Our orchids are going nuts

[Arron]

For the last 20 years I have maintained a small collection of exotic orchids. Nothing major, just about 30 or 40 plants. Mostly cooler growing members of the cattleya, oncidium, odontoglossum and dendrobium alliances.

To be honest, they've never been very successful. Sydney climate doesn't really suit exotic orchids (except cymbidiums and I've never liked them). They struggle along but typically there isnt a lot of flowering. Until this year. I've now consolidated them in an unusual growing situation and they are going nuts - everything that should be flowering either has flowers or flower spikes - mostly lots of.

I'm not sure what to put this down to - it could be the unusually warm autumn but I think its more likely that in the new growing situation they get far more sunlight, water and fertiliser then I've ever dared to give them before.

Heres a sample of whats flowering. Apologies in advance for the horrible things I'm probably going to do with the spellings.

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This is Laelia anceps. If you wanted to grow just one species which thrived in the sydney climate this is it. Grows outdoors year round, thrives on neglect, and flowers prolifically each year. Will even grow outside in Melbourne, so I hear. Long lasting flowers are 100mm vertically, 2 or 3 per spike. One plant of ours has 18 spikes.


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A tolumnia. Once called equitant oncidiums. Brilliant flowered little miniatures - the actual plant is quite small and sometimes looks like a Tilandsia. I believe they grow in the same environment. Inside in winter.


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A large flowered odontoglossum hybrid. Not much removed from Odontoglossum crispum, I think, and crossed with something else that gives it heat tolerance. This one has just opened and is not coloured up fully yet.


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One of the endless parade of Miltonia crossed with various members of the odontoglossum alliance. This one has 3 spikes for 30 flowers.


Back on the subject of the Laelia anceps and its adaptability, FWIW the only other spectactularly-flowering exotic orchids I've found which are perfectly comfortable in Sydney (outdoors, year-round) are Brassia longissima and Coelongyne cristata. Actually, its not really cristata (for which Sydney would be too hot) its a hybrid between cristata and some other Coelongyne. I can find its true parentage if anyone wants more info. Long tresses of 60mm white flowers with a yellow centre and a crystalline texture.

Many times I have thought I've found others to add to this short list but they tend to grow and flower well for a few years then slowly loose vigour and die.

Anyone know of anything I'm overlooking? Happy to trade.



Over the next few weeks there will be more flowering - I'll add photos if anyone is interested.

chers
arron

[HUON]

Absolutely stunning Arron, keep the pics coming

[Christos]

A long time ago(10 - 15 years) I knew of an older fellow that also grew orchids in Sydney. I am far from having a green thumb and did not play much attention to what he was saying. After reading your post I understand now how hard it was to grow orchids in Sydney and what he achieved.

I don't think I would ever come close to being a gardener but do appreciate the knowledge that you have shared.

[fenderbelly]

well done mate you are certainly doing something right now.

[Toymaker Len]

Beautiful orchids. I have to say that mine very much like a feed of orchid pellets (smells like chook) and they seem to flower better when they are pot-bound.

[Luke Maddux]

Wow! I didn't even know orchids grew in shapes like that. Those are the best I've ever seen.

[Cliff Rogers]

We have a Laelia that has just finished, more flowers but not as good as yours.

[Arron]

Not much has matured since my last post - I guess the weather is getting cooler so flowers are taking longer to open.


This oncidium has opened. I decided to take it indoors and give it the studio treatment. I photographed it in my woodwork photography setup (which I showed here (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f122/woodworking-product-photography-204611)).

This is what I call a miniature. I think if left to its own devices it would grow into a large plant, but it will flower as a very small division so if you divide it rigorously you have a very small plant which can be conveniently bought inside for winter.

I think with these line-bred oncidiums the breeders concentrate so much on enlargening the shape of the labellum they get a bit shapeless and floppy.

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I also decided to redo the photo of the odontoglossum hybrid in the desktop studio.

Each flower is 130mm across, so its quite a display. I think the best feature is the subtle yellow lining on the labellum.

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Its a Beallara Tahoma Glacier - a hybrid which is a bit yawn-inducing to most orchid lovers but its hardy and easily obtainable so I will always have room for it.



There are other plants with flower spikes coming along, but they will mature very slowly once the weather cools so I wonder whether they will overlap with the spring-flowering species. It takes an orchid spike a long time to mature.

cheers
Arron

[Arron]

We have a Laelia that has just finished, more flowers but not as good as yours.

Cliff, which Laelia is it ?

Your part of the world should be perfect for growing orchids - mind you, when I was up there a few years ago I saw very few growing. I guess its a matter of wanting what you cant easily have.

[Cliff Rogers]

Laelia perrinii I think.

It isn't a marvelous specimen but it does have about 20 flowers every year.

We are 870M above sea level, not the same as being down in Cairns.

Some things that grew & flowered well in Cairns don't here & some things that just grew in Cairns but didn't flower, do up here.

