Odm. bictoniense x Wils. Bonne Nuit

This beautiful orchid finally decided to bloom this season, it's complicated cross between closely related genera and been with me for a number of years, yet this is the first time I've seen it's flowers. It went backwoods on me a few times, but each time somehow revived itself.

It's not an easy orchid to grow - because it seems to require constant moisture, but not being soggy, bright but indirect light, dislike extreme temperatures, loves high humidity yet needs gentle breeze. If any of these conditions not met it's just not flowering and I am forever learning with this one.

I love colors combinations, the big showy blooms, the heavenly scent that reminds of many exotic spices and delighted finally to see it in flower.

Cymbidium Tathra Dark Beauty

Cymbidium Tathra Dark Beauty

This beautiful cymbidium just finished it's flowering season and as usual, delighted with it's vivid, special color. Tathra Dark Beauty is a cross between cym. Yowie Flame and cym. Terama and this cross been around for quite a number of years, each season presenting bold, intense deep red with white fringe lip blooms.

In our climate it's late flowering cymbidium, showing off it's beauty well late into the season when there is a gap in blooms and the eye demands some color therapy, it also have long extensive blooming cycle.

This orchid been with me many many seasons and never disappoint - love it's striking, spectacular, confident, uncompromising energy that brings smile to everyone who see it.

Cyrtopodium Rustic Surprise

Cyrt.Rustic Surprise 1

Cyrt.Rustic Surprise 2

This beautiful orchid just finished it's flowering season, showing off it's special, luminous blooms.

The specie native to Florida, West Indies and Central America to Argentina and most of them have yellow and cream coloring sometimes described as "drab colors" in orchids publications, but I always wanted to try to grow more intense colors of cyrt. and this one did not disappoint.

The blooms are quite large and luminous and perfectly formed and the plant is of medium size. It's relatively easy to grow in our climate, however need a dry, cool resting period in our winter - "back of the bench" material for about 3 or more months and then as the weather warms up increased watering routine.

Cyrt. Rustic Surprise beautiful orchid that delights with it's colors, textures and slightly herbal scents.

Dendrobium Orchid "Starfish"

All of my dendrobium orchids finished their blooming season and the last one was beautiful "Starfish". I've had this orchid for quite a few years and always love when it flowers with masses of special, fragrant blooms.

Being Australian Native, it's very easy to look after, I grow it under the shade of the trees exposed to all elements during it's growing cycle, it does not need any special treatment, just less watering during our winter months - other than that it tolerates all seasonal changes quite well. It's a beautiful orchid that delights novice as well as experienced orchid grower year after year with it's scented, unusual flowers.

Zygopetalum Ocsa Platinum Surprise

Zygopetalum Platinum Surprise

One of my zygopetalum orchid flowering at the moment, it's Platinum Surprise that been with me for quite a few years. It have huge pale color blooms and heavenly scent and flowers lasts a long time.

Zygopetalum orchids are ones of the easiest orchids to grow, they have very minimal requirements in our climate - they like plenty of moisture during the year and then a dry period after they finished flowering. During hot summer they appreciate a bit of shade and I grow mine under the trees.
They are native to Brazil, Peru and other South American countries and grow in moderate altitudes in wet forests. They are very fragrant, delighting with their large, showy blooms.

Cyrtochilum macranthum nanum x self

Cyrtochilum macranthum nanum x self

I've been waiting for this orchid to bloom for quite a while, purchased it a couple of years ago and been trying to get it to flower and finally it decided to reward me with these special blooms. The flowers of this specie quite large, over 12 cm with relaxed petals and color predominantly yellow with shade of purple and orange in the middle.

These orchids are native to cool mountain forests of Peru and Colombia, growing at higher elevation at about 3,000m and like cooler temperature with bright light, plenty of moisture and quick drying situation. For a while I've been trying replicate as much as I can it's growing requirements, experimented with light, watering, moved it a few times around greenhouse, tried to keep it cool during summer heatwave and finally in the middle of our winter it decided to bloom, revealing to me it's special beauty that I can share with you all.

