The Devil's Excrement

My specimen plant of Cattleya Skineri (Central American species) is in flower, a little too early for the Ciencias Orchid Show like last year, but I took this neat picture of part of it.

Top left: One of the lesser known Venezuelan Cattleyas, Cattleya Lawrenceana, very delicate. On the right, my best Cattleya Jenmanii coreulea. This variety tends to give flowers which are not well shaped, but this one is quite good.

Above left, another one of my Cattleya Loddigessi growing on cork, sometimes they can grow in any direction when they are on a slab of cork. On the right Encyclia Cochleata, a very straneg looking one.

Above and below three more of the new Australian Dendrobia I spoke about last week, trying to sort out the names.

About two years ago, I bought some Australian “tropicool” Dendrobiums from Duno Orchids in flasks and some plants. Only oe of them had flowered, but all of a sudden I have five in bloom and I love them! Below three of them:

On the left above De. Burgundy Cream x Dendrobium Aussie Quest. On the right Dendrobium Danang

On the left Dendrobium Brinawa Charm x Dendrobium Vivid. On the right, Cattleya Lueddemanniana (Maruja x Pto. Cruz), a sort of funny shaped on really spread out and the back sepal sort of leaning back.

Above a firts bloom of Cattleya Jenmanii Gerd x Claudia, I thought this plant was not doing well and look at thos beauties! Coerulea Jenmaniis seldo ahve a great shape. Very delicate!

I have always liked Cattleya Loddigessi from Brazil. I find it very beautiful and delicate. However, the ones I had were not doing very well. Basically, the plants flowered erratically, did not have many roots and the leaves would dehydrate like in the picture below on the left. I had them potted in fir bark with charcoal like all my Cattleyas. This seemed to happen to other people in Caracas, so I decided to experiment and took a small plant and tied it to cork instead of having it in a pot with fir bark. The results were immediate and incredible. On the ight below, you can see the first plant that I did this to about a year and a half ago, which has four flowers. In fact, I ahve had four of the Cattleya Loddigessi flower in the last month. I never had such results with the plants in pots.

Below left, you can see the roots at the base of the plant and see how vigorous the plants have rooted on the cork. On the right you can see the whole plant and how the last five leads have grown two and three times the size of the original ones when I tied it to the cork. The leaves no longer dehydrate in te back and the one I show above was from a plant that was already in trouble. I have now moved all my plants to cork and they are thriving.

Above I show two close ups of the bug plant above, one (right) with the sun hitting from behind.You can see how delicate this flower is and how well shaped they are.

This is a different Cattleya Loddigessi, also on cork and doing very well. This is a much smaller plant that I placed on the cork after the initial experiment worked.

While some people say Brazilian species have this problem because they are not repotted at the right time, my feeling is that they do not have in Caracas the humidity they have in their natural habitat and they do not like having the roots wet. On the cork the roots dry fats and I have more humidity than usual in my orchid room than most people.

Santos sent me these very nice pictures of species

Two very nice Cattleya Lueddemanniana crosses, the one on the left has the “Haydee” plant in the cross. The one on right has very nice color.

Left: A first flowering of a C, Lueddemanniana coerulea. On the right Jumelea Sagitata

A nice Brassia Rex

Eduardo M. sends this incredible sequence of Venezuelan species:

Top left a first bloom of a Cattleya Lueddemanniana from Orquideario Cerro Verde with a spectacular lip, standing next to Catttleya Lueddemanniana “Clarines” fampus for the huge lip, you can see the new one is spectacular. On the right the first bloomer up close.

   
 A very nice Cattleya Lueddemanniana Corelua on the left. On the right a Sch. Undulata alba, Eduardo tells me that Carlos Garcia Esquivel thinks it is a tetraploid.

You don’t see many Cattleya Lawrenceana plants, it is almost the “forgotten” Venezuelan Cattelya, but Eduardo has in this picture a coerulea form on the left and a concolor one on the right.

Great showing!

It’s always nice to come back home, look in the orchid room and think there is nothing new, then upon closer inspection there is this flower and the other oe and by the time you stop counting there are at least six new blooms:

Top left, Cattelya Loddigessii from Brazil. I love this flower, but it was not a great grower in my orchid room, then two years ago I switched one to cork and it did great, now all of them are on cork and the difference is incredible, next week the “pilot” of that should flower and I will show it in detail. The one above was the second one I switched and it’s still a small plant. On the right an Oncidium, I don’t know where I got it or what it is but it is very nice and the picture came out really well. It is a long stem above a meter and a half with dozens of flowers.

Top left Blc. Ronald Hauserman, an old faithful one. On the right a Bl. Tokyo Magic, a small seedling growing like crazy.

On the left a Potinara Hoku Gem Freckles, I love how each flower can be so different. On the right a Blc. Richard Muller.

Two Lueddemmannianas from Venezuela which were a little wilted when I was able to take the pictures

These pictures are from the World Orchid Conference. I can only say one word: spectacular. However, I made the mistake of taking only my macro lens to take pictures of single orchids, that the overall pictures I too with my phone, simply because I had to show you how wonderful it was. I was concentrating so much in taking the pictures that I actually lost part of my glasses while I was doing it and never recovered it.

Lighting was uneven, if the colors are not right I will say it, but I don’t recognize everything. I just took pictures of what really attracted me. I did not write names or anything. Really nice. Enjoy!

The ones above are pictures of the Krull and Smith stand, truly sensational and spectacular.

On the left above a picture of the brook filled with Phrag. Bessae by Krull and Smith. Middle, Laelia Ancepa San Bar, the plant was a huge specimen.

A “field” of Phrag. Bessae. In the middle, the biggest attraction at the exhibition hybrids of Phragmipedium Kovachii. This plant was discovered five year ago amidst controversy and it was the subject of a post in this blog in its very early days in September 2002. Only five years later and you can find hybrids of it that are not only beautiful, but huge, they are 20 cms in size, the largest Phrags in nature. You can even buy them, but a little expensive for my taste, $125-200 per plant. On the right above a nice Phragmipedium.

A Lc. Green Dragoon on the left, a spectacular hybrid, the colrs are quite real in the middle and a Dendrochilum on the right.

An Epidendrum on the left, an Epicattleya in the middle and a nice coerulea Epidendrum on the right.

Nice Epidendrum bunch on the left, a very nice Blc. Blc. Lily Marie in the middle and a nice Cattelya Loddigessi puntata on the right.

An Oncidium on the left, a Papailio in the middle and a nice Pescatorea Luddemanaian on the right (from Colombia)

These wre the tied dyed orchids at the exhibit, on the left and middle a nice Phalenopsis and on the right a Den. with similar “dyed” characteristics.

On the left a spectacular blue Vanda, a yellow one in the middle and a very nice Cattleya Walkeriana on the right.

Santos sends these pictures, I think I erased the emails, hopefully I can tell you the right species:

Aerides Raymond Lender

Meyraclinum from Peru

Masdevalia Erinacea

Here are two species, one local and one from Asia. The one on the left is from Venezuela Cattleya Lueddemanniana, in this case a cross between Clint McDade and Raga. This is the first Lueddemanniana to flower this year, they usually start later, but I ahve another on in flower. This is a nice size flower, well shaped and more on the light side, very delicate.

On the right is a plant that says Cyrrhopetalum Amabile which is Asian, but I can’t find it in my book on this species and on the internet I found one and it says new species, but I certainly have had this plant quite a while, Look how complex the flower is, it even has like a purple “hood” on top. Very cute.