White and pink Dendrobium

Very pleased with this cheap buy...

Love the colouring of the column in contrast to the pure white petals

Nearly dead Dendrobium

Got this dendrobium from HOLF probably more than a year ago and it flourished at first but then was attacked by some bug and it has been a struggle to keep it going ever since.  I think I also over-watered it (argh, when will I learn!).  Decided to take it out from all it's medium (it was growing in clay pebbles) and see what happened since it was on it's last legs anyway...

Glad to report it is starting to produce a few keikis!  Last ditch attempt to perpetuate itself...

Vanda seedling terrarium

As the balcony is rather windy and the weather has been rather hot, I decided to see if it might be better for these seedlings to have a bit more protection from the wind and be in a more humid environment.  Created this mini-terrarium for them.  Let's see how they progress...

Must try not to over water them!!

Vandaecous orchids progress - new roots!

As mentioned in my previous post, I bravely took all my vanda-type orchids out of their medium and left their roots to air.  I have been spraying them very frequently - sometimes twice a day as it has not only been hot but very windy.  Thankfully the humidity has also been quite high so this has helped.

I'm glad to report that new roots are appearing and this is great as that's the first sign that they are going to thrive... I think!

Zygopetalums blooming again!

So after splitting the original plant into 3 because it was very root bound, two of the new plants immediately produced spikes from the new growth.  The first has now opened and as expected, the colour is a little less intense than the previous one.  I am also surprised that it seem the petals/sepals are also large in size.

It's very hard to do the beauty of the orchid justice because the shade of purple is infuriatingly difficult to capture accurately (it's more blue than in the photos) and the flowers seem to be rather haphazardly angled!  Also, the texture of the lip - like velvet - is not clear from the photos.  Here are a few of the best ones from the many I took!

This shows off the variegation on the petals

Dendrobium Unicum flowering

The first flower has opened!  The lip is slightly asymmetrical but otherwise it is so gorgeous - the bright orange colour, the very fine-lined lip and it's sculptural form.  So thrilled about this plant especially because I didn't think it would actually survive after buying it - see previous post here!  It also lost a few of the buds along the way so I was wondering if any would reach full maturity.

The flower seems to be growing upside down, which makes me think that I should mount it hanging downwards

Vandeaeous orchids experiment

I have known for a long time that Vanda orchids grow with their roots totally exposed and trailing out of the baskets... but it took actually buying a gorgeous, full sized Vanda, to then motivate me to read up about them and understand them better.  It turns out that there are different types of Vandas - strap-leaf, terete and semi-terete.  Here are some useful resources:

• General information - American Orchid Society
• Types of Vandas and their different requirements

The gorgeous Vanda Somsri Glory