Cymbidium orchids - new flowering season

Cymbidium orchid "Lucy"

Cymbidium orchid "Orange Gem"

Now that our hot weather well and truly over, some of my earlier cymbidium orchids started their blooming season. Interesting, the first one's to flower were these two purchased by me couple of years ago as small unflowered seedlings with hope of seeing something unusual in color or structure of the blooms. They have spent all this time at the back bench growing and maturing and this is their first flowering season.

Until they flower, one does not know exactly if the seedlings will mature into beautiful orchids and I always hope that I will see special blooms, adding to my ever increasing collection. These two did not disappoint - love the vivid colors, the masses of flowers, the structure of the lip. the plants robust heath - great addition to my cymbidium clan.

Phalaenopsis - back to basics

In this post I thought I'll go back to basics and will share with you my techniques for growing these beautiful plants. One of my personal rules for growing any orchid is to find out as much as I can about it's native habitat and to try to match it as much as possible. This genera contains more than 60 species which been crossed between themselves to obtain the beautiful colors and shapes and sizes. but the basics remain same for successful cultivation. Of course, every growers conditions are different, yet once the basics are understood, these orchids will reward you with many many years of blooms.

Here is the video showing phalaenopsis growing in natural habitat -






Note the light intensity, the amount of moisture, the way the plant positioned - all of these things are the clues for understanding what these orchid need and how they like to be kept.
I don't know how many times I've heard advice not to over water them, yet in they natural environment moisture is everywhere and from my personal experience mastering the watering  techniques is a major part of growing them successfully.

What they don't like is overhead watering, with moisture collecting between the leaves because in nature they hang on the trees at an angle so all excess moisture just slips away.  They are sold potted upright in containers, so the easier way to water them is by dunking them just below the crown so that the roots can absorb the moisture from the bottom.  Also, I fertilize them same way - dissolving fertilizer in the water at a very weak rate may be once a month - they really appreciate it.

Phalaenopsis are epiphytes ( air - plants) , they roots need plenty of air and light to flower successfully and what usually happens is that they sold in plastic pots where only air roots at the top see the light and the bottom, the feeder roots promptly start rotting away because it’s unnatural for them to be enclosed in thick plastic pot. What I always do is re-pot them in clear plastic pot with many large holes made around and the bottom of the pot. The choice of container is up to you - anything with clear plastic will do, as long as the light can penetrate the area around the roots, the more holes made, the better it is for the plant. It means that they will get watered and dry out quick, imitating their natural requirements. They love this kind of environment and send many flower spikes during growing season.



Here are some of my plants that flowering at the moment -

Flamboyant Odontioda's in flower

Oda. Eric Young x Oda, Holiday Dream

Oda. Vision Point

Couple of my Odontioda (Oda)  orchids in flower at the moment, they are complex hybrids from the Oncidium alliance and they bloom with most spectacular free-flowing colorful flowers. They are native to Brazil and the Andes where they grow at high elevation. The flowers of these orchids are large and showy and they are very popular with many orchids growers.

They are not the easiest orchids to bring to flower and require a bit of understanding and dedication and the answer, as usual, is to try to replicate their native growing requirements - they love constant watering and high humidity with plenty of air movement and prefer plenty of shade, especially in our hot summers. At the same time it's a delicate balance not to overwater them, since they dislike water droplets in the leaf axis and can go backwards quite quickly.

They are always a challenge for someone like me and I love their exotic, delicate , rare, romantic blooms and looking forward this time of the year to see how they reveal their special beauty, their colors and flamboyant blooms.

Pot. "Free Spirit"

Potinara genus, perhaps more than any other, has captured the enthusiasm and imagination of many orchid breeders and orchid growers throughout the world. Many orchid growers and collectors specialize in cultivation of Potinara's and other related genera, with these flamboyant, colorful hybrids found in many collections.

My Pot. "Free Spirit" is flowering at the moment and I love the color combinations of this orchid, it always gives me a boost of color therapy in the middle of our winter. It's so nice to see reds/ orange/ yellow colors during gray rainy weather. The blooms of "Free Spirit" are large, showy, lush, spectacular, uncompromising and beautifully sculptured and I hope I was able to capture the beauty of this orchid.

Orchid Odm. Serendipity

This beautiful odm. Serendipity currently in flower in my greenhouse, its a cross between odm. cirrhosum x praestens and it flowers with abundance with many free-flowing arching flower spikes. The blooms predominately white with dark burgundy shadings and spots and bright yellow middle and the flowers have a bit of spidery appearance to them. I don't know who crossed this orchid, but by the name given to it it tells a story of "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise" with the finished product.

