I've decided that I will give growing Dendrobium harveyanum a try, so I've ordered one.  I'm getting pretty good with the dends that are in baskets and on mounts.. this one seems to want it a bit cooler than I might be able to provide, and I've been told that the rule of thumb is no water between halloween and Valentine's day.  I'm getting a small collection of things that want no water, such as the cycnoches, and amorphophyllus, so pretty soon I'll be able to dedicate one whole shelf just to things not to water in the winter!  I might instead put this guy in the cactus house, which is a little unheated greenhouse off the front of my house.. it gets whatever ambient heat floats through the doors, and it is double paned, but it's still pretty chilly out there!    My problem will likely be keeping this guy cool through the summer.

The flowers to me are just so interesting, and getting it not only to grow, but to flower will be a great feat!  This year I'm trying to pay more attention to the individual growth needs of my orchids, instead of just putting them all in the greenhouse with best wishes for survival!  We'll see!

Wish me luck!

Sometimes in my daily life I run across references to orchids that are just so wrong I want to call the people responsible and let them know.  

Vanilla is an orchid, and other than a Turkish terrestrial orchid used to make ice cream, is pretty much the only agricultural orchid on the market today.  The other day I'm in the grocery, thinking I should eat some yogurt to get my stomach back in order after the holidays, but the the only type of yogurt I like is vanilla.  The whole world of yogurt has changed since I was eating it regularly.. no longer is there just a plain cup of yogurt.. now it's either a drink, or has sprinkles, or is lite... I just want regular vanilla yogurt.

So, I'm looking at the labels, trying to figure out which one might be the most basic, and I come across a vanilla yogurt with - get this - a picture of a PAPHIOPEDILUM on it!  A slipper orchid on the front of a cup of vanilla yogurt!   Most of the vanilla yogurts do have a picture of a close likeness to a vanilla flower, but a slipper orchid?  I laughed, and thought to myself that whoever the marketing person was who designed the label, didn't even bother to ask anyone, or look in a book, or surf the web, to try and actually find a picture of a vanilla orchid.

Ah well. .I don't remember the brand now, but I did get a small kick out of how inaccurate the reference was.  Orchids are such a mystery, huh?

I never fail to be amazed at the quality orchid growers hidden within my societies.. some excellent growers are very obvious, as they are the ones bringing in the giant specimins for the show table, but then there are the quiet growers, who somehow come out of the wood work and surprise us all!

A friend, Ursula, is just such a grower.. very unassuming, but wow!  She brought me a couple dozen Dendrobium kingianum seedlings that she's been growing since they were itty bitty, and all I can say is WOW.  They are big and beautiful and clean and healthy.. most are busting out of their 4 " pots.     I will be attempting to cool them down to try to set buds, but we'll see about that.  I was unaware of that requirement, which might explain why my own kingianum has only sporatically bloomed for me.  A healthy plant should be covered with blooms!

But I do so love to look at well grown and tended plants.  They are such a pleasure!

Tonight is the Hollin Hills Orchid Society meeting.. I'm the president, which means I have to come up with the lecture, which after a couple years, is getting more difficult.  I like to have interesting things going on.. sometimes we have clinics, but tonight we're just going to have a slide show on the orchids of Belize and Guatemala... handy that I just came back from there and actually took a bazillion pictures of orchids "in situ".  I love seeing where they grow in real life.  It gives me such a much better grasp on culture for different genera.

In Belize, the Schomburkia tibicinis were in flower.. pretty spectacular with their 12 foot spikes and up to 22 brilliant orange twisty flowers per spike.  They are sometimes referred to as cow horn orchids because of the shape of the psuedobulbs.  And I found them living on rocks in full sun, and clumped on tree trunks in the deep shade... neither seemed to be an advantage over the other, as they both looked equally like crap, other than the spike!  Most orchids in the wild look bad.. they are all damaged and bug eaten, and sunburned and tattered...   we all worry so about any little mar or freckle on our personal plants!

I did bring back some pollen from this plant, but so far I haven't pollenated anyone with it yet.. it's got to be the right plant...

I haven't blogged for quite a while.. I was quite enthusiastic about it, but then summer got busy, and I just never found the time.  I am always amazed by people who have time for all their endevors!  I seem to spin my wheels, although if I stop and take an accounting, I'm always busy doing something!  For once I'd like to just sit and do nothing, but that's not really me, so I don't.

The little spotted cattleyas we mounted this summer and coming along nicely.  I fear they will not be fully established on their mounts by show time, but I have so many people who want them that I fear a mutiny if they are not part of my sales plants!  I will just have to give instructions not to remove the fishing line until the roots are all over the cork!  They are growing so quickly though.. I'm always amazed at how prolific orchids are in the right environment!

And speaking of right environment.. the new freestanding greenhouse appears to be dark as a cave, and I was very worried that my cattleya would not be happy and bloom, but low and behold, things are starting to bud up as I type.  The brabantia are coming into bloom.. unfortunately they'll be done before the show, so only I will get to really enjoy them, and my Jiminey Cricket is in full bloom.. digbyana x nodosa and really spectacular... that one is the canary in the coal mine, since if there wasn't enough light, it wouldn't have even thought about blooming.   And of course Fort Mott is in glorious spotted bloom... can't any of these wait until the show.. geeze... you'd think they were doing it to me on purpose!

Anyway.. enough rambling for one day.. have to go put together a presentation on Orchids of Belize and Guatemala for my society meeting tomorrow night...