hristo]

Thought I'd move the season on!
Love the Spiranthes autumnalis / spiralis pics Fred, all finished here now with only the seed to collect!
Whilst the first snows have fallen outside here, flowering inside Disa 'African Star' and my favourite 'rabbit' of the orchid world
Stenoglottis longifolia! 

[Ragged Robin]

Made me smile, Hristo, spots are obviously 'in' this season and what a different look to each 

[LarsB]

Very late flowring Disa. My last Disa flower dropped over a month ago.

[Hristo]

Hi Lars,
Cultural I guess, I received the plant from 'D' in Germany as an FS plant. Full sun had been drying pots out in hours here so I kept it in full shade and moved it into the house mid September to a sunny south west facing windowsill. It didn't start showing it's spike until it was in the house.

[daveyp1970]

its a fantastic flower though Lars i will get the Disa Watsoni to you in the next week or so they are finally big enough

[LarsB]

No hurry, Dave. I think there is a poststrike in the UK.

[Eric Locke]

A couple of nice orchids in flower now.

Pteroceras semiteretifolium - a lovely miniature with a wonderfull scent.

Habenaria Carnea - another of my plants of this magical orchid .I have had plants of these in flower now for almost three months.

Eric

[Ragged Robin]

So beautiful, Eric, and scented, fantastic 

[LarsB]

Pteroceras semiteretifolium is a lovely little gem. It does require some heat, doesn't it?

[Eric Locke]

Pteroceras semiteretifolium is a lovely little gem. It does require some heat, doesn't it?

Yes Lars it does, but after the summer in the greenhouse I have only just returned it to the house for the winter/early spring.

Eric

[Hristo]

Eric, what sort of regimen do you employ for your Habenaria/s?
I have some for the first time here, but performance has been poor!

[Eric Locke]

Hi Chris

I wonder which species of Habenaria you are growing ?
I understand that these vary much in the culture needed for each.
So far I have only grown three varieties and the regime is as follows-

Radiata - I grow these similar manner to pleione in a frost -free greenhouse planting the tiny tubers in a layer of sphagnum moss. These go dormant and are re-potted at the same time as Pleione

Carnea - is grown in the house in a compost of bark ,perlite and a little moss. These grow during the summer months and flower late August into Autumn after which time they die back and are kept dry untill re-potting in early summer. I find that most plants sold (even though expensive) have only a very small pea sized tuber that often does not flower in the first year and if they do only produce a spike with one or two flowers . As the tuber grows in following years, the leaves and flower spike increase quickly to produce a wonderfull plant . My only mystery is that I have not ever had any increase .

Rhodocheila - is grown very much like Carnea with the growing season the same. These I understand grow in quite a damp enviroment and so perhaps, better not to let  the compost go too dry over winter.

Eric

[Hristo]

Cheers Eric,
Currently in growth dentata and susannae, they went into growth in mid summer which I suspect was just too hot and drying for them to develop properly. They are now indoors and I am trying to keep em going so they form replacement tubers!
I used a more moisture retentive mix of bark/loam/perlite to cope with the drying but this is now a liability as temps in the house drop to around 10c at night! I lost another species to stem rot as the temps dropped!

[Eric Locke]

My first flower from a flask of Phalanopsis hybrids purchased some years ago.
A super small flowered clone I think ) .
Am now looking forward to see how the others turn out.

Eric

[Maggi Young]

How exciting, Eric.... it has a  good strong colour, doesn't it?