Like all Odontoglossum's it likes constant watering and high humidity with plenty of air movement, dislike sun and prefer to be in the shade most of the time. Their origin cloud forests of South America, constantly cool, wet habitats and in cultivation can be a challenge to replicate their native growing condition. Still, with a bit of dedication they reveal their beauty and reward with many special blooms that last a few weeks.

I've been away from blogging for a while, did some travel, attended to urgent family matters, done some studies and now back and hopefully will be able to share more of the magical orchids with you all.

Cymbidium Henri Choo

Winter in our part of the world is cymbidium orchids flowering time and this beautiful cymbidium Henri Choo is currently blooming in my greenhouse. It's one of the novelty cymbidiums that have a lot of splashes and stripes on it's petals. At the moment it's one of the "collector's items" but I am sure that in the near future it will be available everywhere.

There is definite trend in cymbidium orchids and current one is to have many stripes and different blotches on the blooms and "Henri Choo" splendidly represents this trend.

It's parentage is Enzan Shining x Death Wish and the blooms have this oriental appearance to them, the color predominantly orange/bronze with many markings with large lip slightly lighter color and the whole effect displayed as if been painted by a paint brush. Another beautiful creation by a breeder who can see so much potential in both parents.

My plant is only a couple of years old, I got it some time ago as seedling and it's interesting for me to discover it's beauty and it's potential. It's been growing strong and this season "Henri Choo" started to show off it's beauty - large, bold blooms, unusual markings and strong, vigorous plant with repeat flowering - another winner for cymbidium world of orchids.

Coelogyne mooreana orchid - "Wild One"

My Coelogyne mooreana "Wild One" in flower at the moment. It's one of the beautiful varieties that are easy to grow for a beginner, as well as experienced orchid collector. It flowers with these large pristine white blooms that are sweetly scented, and quite a delight to see in the middle of our winter.

Coelogyne genus currently consist of about 150 different species, native to India to the Pacific Islands and as far north as southern China and the Philippines. They grow in the habitats from sea level to the high mountains and prefer semi-shade conditions and situations and in our climate quite happy to grow outside under the shade of the trees.

They are one of the easiest orchids to grow and to bring to flower and can grow quite quickly into large, bulky plants producing many sprays of sweetly scented blooms. They can also be planted in hanging baskets to show off their special flowers.

My plant is var "Wild One" native to Vietnam where it grows at moderate to high altitudes. It have upright inflorescence that usually develops from the new growth and have fragrant flowers, each about 8cm across. I've been growing it quite a few years now, it's quite constant performer and lives up to it's name, I divide it every couple of years and many of my friends share the beauty of the "Wild One" now.

Native dendrobium orchid - "Aussie Star"

Early spring time in our part of the world means that native dendrobiums orchids are again in full flower and and again they showing off their beautiful, uncompromising and special blooms, delighting growers and admirers with their special flowering energy.

Dendrobium orchid genera currently have about 1,200 different species occurring from India through Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Tahiti, southern China and Thailand. There are many many varieties of dendrobium orchids grown in variety of climates and recently, a series of hybrids has been produced using Native Australian species.

My native dendrobium "Aussie Star" is one of these hybrids, it's starts flowering in late winter/early spring with masses of small beautiful pink flowers that have very strong sweet scent and it's quite vigorous variety, very generous with new growth and flowers. It's growing under the shade of the trees in my garden with filtered light all year round exposed to all natural elements and it seems to be thriving in these conditions.

I've been thinking of dividing it for a while, since this plant getting quite large, but each spring when I see this plant in flower I live it be for another season, so it can do it's magic and delight me with it's bold, special energy and it's color and texture and scents.

Cymbidium Orchid - "Rembrandt Masterpiece"

This beautiful cymbidium orchid is one of the orchid's world most popular cymbidiums, loved by collectors, orchids growers and general gardeners everywhere and it's name - "Rembrandt Masterpiece". While the green color orchids generally not as appealing to majority of people, this one seems won it's place in many grower's heart's for it's bold, uncompromising blooms.

