Yesterday morning my Stanhopea Tigrina opened up its flowers and as usual presented its beautiful majestic flowers in its full glory. It took only a few minutes for it to unfold from the tight flower bud to this unusual and delightful strongly vanilla/ chocolate scented marvel.Stanhopea Tigrina native to Mexico's mountain regions and been popular with orchid collectors since its discovery by english explorers in 1800's.
These orchids are not hard to grow but they do have their specific requirements - they have to grow in an open planters so that they can send their flowering spikes through the bottom of the planter. They need shady situation and copious amount of watering during growing time with drier conditions in winter and they prefer warmth, humidity and a lot of air movement.
Stanhopea flowers stay open on the plant only for a short time - 3 or 4 days only and every year in early summer its a waiting game to see if I get any flower spikes on my plant since stanhopea's flowering can be effected by many factors such as unusually cold winter temperatures or low humidity. This year my plant developed a few flower spikes and I am looking forward seeing extended flowering period. More pictures further down the page.
How does one describe stanhopea orchids - rare, unusual, spectacular, fascinating, amazing, astonishing, majestic, beautiful, temperamental, frustrating, capricious, and if you prepared to wait about 360 days to see the magic, they will not disapoint you.
I can see the word "Tigrina" is part of its name! Just beautiful, Klara. I don't know how on earth you keep up this orchid growing, but you do a terrific job at it--and at sharing your extensive knowledge with us here! Have a very Happy New Year--2009 is here!
ReplyDeleteJan
That is the sign of a true gardener. One who is willing to work hard for a plant 365 days for 5 days of glory! They look gorgeous and worth it!
ReplyDeleteWow! This orchid looks so magnificent and a little mysterious to me. I have the a few of the phaleonopsis? orchids attached to a tree on my patio and I am thrilled they they will be opening their buds very soon. Thanks for adding me to you list on blog catalog! I see you do Blotanical too, what a great group of gardeners.
ReplyDeleteHappy day!
Karrita
What more can you ask for in a orchid? Chocolate and Vanilla scented? Wow.
ReplyDeleteJen
Thank you Jan for your comments and for reading my blog and Happy and Healthy 2009!
ReplyDeleteThank you Cindy - 3 or 4 days of flowering is all one get's with stanhopea's and then the rest of the year memories of this magical flowers
ReplyDeleteHi Karita - I am looking forward seeing your phalenopsis when they flowering and thank you for your kind comments
ReplyDeleteThank you Jen for your comments and for checking out my blog - the scent of stanhopea Tigrina is quite strong and at the moment one can smell it all over the garden, even neighbours on both sides of the fence can smell it in their gardens. In the wild, in their natural habitat this is the way stanhopea's attracting pollinating insects- ensuring their survival and their place in Nature.
ReplyDeleteWhat a joyful day, Klara! How lovely.
ReplyDeleteThank you joey, these orchids are beautiful
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on flowering this plant. It's almost bird-like flowers are stunning--definitely worth the effort to grow them!
ReplyDeleteThank you lostlandscape for appreciating these orchids.
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