The Devil's Excrement

Last week, one of my Cattleya Jenmanii’s won second place at the Miranda Orchid Society meeting, but I failed to take a picture of it. As I was taking pictures around the exhibit and was ready to take the picture of my plant, someone asked me a question and took me over to see something at another stand. Off I went with camera, tripod and all and I forgot my flower.

But I like to keep a record, so that below you will find the flower, somewhat wilted, but you can still se the nice shape that earned it the second place. (Judges disagreed, they actually took a vote in order to decide which plant would take first place. Mine had better shape, the other was larger, I was so pleased that I could not get as excited as they did with the whole argument)

Top left, Catlleya Jenmanii that won second place last week, note that it was wilting when I took the picture yesterday morning. On the right, another Cattleya Jenmanii, both are flowering for the first time. This one is a little thinner than the other one, but the color is fabulous. Note the whitish edge on, that is real! This one was not open for the exhibit. Cattleya Jenmanii is a Venezuelan species.

Above left, Cattleya Walkeriana semi-alba, which I got from a Japanese collector. This is a Brazilian species, but Japanese collectors have cornered the market for the best plants. This one is a cross of two good semi-albas’, the lip is a bit small, maybe next time it will do better. On the right, Encyclia Plicata which I actually purchased last weekend at the exhibit. Typically at these exhibits there are very few species for sale, mostly hybrids, thus when I see something like this Encyclia, I don’t miss it! This is a Cuban species.

This weekend was the orchid exhibit of the Miranda State society of orchids. This typically takes place at the end of September, but for reasons of availability of the locale (which is free), it took place two weeks ahead of the usual time which I think went against the event, because most people did not have too many plants in flower.

The good part was that I took my camera and tripod and went at opening time, before there were crowds. This allowed me to take much better pictures despite the fact that there was very poor ligthing in some spots and lots of breeze. Below a collage of 16 plants.

I only had three plants that were exhibition quality, two Dendrobum species and a Cattleya Jenmanii. One of the Dendrobium won second place in its class and the Cattleya Jenmanii won second place too. My cousing also went with me and took three plants along and one of his plants, a Dendrobium Spectabile, won first place in its class (dendrobium species) and first place in its group (All Dendrobiums). He was extremely pleased. Below, some of the plants I liked the most (from left to right for each row):

Catasetum, Laelia Anceps, Schomburkia undulata alba and Leilocattleya

Cyrropetalum hybrid, my cousin’s Dendrobium Spectabile that won 1st prize,Phragmipedium hybrid and Oncidium hybrid

Cattelya  Giga alba, Cattleya Lueddemanniana (Best national flower of the exhibit), Phalenopsis and Cattleya Percivaliana.

Hybrid, two pictures from different angles of a spectacular Stanhopea and the Dendrobium Formosum which gave me second prize.

Flowering is starting to pick up as I finished repotting all the plants. Some I have posted recently, so instead I am posting the more novel (to this page) ones.

Above left, Cattleya Gaskelliana “Manhattan Blue” I got this seedling three years ago and it is the firts time it flowers, the color is exquisite, a true “coerulea”, but the shape in this first flowering is a little bent out of shape, particularly the middle sepal. Love the color though and hope the second time it will be better. On the right, Colmanara “Red Fantasy”, I used to have a few of these where I lived before, but they seem to like it less here because it is more humid. This is the perfect plant for a beginner, beautiful, easy to grow and flowers regularly.

Top left, Oncidium Gower Ramsey, the most common hybrid there is. On the right a Dendrobium with no label. I am no expert on these , have about three of them and all have dropped the labels. Oh well! Enjoy!

I have neglected taking pictures of my orchids for the last few weeks. There is a good reason, I actually repot every single plant I have every two years in what becomes a marathon of repotting. It is a lot of work, as I own close to a couple of thousand plants. I am 80% done by now (I started three weeks ago) and today I repotted my Grammatophylum Speciosum, the largest orchid plant in nature. My plant is so big that I actually fell handling it, cut my finger while removing it from its old pot and had troubles lifting the plant into its new pot, my screams to my wife went unheard. That should give you an idea. But there were some flowers, not too many as usual in August and I found some time to take pictures of them:

Top left: Cat. Lulu Hot Pink, a frequent visitor to this page. On the right, its descendant Cat. Lulu “Hot Pink” x Cat Maui Plum. definitely like orchids with spots.