It's parents Culpalin x Valley Bush produced this special flower of green color with very prominent bright red colored lip, huge showy flowers that stay open for a long time, very vigorous plant that sends many flowering spikes during it's blooming season. This cross won many awards in competitions and shows around the world for it's perfect, unique and distinctive blooms.

My "Rembrandt Masterpiece" just started flowering and I am looking forward seeing many more of these exceptional, beautiful flowers in the next few weeks.

Cymbidium Orchid - Coraki x Kusuda Shining

We are now at the end of our winter here in AU and it means that our beautiful cymbidium orchids started their flowering season.

For me, there are three noted defined flowering cycles. At the moment earlier blooming varieties started showing off now their special blooms, later on mid-season cymbidiums will be flowering and then right at the end of our spring late flowering cymbidium orchids will take us right into the warmer weather.

With these three flowering seasons, it's possible to surround oneself with constant flowering orchids, especially since flowers stay on the plants for three to four weeks. By early summer, it's all over for cymbidium flowers, but while it lasts we enjoy this special kaleidoscope of colors, textures and scents. I always bring flowering cymbidiums into the house for a short period of time to decorate the rooms and to be surrounded by these flamboyant orchids and it means to me that winter is over, even though the calendars insists otherwise.

This nice cymbidium Coraki x Kusuda Shining is especially nice cross - I purchased it a couple of years ago as a small seedling because I liked both of it's parents and was hoping to see in it nice, clear, pleasing color and flower textures. This is the first year it's flowered for me, showing off it's nice, bold blooms. One can see the breeder's thoughts and ideas and hopes when they create and select the right plants for breeding - just like an artist with a paint brush trying different combinations making alchemy creations with living orchid plants.

Winter colors - Cattleya Orchids

Here in AU we are in the beginning of winter with cold and rainy weather, at times experiencing strong icy winds from Antarctica and our beautiful and lush tropical gardens look a bit muted, waiting for a spring time when a new growing cycle will start it's magic in our part of the world, however it's great anticipation time for orchids growers and collectors since Cattleya orchids are in flower at the moment, giving us much needed color infusions.

My Cattleya's just started flowering and with the names like "Sweet Valentine", "Tokyo Girl", "My Blue Heaven", "Firewalker", "Pink Angel" - who can resist these flamboyant beauties!

Cattleya's are one of the most popular orchids with orchid hobbyists as well as the general gardeners and these days have many spectacular varieties and forms. They are the easiest of all orchids to grow, being very tolerant of poor conditions and neglect.

This species are widespread in the American tropics, mainly in costal Brazil and the Andes. There is also significant Cattleya occurrences in Mexico and other Central American countries.

These orchids are quite easy to grow and in our climate need light shade during summer, lot's and lot's of water during hottest part of the year and a bit of a shelter during colder months. They are quite forgiving plants and store their energy in large bulbs, which means that even inexperienced orchid novice will be able to grow them, since they recover very quickly from any neglect.

Right at this moment it's raining quite heavily outside, cold with strong winds sweeping everywhere, dark clouds with a bit of thunder somewhere close - I am off to the greenhouse for much needed color therapy with my Cattleya's and their magical blooms!

Beautiful orchids on display in Japan - JGP 2010

Japan Grand Prix International Orchid Festival 2010 (JGP2010) was held this year in mid-February in Tokyo Dome and attracted orchid lovers from all over the world. It's the world's largest orchid show, very unique in terms of number and quality of orchids displays, the variety, the size of exhibits and the elegance of their designs. It's an annual event and this year JGP celebrated it's 20th anniversary.

For nine days in February Tokyo Dome welcomed more than 400,000 visitors, exhibitors from 19 countries and over 100,000 orchids displays. This year the theme of JGP was - "Orchids: Cordial Hospitality - Saying it with Orchids" suggesting how to enjoy orchids in daily life.

This orchid show is where visitors can look, touch, learn, talk to the experts, bring their own plants for evaluation, listen to presentations and communicate with many orchid lovers.

Some of the rarest, never previously seen by general public, Japanese orchids was also displayed at that show - for instance, extremely rare Cypripedium native orchid from Rebun Island was exhibited and was replanted back to it's natural habitat after festival finished.