We have about 9 or 10 natives that occur naturally on our property but most a very insignificant.

[hendosay]

Hi Arron.
Laelia Anceps is a lovely orchid on such long stems. Mine in beautiful Brisbane start to spike in December and have always come out on the 22nd May each year for the last 35 years, which happens to be my wifes birthday. Just remember that you must talk to them. Cheers Don.

[Arron]

Hey Don - are yours all the standard mauve jobs like mine, or do you have some of the white forms or other variations ?

[hendosay]

Hi Arron,
Mine are the standard mauve. 3 or 4 90mm flowers on 600mm stems.
I had a white one (slightly smaller flowers) about 20 years ago, but it did not appreciate the shift to Redland Bay. Out of about 450 0rchids, only just over 200 survived. It may have been the salt air as we are only 75 metres from the bay. Cheers Don.

[Arron]

Although there are spikes, our orchid flowers are slow to mature now the cold weather is here.

Here's a couple that have opened recently:

This one is Vulystekeara Cindy 'Pinky Lea'. Its quite a big plant so I cant photograph the whole thing. The flowers are about 90mm across, 6 or so per stalk. A common hybrid and a good beginners orchid. This one has happily grown outdoors in a rather exposed position for a few years now.

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And this is Oncidium 'twinkle'. The flowers are only about 12mm across. You might wonder why one would bother with an orchid with such tiny flowers when so many more spectacular ones are available, and the answer is in the fragrance. Very strong, sweet vanilla fragrance that can fill a whole room. 'Twinkle' is a hybrid between Oncidium chierophorum and Oncidium ornithorynchum. It gets the fragrance from the latter. Onc. ornithorynchum is often for sale in Sydney but I find they usually dont survive long, having a fairly narrow temperature tolerance. This hybrid seems to be a lot hardier and again grows and flowers well outdoors under my usual regime of benign neglect.

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I guess I should point out that the names I have given here are probably nonsense. Unfortunately, the family Orchidaceae attracts the attention of taxonomists and they ceaselessly move plants between genera and change the names. Most growers try to keep up for a while then give up and just start to use names they notice are meaningful to other people. The species I mentioned above, for example, (Oncidium ornithorynchum) was renamed to Oncidium sotoanum, and then the entire Oncidium genus was collapsed, most of the species moved out to other genera and the remainder were assigned a new genus name which I currently forget. Most growers stick with Oncidium ornithorynchum nonetheless.

Only three more plants have unopened flower spikes now. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

cheers
Arron

[cava]

The Vulystekeara Cindy 'Pinky Lea' is stunning. :2tsup:

[hendosay]

Very nice Arron, our Orchid Shows don't seem to have as many entries this year. We think it's because it has been hot and dry this year. it's 18 degrees here at the moment. that's the coldest since last year. Oh, by the way, My Laelia Anceps bloomed a day late this year with 3 beautiful lilac and blue flowers on the stem and will probably stay out for another month. It keeps my wife off my back and allows me to talk to my orchids.
Cheers, Don.

[Arron]

With temperatures where I grow the orchids close to freezing point on some of these colder nights, I think they really struggle. Its hard to find orchids with a temperature tolerance that can match our growing conditions (like 0 to 43 degrees). Heres the latest two to flower.

This is one of the endless number of crosses between miltonia and something else in the odontoglossum alliance. I've lost the name tag. Anyway, its possibly the most boring flower on earth, boring because once it opens it stays that way for at least three months, long after any interest in it has faded. Until I grew it, I never realised how important transience is to the appeal of a flower.

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And this one is a Ondotoida, a cross between an odontoglossum and a small genus of Andean orchids called Cochloidea. Coming from the Andes, Cochlidea imparts temperature tolerance to the hybrids.

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Only a couple more not opened yet.
cheers
Arron

[Arron]

In case anyone is still interested ...
The spring flowering species are starting now. This one is a Coelogyne hybrid. Its usually sold as 'unchained melody' or something similar. I mentioned it previously as one of the few exotic orchids which are perfectly adapted to growing outdoors in Sydney. Being an epiphyte, it will grow quite happily wired to the trunk of a garden tree - though it may require more water then nature provides.

Its a hybrid of Coelogyne cristata and something else - cristata has larger flowers and is more spectacular but seldom thrives in Sydney (too hot in summer) so its been hybridised with a warmer growing species to give it greater temperature tolerance.

I seldom see these for sale in regular nurseries and I don't understand why these aren't more popular. All they really need to do well is to be potted like any epiphyte and given some slight shade and they are otherwise bulletproof. They can be reproduced endlessly by cutting away a few connected bulbs and repotting. They don't even seem to have any naturally occurring pests or diseases when grown in Sydney.

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cheers
Arron

[Arron]

Here's some more spring flowerers.

This is an oncidium. OK, I know it dosent look real pretty, but its much nicer in the flesh then it is in the photo. I took the photo in haste on my phone just before going away for a holiday and now its gone off a bit so I cant retake it.

