Attention: ORCHID GROWERS!
 

Even thou this is a forum for Bananas i thought since we had this thread going on the Vanilla Orchid we could expand it to all things orchid but only with permission from are dear readers i have many articles that you all mite find interesting and of course i would defiantly be interested in any info pictures you all would like to contribute yes i know theres literally 410000 sites on orchids but nun so personal to my hart as this one so with your all's permission I'm going to sorta change the topic of this thread unofficially to all things orchid and I'm going to post some additional articles next up is

Dendrobium Anosmum: a particularly fragrant and lovely Orchid featuring beautifully Pink or some people describe as lavender (i think Pink) pendant flower blooms

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

Dendrobium Anosmum



Heres something to wet your taste buds

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

We're going to do this? I have the 2009 International Orchid Expo in Quito stuffed away....

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

Great Paulo! I will contribute! I just hope I won't go crazy and get back into orchids.

I just want to share some pix of my favorite genus - the Paphiopedilum or Slipper Orchid. I am a collector of the selected forms of the species. I have never kept any hybrids as I find the originals very special. I love the tassellated leaves which vary from plant to plant and I can never have enough of them. At one time I have almost all the known species of the Paphiopedilum with a total collection of 12,000+ individual matured plants. That's how crazy I am about them. All the pix are plants I own.

Paphiopedilum barbatum - Lovely leaves with a lovely flower. This comes from the highlands of M'sia.


Paphiopedilum bellatulum - A compact tassellated leaf plant from Thailand. The petal is thick and fleshy. This one has good petal form.


Paphiopedlium concolor - A hot growing tassellated leaf compact plant from Thailand. Good rich golden yellow and petal form. It can have as many as 4 flowers at a time lasting to more than 2 months.



Paphiopedilum exul - An oddball of a green strap leaf slipper orchid which grows in full sun. Flower is hard like plastic and glossy. Bloom last for 3 months. Comes from the limestone islands of Southern Thailand.


Paphiopedilum godefroyae - The most popular Slipper Orchid species in Thailand. Beautiful tassellated leaves. This is the cream colored variety with maroon markings. Good petal form.


Paphiopedilum lowii - From the highlands of M'sia. This is an important plant in the history of the hybridization of slipper orchids. Petal span approx 16 inches.


Paphiopedilum verajuteanum - A rare mini all green strap leaf orchid from Thailand. It was discovered by my late and dear friend Krairit Verajut who was the President of the Paphiopedilum Society of Thailand. This plant is named after him.

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

Tog, I see your Paphiopedilums, and raise you the Phragmipediums, slipper orchids from my neck of the woods. I collect these, and have 5 species at the moment, represented by about 40 plants. I've also got a few Paphs, the wartier the better. Like you, no hybrids!

Phragmipedium bessae


Phragmipedium x, voted Best In Show at the 2009 IOS


Phragmipedium caudatum


Phragmipedium hirtzii

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

Very nice! :02: Beth, you sure are lucky to be able to yank them off the bushes. Our paphs are like near extinction here cos they are all zapped out illegally. I started collecting the paphs cos of their leaf pattern. Got 1 plant and that was it.

I like some of the phrags but it's a waste of time growing them here. I did try. They just slowly shrink away. Kinda like a magic show, now you see, now you don't! The Phrag kovachii is very interesting.

I only keep the hot growing ones now and I don't have many. I am down to about 1,000 plts.

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

"I only keep the hot growing ones now and I don't have many. I am down to about 1,000 plts."

Tog, I know you're comparing this to 12,000 plants previously, but only another addictive personality could say they are down to only 1,000 plants. I love it!!
:bananas_b

Attention: ORCHID GROWERS!
 

Yank them off the bushes?!?! Good god no. The Phrags are all CITES I protected and nearly extinct. I purchase TCs from Ecuagenera.

To jump from one odd structure to another, here are some Masdevallias. Can't beat them for colour! These are mostly warm-hot growers; photos from the 2009 IOS. Masdevallia is related to Dracula, another funky-shaped flower. A rather astounding number of them were first described by Ecuadorean president Luis Cordero, although the genus is named for a British botanist. Go fig.

Masdevallia davisii


Masdevallia lehmanii (I think...)


Masdevallia macropus


Masdevallia hertzii x coccinea, Best in Show for Natural Hybrids


Masdevallia coccinea


Dracula simia

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

Oh, I thought finders, keepers? Cites1, what Cites? :ha::ha::ha:
The closest I got to Masdevallias and Dracula was a book I bought. Somehow, no one brought them into M'sia. I like them alot, they are like the equivalent to our tropical Bulbophyllums except some of the bulbos have huge flowers..

Ok, I want to show some of the foliage orchids from here. I am a big sucker for nice leaves. All pix are plants in my collection.

Paphiopedilum lawrenceanum - This is the reason why I fell in total love with paphs!


Bulbophyllum reticulatum - This is more of a terrestial found growing on the litter of the forest. It has pretty nice red colored flowers.


