Zygopetalum “Blue Caribou”

Zygopetalum “Blue Caribou” 

This beautiful zygo in flower at the moment, nice colours and heavenly scent. 

Sarcochilus orchids

These little beauties native to Australia and New Caledonia and really like hot, humid weather. They have short steams, only a few leaves and plenty of flowers on short inflorescences. There are currently about 15 species and all of them doing really well on our hot summer with colours of white, pinks, yellow and red. There are also many hybrids currently been developed by Australian breeders. 

They don’t like full sun or direct sunlight and prefer hot, humid position with good air movement. In nature most of them grow in the rocks and form clumps, showing masses of tiny, beautifully formed blooms. All of my sarcochilus orchids grow outside in the shade, exposed to all elements and being Australian native’s they don’t need any special care,  just occasional shower or watering. 

In cooler climate they can grow in the windowsill and would appreciate frequent misting to increase humidity. They are beautiful, easy orchids to grow that reward with masses of special blooms.

Docktrillia orchids - known as “pencil orchids”

My doctrillia’s orchids flowering now, they are fascinating species native to eastern Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. They grow in in rain forests in the situations where they can get bright light and high humidity.

They have long, pendulous leaves and thin stems and very popular in cultivation because they very easy to grow, displaying masses of beautifully sculptured perfumed flowers. There are about 30 species in this genus with 18 of them found in Australia, with plenty of colour variations to suit any taste.

They are very easy to grow and once established not fussy, flowering almost continually from our early spring until late summer. Mine are growing outside exposed to all elements.

Some of my flowering phal’s

Most of my Phalaenopsis orchids in bloom at the moment, showing their many colors and textures and some with scents. They will flower for a few months and it’s nice to welcome their new flowering season.  I took these pictures with my phone instead of trusted camera and not exactly sure of the results, although the pictures are ok I prefer to show more details of any flower.

Most of my orchids in a kind of in between flowering stage at the moment, so a lot of repotting, sorting out and general maintenance happening in the greenhouse. And waiting for new and exiting blooms to emerge for another season. 

End of season cymbidium flowers

Our weather now warming up a bit and most of my cymbidium orchids finished it’s flowering season and these one’s last to bloom. They are late flowering plants, nicely concluding this year’s growing season.
 Most of my time now then by sorting, re potting and re arranging my plants in preparation for other orchids species that are coming into bloom and of course acquiring new to me orchids which I hope to feature in this blog soon.

Cymbidium Night Dreamer

Cymbidium Sassy Green

Cymbidium Kyabram

Cymbidium Sunset

Degarmoara orchids "Flying High" and "Skywalker Red Star" HCC-AOS

dgmra. Flying High

dgmra. Skywalker Red Star HCC-AOS

My Dgmra. orchids in bloom at the moment, they are inter-generic hybrids between miltonia x brassica x odondontoglossum and these days many beautiful crosses been developed. They considered being part of oncidium alliance and some of the easiest orchids to grow.

My dgmra. Flying High flowers twice a year, have long lasting blooms and dgmra. Skywalker Red Star HCC-AOS have large red shaped flowers. They are beautiful orchids, very distinct in their appearance.

I find them easy to grow providing they can have bright light, plenty of moisture during growing time with just occasional misting in winter and plenty of air movement and they always delight me with their beautiful flowers in our winter time.

Cymbidium orchid - Brown Beauty

Cymbidium Brown Beauty

This cymbidium orchid flowering at the moment, It’s Brown Beauty that turning out quite an interesting cymbidium.
 It came to me couple of years ago as small seedling and been growing and maturing since then. It’s been sitting on the bank bench for a while and last year developed a couple of small flowers that was difficult to judge, however this season it actually started showing it’s full potential and decided to bloom with these rich, dark brown colors. It probably needs a couple of more growing seasons to mature fully, but it shows great promise.

It’s a medium size plant, very compact in it’s structure and as all cymbidiums in our climate it flowers in our winter when not many plants are in flower, giving long bursts of color in winter time.

Odm. Yellow Tiger

One of my odontoglossum orchid currently in bloom - odm. Yellow Tiger is complicated hybrid of close related genera and it flowers with these beautiful, relaxed blooms. The color is deep yellow with nice bright red markings  and it have wonderful herbal/spicy scent that lingers around for a long time.

Like many other odm. orchids Yellow Tiger is a bit temperamental - many specific conditions have to be met before it graces me with it’s flowers. Moisture, humidity, light, temperature, gentle breeze - all of these have to be just right for it to flower and now and then it will reward me with it’s beautiful blooms. Many moons ago I figured out that some orchids have “an attitude” and Yellow Tiger constantly teaching me patience.

Oncidium orchid - Sum Lai Woh “Geyserland”

Oncidium orchid - Sum Lai Woh “Geyserland”

This beautiful oncidium orchid showing off it’s beauty in full at the moment. It flowers with long flower spikes and multitude of medium size perfect flowers - there are so many of them that they hang about all over the place. This is just from one flower spike, and there are  a few new one’s forming already, giving a long display of color that lasts a long time.

This orchid been with me quite a few moons and each season at about this time I look forward seeing it in flower.  “Geyserland” never disappoint - year after year it bursts out with an explosion of perfect blooms just like a geyser.

Dendrobium canaliculatum orchid

One of my miniature dendrobium orchids just started flowering, it's native to northern Australia, the islands of Torres Strait and southern New Guinea. The common name for this orchid is Tea Three Orchid because in nature it always grows in melaleuca woodlands and forests. There are a few variations of colors of this orchid - I have seen some lighter, almost pristine white,  and some darker forms .