There are two things that are outstanding about this plant. The first is that I've had this plant for 17 years and this is the first time its flowered. Why I put up with it sitting there not flowering for 17 years I dont know. Maybe because it is so undemanding, at least for vegetative growth, though obviously it needs very particular conditions to provoke flowering.

The other thing thats outstanding about it is the size of the flower spikes. This one plant has 6 flower spikes and they average 1600 mm long. The flowers are all along the length of the main spike, on short secondary spikes, or sometimes on tertiary spikes (short spikes growing off the secondary spikes). At least 600 flowers in total, though I'm not about to count them.

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And this next one is a 'nobile type dendrobium'. There are thousands of cultivars of the soft-cane dendrobium with the latin name Dendrobium nobile - all basically pink or white flowered with a darker throat. I've owned lots over the years and until recently all of them have failed fairly quickly. Quickly in orchid terms is relative, it usually takes at least a couple of years for a mistreated orchid to die completely.

Its always seemed strange that mine fail as most people report reasonable success with them in Sydney conditions. Anyway, I've finally cracked growing them in our environment and I think it mainly comes down to providing lots of air circulation (though you still need to provide good shelter from cold winter winds).

There is nothing pretty about them when they are not flowering so I guess that puts most people off them. This one is a young plant with a small flower spike.

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The Brassias should be next. I can see they are setting themselves up for a very impressive display.

cheers
Arron

[MAPLEMAN]

Superb stuff Arron
Please keep those pics coming...MM

[Arron]

When I started this thread back in April I mentioned that there were three exotic-looking orchids that do really well in the Sydney climate, and only three (that I know of). This is the last of these to flower. Its Brassia longissima.

It grows well in Sydney climate, flowers profusely almost every year, and it seems there are no pests or diseases interested in it at all.

The flower, with sepals and petals which spread 200mm, is what an orchid flower should be - pointlessly overindulgent. I guess it must appeal to some kind of pollinating wasp or stick insect or something.

This is pretty much the wild form, there are various select forms with much larger flowers. I've only seen these select forms at orchid shows so I guess they are only really suited to a specialised setup such as a hard-core orchid grower might have.

I notice there is one more plant in spike - another mitonia hybrid. Then the summer rest. Very few orchid species flower in summer.

cheers
Arron

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[Arron]

Well the last orchids for the year have opened.

I mentioned previously that there were only 3 species of truly tropical-looking orchids that thrive in the Sydney area (Cymbidiums aside), but I think maybe I forgot this one. This is a Stanhopea. Thrown out on council clean up day by a neighbour and rescued by me. It was in a dessicated state and almost lifeless - I guess the owners just didn't know what it was and how to look after it. A little bit of care and a lot of water has bought it back, but typical orchid nothing happens quickly so its taken about 10 years for it to recover and be healthy enough to flower again.

Stanhopeas are very much atypical orchids. The flower spikes emerge straight downwards - spearing through the bottom of the hanging basket. The perfume they produce at first is heady to say the least, like a very strong and sweet vanilla, but as the flower dies it turns into an overripe banana smell. And finally, unlike most orchids the flower duration is very brief, usually just a day or two.

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And this is Miltassia shelob. Its obviously derived from a Brassia, as shown in my last post.

Shelob is the giant spider from a Tolkein book. It does look spidery and not to everyone's taste. 180mm flowers, but not a lot per spike. I suppose I regard it as marginal, worth keeping as long as it flowers but not something I would work hard for. I bought it when we had a holiday rental place and I just wanted something bulletproof to provide some interest and a bit of faux-tropical appeal.

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And I think that's it for the year. I notice that now the Laelia anceps spikes are starting to emerge, which kind of brings us back to where I started this thread early last year, so I guess I could have called this thread 'a year in orchids in a marginal climate'.

I realise not many people have participated in this thread but growing orchids is not exactly a mainstream hobby so I expected that.

cheers
Arron

[Arron]

One year on and I thought I was done with this thread, but I have some more orchids blooming so why not show them.

The first one is Coelogyne cristata. It has large, crystalline looking white flowers, up to ten per spike, and multiple spikes per plant. This is the third time I’ve tried to grow it - the previous ones died fairly quickly. It’s unusual in requiring cool temperatures. Sydney is too hot for it unless you nurse it through summer. Comes from the Himalayas.

You can see the mistakes in care in the plant behind the flowers. Brown leaf tips from too much fertiliser and generally scrawny looking pseudobulbs from excessive heat and inadequate humidity. You’d have to conclude it’s only just hanging on to life.

I would define this species as unpredictable, at least from a culture perspective, which I guess is why they are not more common.

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And this is another Tolumnia. These things are now hybridised in such variety that breeders don’t even bother to name or register the hybrids - just give them numbers. This one goes through life as #169. It’s a hardy little epiphyte from the Caribbean that is seasonally draught tolerant. I like the watercolour effect on the petals.

Easy to grow but still very hard to buy.
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Cheers
Arron