Collabium simplex - Another terrestial with small white flowers. The leaf surface is velvety.


Goodyera hispida - Small terrestial from the Jewel Orchid family.


Macodes petola - Super Jewel Orchid with a thick velvet leaf and gold veins.

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

We've got some interesting foliage orchids as well, mostly cool growers from the genus Pleurothallis. I'm kicking myself for leaving this one where I found it.

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

Those Masdevalleas are beautiful, Lorax! And Tog, wow...I never believed so many nice leaves in orchids. All mine are the generic green. Something more to admire in them.

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

Howard, it's an undying love for me. When the new area of my nursery is done, I will load up more of the tessallated leaves species. Glad you caught my drift cos after writing, I thought people will think I am an arrogant sob! :ha:

The Jewel Orchid group is absolutely lovely. I just love the gold veination on the leaves, I find it hard to believe nature having its way like this.

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

Ok, here are some of the micro-bloomers. These orchids are from Pleurothallis, and have flowers no larger than 1cm. There are close to 1,000 species in the genus, so I don't normally even try to ID them further than that. The defining feature of the genus, beyond its miniscule size, is that it blooms directly onto the leaf rather than producing an erect or pendant raceme.

I have about 500 plants of various species right now - they're small and they don't take up a lot of space in the orchidarium. Pleurothallids are warm to cool growers. The first 3 plants are in cultivation, and the remainder are wild ones; these are the most common cloud-forest orchids, although they're also among the hardest to spot unless they're blooming.

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

wow I'm gone one day and look what your Kidd's have been up to! I'm so pleased! beautiful pictures hers one of my Bulbophyllum Ann BucklBarry this was taken from the first place winner at the 2007 NY International Orchid show these Pictures were takin last fall sorry about the quality this was befor i got my new camra




one of my slipper Orchids is in bloom im going to go take a picture all post it in a few

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

here are the pictures of my Slipper Orchid this is one of the plants we get from the casinos after they get done blooming they just throw them out are club gets them for free or next to nothing so we never know what they are until they bloom any one care to guess as to which on this is? I'm particularly proud of this one its my first slipper Orchid to bloom for me

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

Pauly, wow. Now I want to grow Bulbophyllums.

Your slipper orchid is a Paphiopedalum. Tog will know which one; I can't keep them alive here so I don't grow them.

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

why can't you keep them alive if i can in the middle of the third driest place on earth i would think you could to just bring them inside the house they don't need much light just a bit more then a phial i will confess i use moss to keep them damp most people in wetter climates would have no success using that Medea as its to wet i often use things that are quite a bit out side then normal type of Medea for obvious reasons

yes i have to say the Bulbophyllum is one of my favorites she blooms 4 times a year for me she has 4 new bulbs on her so I'm probably going to get as many as 8 flower clusters this time around but i think after that all have to divide her shes out grown here pot by over a year i just wanted to see how much flower power i could get

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

I don't know what the problem is with me and Paphs, really. But it's like Tog said about Phrags (which I have no problem growing) - I just sit helplessly and watch them shrivel up and die.

On a more positive note: More orchids that I can grow! It's a grab-bag this time.

Cattleya maxima - edible flowers, if a bit bitter. Wild, growing on a tree stump (Loja)


Caucaea alticola x mimetica - at the Quito Botanical Gardens


Rhynchostele spp - at the Quito Botanical Gardens.


Habenaria spp - wild, growing in an extinct volcanic crater (Pululagua)


Sobralia alba - wild, growing on the side of the road (Mera)


Xyllobium ornatum - wild collected; blooms once every 10 years. (Loja)


Odontoglossum crispum - wild, growing on a tree. (Nambillo)


Beloglottis costaricensis - Quito Orchid Expo


Otoglossum spp - Quito Orchid Expo

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

If you wana keep bulbos, go for the species, they are out of this world in size, shape and colors.

Oi, I don't keep paph hybrids, all I can say is this one is a cross using a Paphiopedilum callosum Vini(for Dark coloration) and probably a Paphiopedilum lawrenceanum(for the big dorsal sepal). The Taiwanese did tons of these hybrids. By the way, at my elevation, I can only keep the hot growing ones alive! I gave up on the others. Beth, as you say you like the warty ones, they are all cool growers, like the Paph wardii, Paph argus and Paph sukhakulii.

Paulo : I think many people are missing this as an orchid interest promo Thread. Maybe you can PM one of the Moderator to change the title to like; Attention : Orchid Growers!

Beth : From now on I can only enjoy your pix as all my old pix are in hard copies and I don't think I want to scan them!

Re: Vanilla Orchid
 

thanks tog yes i had considered asking MH to change the thread to a more general title

as far as Orchids go i haven't found any thing yet that i cant keep alive now flowering is another thing all together i'v not ever had a Catt. bloom for me but i know its because of the lower light levels i have in the house here in NV they build them like caves to keep the heat of the sun out this is another reason i simply have to get that Orchid/green house going soon!