In it’s native habitat it likes long dry season during winter and spring so mine spends half of time in the greenhouse and another half outside under the trees - that seems to bring it to flower every season. It’s a beautiful native orchid that quite easy to grow in any home situation  providing it’s not over watered since it dislike soggy condition around it’s roots. Other than that, it’s very low maintenance orchid with beautiful, unusual flowers.

First cattleyas in flower

Now, that’s it’s getting a bit cooler in our part of the world, couple of my first cattleya orchids started flowering. These two orchids been with me for many many moons and I don’t even remember how they  came to me, yet every year without a fail they are the first one’s to bloom.

They one’s of the  “old fashioned” one’s, most of the cattleya’s one see these days have fuller flowers, more blooms and generally more compact plants - these one’s more lanky with occasional blooms, yet they have beauty all of their own and I love their strong colors. They also have quite strong scents - the red one smells like “tutti - frutti” and the darker purple one have very strong herbal scent with a bit of acetone in the background, not unpleasant, just different.

Some of my other orchids started waking up after the hot summer spell and many of them started developing flower spikes, so I’ll be featuring them soon in this blog.

Gongora gratulabunda orchid

I’ve been taking a break from blogging but now hopefully back with more posts about some beautiful orchids. In the past couple of months our weather here been really challenging - first with unusually very hot and humid summer that just went on and on and on and then non-stop rains and thunderstorms and winds creating a bit of a havoc in the garden and orchid house. Cleaning, re potting, sorting out and general maintenance of my plants been priority and now that the cooler weather finally arrived I can feature some of my orchids again in this blog. We must of gone through some specific sun-spot cycle or solar-storm activity, because the energy during that time felt unbelievably strong and raw.

One of my orchids that just finished it’s flowering is gongora gratulabunda - fascinating orchid native to Colombia. It flowers with masses small unusual flowers and have the most heavenly strong scent reminiscent of herbs and spices - one can smell cinnamon and thyme and myrrh and anise and all spice and fennel and saffron and there are some sweetness in the scent’s background making it very strong and pleasant.

This orchid need to grow in the hanging basket, so it can send long spikes about 1 meter long down on the side of the planter . It’s a special, strongly perfumed orchid and I am delighted seeing this beauty in flower.

gongora gratulabunda1

gongora gratulabunda

Cymbidiums - NOID

We are in the middle of real heatwave here in Sydney with really very hot weather and very high humidity and the major task at the moment looking after all of my orchids ( as well as all other plants) is watering and misting. For my orchids it's kind of in-between season when I do re-potting and usual general maintenance of my plants and wait until hot weather is over, anticipating more beautiful blooms later on.

Here are some pictures of my late flowering cymbidiums. I have no idea of their names, some were swapped by me for other varieties, some were given to me for revival after they finished flowering but after being with me for a while all of the recovered nicely and flowered, showing off their special blooms. And after all, the world can always do with more beautiful flowers!

Orchids Oncidium Twinkle varieties - “CT Flamingo” and “Pink Profusion”

Onc. Twinkle CT Flamingo

Onc. Twinkle Pink Profusion

Couple of my onc. Twinkle orchids in bloom at the moment - they produce masses of tiny fragrant flowers on long flower spikes. The Twinkle varieties are  some of the great oncidiums of all times - they are easy to grow, , compact with many color variations. There are pure pristine whites, yellows, pinks and deep reds to suit any grower and collector.

Twinkle is a hybrid between Oncidium cheirophorum and Oncidium ornithorhynchum and was created by  W Moir of Hawaii back in 1958. They are easy to grow, can be flowered next to a window and very popular for their generous flowering habit and heavenly scented blooms.

They don't like direct sunlight so partial shade is perfect for them and should be watered just before they dry out, other than that they are easy to grow rewarding with beautiful scent of vanilla, cherry, fruit and herbs and many many miniature size blooms.

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.

Rare orchid discovered on the Council’s rooftop

Tiny green-winged orchid was discovered recently by Islington Council workers on the green roof of the Household Reuse and Recycling Centre  in Holloway, UK. Very unusual situation because for this orchid to germinate and produce flowers all the right conditions have to be met - and here this rare orchid decided that rooftop of the Council is the best place for it to grow.

This discovery got all orchid specialists and enthusiasts very exited, since this particular orchid specie haven't been seen or spotted in the area for the past 100 years, it take number of years to germinate and was first recorded by Charles Darwin in London area.

This specie went to decline because it require hay meadow habitat that has been lost due to agricultural intensification, yet somehow Nature decided to give it another chance, on Islington's Council rooftop.

Long Live and multiply Anacamptis morio ( it's Latin Name)  !!!
(Photo - Islington Council)

Phalaenopsis orchids in flower

Some of my phal's flowering at the moment, showing off many colors and textures combinations. They are easy to grow, to bring to flower and they stay in bloom for a very long time.

We are in between orchid flowering season here and pha's always fit nicely during the time when some of my orchids finished their flowering and others not blooming yet, delighting with their kaleidoscope of colors. 

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.

Dendrobium thrysiflorum in bloom

This dendrobium orchid just finished flowering - usually it flowers with a couple of flower spikes, but this year it gave 12 flower spikes, all perfectly formed - masses of flowers hanging everywhere!

Some of my flowering dendrobium orchids

These beauties just finished it's flowering season, all of them of the nobile variety and they all bloom with masses of colorful scented flowers.
They are one of the popular cultivated orchids and in nature can be found in the area of the Himalayas from India to southern China in deciduous forests, mostly in moderate altitudes. It's a widespread specie with many forms and varieties.

My plants don't get any special attention, all of them grow under the shade of the trees, with occasional watering during hot summer months, they like free draining situation and in our climate they bloom in late spring well into the summer. The flowers are long lasting, up to six weeks with beautiful scent and I love seeing them at the time when majority of my orchids are resting.