There are many judging competitions and many many awards given at JGP - for Individual plant, for best Fragrance, for best Display, for best Flower Arrangement ( interior decorations, gifts, bouquets), for Arts and Crafts (painting, botanical art, photographs, art flower, pressed flower, dried flower) and Miniature Orchid Garden. Also, sales area with more than 130 vendors from all over the world sell orchid plants and other orchids related items.

I've been to JGP three years ago and took back with me the most fondest memories - the sheer size of exhibits, the variety of plants, the knowledge and the kaleidoscope of colors, scents and textures, the dedication and selfless sharing of techniques and information, made many contacts with orchid lovers and collectors.

What more can one say - its Orchids and they doing their magic - they unite people from many countries, backgrounds in appreciation and celebration of beauty and love.

Below is a small video featuring JGP 2010 orchid show

Oncidium varicosum orchid

Oncidium orchids considered one of the largest genera in the orchids family and many orchid collectors dedicate large portion of their collections to these beautiful and diverse plants.

There have been many name changes in the Oncidium alliance and being such a large genus ( currently approx 750 varieties) one feels that it will be some time before a stable nomenclature is achieved. There are also many hundreds of handsome hybrids made within the species of this genus and with other closely related genera.

This of course, does not deter orchid growers from enjoying such a beautiful blooms and it gives one possibility of growing them in many colors, textures and scents.

My oncidium orchid is var varicosum and it's one of the first orchids in my collection that starts it's flowering in early autumn and will continue producing it's beautiful, bright yellow blooms for a number of weeks. This species native to Brazil and Bolivia and it flowers in nice clusters. The flower spikes come up from the base of the pseudobulbs and are approx 80 cm long. It likes growing in a free-drain orchid compost in the shade of the trees with a lot of air movement around them. They are easy to grow and because of their cascading flower spikes can be grown in hanging pots or mounted on the tree trunks or slabs.

The world's most loved orchid

Not many people know that Vanilla is actually an orchid - in fact it's one of the oldest surviving "primitive" orchids, the origins of which date back- give or take- 120 million years.

This orchid can be found in many tropical regions of the world and this distribution supports the theory that genus Vanilla is very ancient and these orchids display a number of archaic features. The scientists established that origins of Vanilla orchid go back to the time when Gondwanaland broke up some 120 million years ago. They base their finding on the theory of plate tectonics and trace the origin of this orchid to the very beginning of the Cretaceous period, or 120 - 130 million year ago.

Difficult to imagine, I know, such a time-frame, and even more humbling to see the plant that kept all of it's genetic imprints intact through Earth's history and evolution and still contributing it's ancient, bold, uncompromising, unchanged energy to our modern times.

There are a number of species contained within this genus and they occur throughout the tropics. The most known are Vanilla planifolia that grows in Asia and Americas and Vanilla polylepis from Africa - in Angola, Zaire, Kenya. The plant mostly farmed for the vanilla essence that is made from seed pods and plants grow as vines that often reach more than 100ft long.

I always wanted to see this orchid growing in it's natural habitat and to experience myself it's special energy, to see how it's pollinated by native birds and see how it adapted to our "modern" culture and a couple of years ago had an opportunity to visit Lifou island in New Caledonia - one of the biggest Vanilla plantations in the Pacific.

Lifou island is part of the Loyalty islands - it's beautiful and pristine paradise with clear waters and streams and waterfalls, abundance of wildlife and magical tropical birds, unusual, ancient plants with huge Vanilla plantation where this orchid grows in it's natural habitat. Native people are very friendly and hospitable and very much tuned to nature, seasons, tides, healing plants and living in tune with all life around them. They plant and harvest and gather by Moon and by stars and I was fortunate to visit an elder of the village, who was a woman, so wise and so humble.

The Vanilla orchids grow through all the island - huge vines everywhere and I was taken through different stages of producing vanilla beans - from planting, to growing to maturing to harvesting and then drying. Few times a year huge ships come to the island to collect the beans and take them all over the world, to be used in so many different ways in our modern living.

So, here it is - a humble Vanilla orchid, as old as the "time" itself, being grown by Native people all over the world who respect it's origin and it's destiny and it's place in our everyday lives. If ever opportunity presents itself for you to visit Vanilla plantation anywhere in the world, be it Mexico or South America or Pacific or Africa - take the chance, you'll be amazed at the knowledge you will take with you.