Top Left: Laelia (now Sophronitis) Purpurata. Thsi is a late bloomer, it is oen of my better plant but two weeks ago woudl have been better. Top Right: Blc. Ronal Hauserman, one of the most spectacular hybrids I know. The flowers are huge, almost six inches in diameter. This plant has about nine flowers and it came from a plant I brought from Hawaii many years ago which was two inches in size. Today I have three plants and they flower at least twice a year.

Above left, Laelia (now Sophronitis) Purpurata Striata, I dropped it as I took it to take the pictures and it tore on the left petal. I loved those purple lines in the petal as well as the lip. Top right: I think it is Oncidium Lanceanum, but some details are different.. Will keep looking, I know it is related. I don’t like the way the picture looks either, I have to angle the screen to have it look right. .

Above left, Slc. Lulu, this is a seedling, first time it flowers. On the right another species Dendrobium Formosum, one of the largest flowers for these species.

Between travel and not spending much time at home, I haven’t been keeping up with taking pictures of all my flowers, missing some by a day or two and just not having the timw to take good pictures. I will actually be travelling again this weekend, but took these on Sunday. Not as nice as I like but neat

Left, Phalenopsis Cornu Cervi. I actually brought back a flask of these from the World Orchid Conference in Malasya four years ago and now they are recahing maturity. I love the texture of the petals, they are so waxy that they reflect so much light that it is not easy to take a good picture. On the right, an overall view of a Grammatophyllum Elegans with three sparsy of flowers. Below, a close up of a bunch of the flowers, about one and a half inch in diamete each.

I find Cattleya Violacea to be so elegant. Thsi is the second time this plant flowers and it is much better in both size and shape than before. Plant has three flowers, two shown on the left and then a close up of the one on the right. Beautiful, no?

Above left, not a great picture but this is Cattleya Leopoldii from Brazil. I could not get the petals and sepals in focus and I will be travelling and will noy have time to take another picture. Top right, Dendrobium Thyrsyflorum from Asia, beatufil hanging lantern-like bunch with flwoers that are white and bright yellow, it is an impressive sight. I remember teh first time I saw one of these I thought I had to have one. This plant almost died on me when I moved, it has recovered well, lots of leaves but this time only three bunches. One of these years it will have ten or twelve.

 
My friend Cate, known in the blogging world as Awacate, had told me about this strange orchid her father had brought her mother from the East of Venezuela that was doing really well at her house. When she sent me a picture it turned out to be a Coryanthes, one of the weirdest of orchids as you can see in the pictures below. I believe based on the Field Guide of Orchids of Venezuela by Dunsterville and Garay that it is a Coryanthes Speciosa. This week Cate called me up and told me that it was in flower again and invited me to her house to see it and take some pictures. It was a very nice visit and great to see my first Coryanthes Speciosa in my life. Coryanthes is not an easy plant to take care of and have flower regularly, but this one seems pleases as punch to be at Cate’s house in Caracas.

I have borrowed the figure below right from this description of the pollination of Coryanthes, which is based on a description by Gernolt Bergold, a scientist I knew many years ago and who has now passed away. Bassically, the flower has two Pleurids which drip water into the bucket (Thus the nickname “bucket” orchid). The bees get attracted to the flower and as they get in its complex structure, they tend to fall in the bucket. The bee with the wet wings has a hard time leaving the flower, unless it gets out via a hole right next to the pollinia which get stuck on the back of the bee. As the bee falls into the same trap in another flower, it fertilizes via the column in the other orchid. Quite a feat of evolution! (Read more on the link). By the way, the flowers last only two or three days.

There should be more flowers than there are, except for the Purpuratas I have shown already, there is little new. I had a couple of interesting things but the flowers were damaged or did not have a good shape. Strangely enough, since I have so few hybrids I did have two hybrids in flower as shown below. On the left is a Dendrobium that is flowering for the first time, I really don’t know the name, it is very nice, amazing contrast between the yellow and the purple. The name should be in my files, I don’t own so many like this. On the right very waxy flowers from what I believe is called Lc. Daffodil.

I guess I must be geting used to calling the old Brazilian Laelias Sohphronitis if I thought of that as the unifying title for this post. As I described before, scientists have said that using DNA analysis they ahve detremined that most of the Brazilian Laelias like the Purpurata and Tenebrosa belong in fact to the same family as the Sophronitis. Hard to get used to but it is seepiung thru slwoly.

Above left, Sopronitis Tenebrosa, before Laelia Tenebrosa, definietl a very spectacular flower with thos contrsats in color. Right: The now constant flowering of Sophronitis Cernua. This oen ahs always been a Sophronitis in terms of botanical classification.

Two varieties of Sophronitis Purpurata, formerlia laelia Purpurata, the national flower of Brazil.