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Talk about your orchids and share photos of them here

Moderator: Matt

By coline
Posts:  1230
Joined:  Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:57 pm
#180296
alikaren wrote:I'm terrible at growing orchids :p. I just stick to the easy ones, like phals and paphs. I guess phals are hard for you to grow because your climate is so much different. For me, in California, it is SO easy. But we normally have very mild weather and I can understand it.
The first time I got an orchid, I thought it was amazing. Soon, though, the flower stem dried up and I thought it died! I literally didn't water it for 4 months or so. That's when it flowered again and I realised it didn't die! :lol:
It's terrible poachers would devastate Cattleya Downiana populations just for extra money. Sadly, most people are selfish about things like this now.
For some reason, I love green-flowered orchids.

Also, just wondering, do you have an aquarium? I'm asking this because I like the tetra in your avatar :)
Maybe I have learned a bit or this particular clome is very a resistant one, because my last phalaelopsis, which I won in a raffle at an orchid convention, has 2 flower stalks right now, I'll post some photos later.

But for now, an update, saturday I went in a kind of long walk of 22km that I always wanted to do, it is going down from my cartago house, then up a mountain, go down again into a valley, cross some rivers and back up through another road, in a complete circle.. The thing is, that I found a really big population of orchids, mostly of this 2 species, many others were there of course, but the ones I got to see in bloom were this 2, enjoy!

This is Epidendrum radicans, is very interesting, you normally would expect orchids on the trees, but then I discovered this plant grows in the vertical walls of dirt on the sides of the road! it is very common around there! The soil is completely clay like, and I think very poor in nutrients.
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This one is named Epidendrum F. pupulin, or I think so, it is very similar in shape as the one I saw in a botanical garden recently. In nature it grows in trees, rocks, live fences and many more places!
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Last edited by coline on Fri Sep 13, 2013 2:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
By coline
Posts:  1230
Joined:  Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:57 pm
#184664
coline wrote:I have good news, and photos, it seems as the pollination on G. skinneri went correctly in a full confirmation, and that it is needed a cross pollination, becaues As I notice on the big bunch of flowers, only the first ones I pollinated are making a capsule, and those were pollinated from another plants pollen.
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This other little orchid of mine self pollinates as it was the only open flower at the time.
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And my vanilla smell treasure!, fully blooming!
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Quoted this post as to make an update, the seed pods mentioned in the first photo of it have already gotten ripe, and so I have tissue cultured the G. skinneri seeds already, hope they are good, since the pods went already a little cracked open on a side, so, the other capsules must be almost ready, so I'll culture them next week.
By coline
Posts:  1230
Joined:  Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:57 pm
#192655
During these past months my collection has really increased, and even I took out my first 20 plants from in vitro culture, well, taken from contamination, but yesterday another whole bunch, maybe of about 60 were taken out due to their huge size, they did no longer fit in the jars!
The update of photos is in the first post of the topic, so all my species may be viewed easily!
By Vern
Posts:  232
Joined:  Mon Mar 26, 2012 10:51 pm
#192701
Wow, coline, your collection is beautiful! I just started taking in orchids as an interest, I've been scouring around for discount orchids, thanks to the holiday season.

I picked two up for 3 dollars each yesterday at Lowes, their both poor things and am trying out the so called "Sphag and Bag" Method, to bring back the roots, their crown an leaves look nice and firm so maybe I'll have some luck.

Do you have any advice on how to care for encyclia? I'm not finding much online about them. Is their care similar to phals?
By coline
Posts:  1230
Joined:  Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:57 pm
#192717
Yes Vern, those are the kind of orchids similar to what I manage, and I have a general rule for all of them:
Make a substrate that may get completely damp but dries quickly, these in general are drought tolerant plants but do require a good watering when applied. And, maybe humidity, here I don't deal with it, but maybe you'll need to make it high
By Vern
Posts:  232
Joined:  Mon Mar 26, 2012 10:51 pm
#192799
Thanks Coline.
By coline
Posts:  1230
Joined:  Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:57 pm
#194819
Today, another travel to the same area where I found the Epidendrum radicans and Epidendrum F. pupulin leads me to another big discovery:

Sobralia sp!


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This is the very first sobralia plants in flower I found in nature, I have seen other 3 species in the wild but not with flowers, but these ones were in a very big population, and just image where, in a planted pine forest at the border of cow pastures and coffee plantations!
coline liked this
By bananaman
Posts:  2059
Joined:  Sat Jan 01, 2011 2:54 am
#194984
Wow! Those are awesome!
The coolest orchids around here are symbiotic ones that have no leaves. I believe they are Hexalectris warnockii. They flower almost never, but have really nice red flowers. They are really rare apparently. As far as I know, most of the orchids here are really rare, unfortunately.
By coline
Posts:  1230
Joined:  Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:57 pm
#194987
Interesting plant, upon what are they symbiotic? saw some photos of it but did not find any good information about them. Normally they are kind of CPs, but this is for orchids near human habited places, since people have timelessly grabbed them from trees, they occur in extremely difficult places to access in groups, in other places they "spawn" randomly, but always near these places where they may reproduce since many of them require certain insects, and then the fungi to grow on the trees.
I have seen this a lot near big river canyons, since they are innaccesible forests, orchids are safe there, and in the surroundings they are way much more frequent than in any other place, even if some little patch of forest was protected but already with no orchids they almost won't grow there naturally, they need all the associated organisms to live.
By coline
Posts:  1230
Joined:  Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:57 pm
#195030
Very interesting! indeed I may see why they are not so common, as only a fully mature and big forest may have sufficient fungi for them to grow, and any pesticide from crops around may really damage them! That is a really delicate plant!

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