Yamamoto Dendrobiums. 1.22.18

 I've had these Yamamoto dendrobiums for many years.  They bloom every winter.

 I also have some plants that I bought a year ago. They grew very well, had a few blooms during the year,  but none yet now.   I may have overfed them - they are very lush.  Eventually I think they will bloom after all.

These were bought, I think, at Trader Joe's some time around 2010, possibly earlier.

Orchid Report

During all of the destruction, construction, work and chaos, I've tried to keep the orchids properly placed, watered and fed. There may be a few casualties, but I think most have come through it. One concern was the fumes from floor finishing - it may be a while before the effects show up, but there does not appear to be any immediate death due to that exposure.

A new addition, Brassada Orange Delight "Hilo Sunrise". It was in spike and is now blooming. Bright and cheerful, compact size. If it stays small, and grows new, blooming pseudobulbs next year, that will be great.

Yamamoto Dendrobium Spring Dream "Apollon". These are the first blossoms on growth in my hands. It's interesting that so many of the Yamamoto Dendrobiums bloom in summer and again in winter.

Another view of Spring Dream "Apollon". The central eye is greener than shows up on the digital photo.  It has a single keiki, which is cool. If there were a lot of keikis, it would be a sign over too much nitrogen, but this one is on old non-blooming growth, and is a single keiki.  I will let it grow in place for a while.  There is also a new growth from the base.  Once the plant is done blooming, I will change back to a higher nitrogen orchid food to encourage the new growth to develop.

Yamamoto Dendrobium Yellow Song "Canary".

With Dendrobium nobiles in bud, I wanted to post a vintage drawing of a dendrobium. Not necessarily a nobile - looks like it says Dendrobium macrophilum. This is from L'Illustration Horticole, 1888 (therefore public domain) by Pannemaeker

Orchids in January: Promises

A couple of hours with an ice pack on my back, and 600mg of ibuprofen, and I was up to walking around with the camera and looking at the "promises" of orchid blooms. They are gradual, but they always bring hope. A bit over one year ago, I didn't know if I could bring orchids into bloom, or if they would even survive. Now the windows are full of orchids, many with buds or spikes. Most are in South windows unless otherwise stated.

This Cymbidium continues to lengthen its spike. I try to be patient. Actually, there is no other choice! It's my first attempt at a Cymbidium, and I'm happy it's come this far. The flowers are brownish with magenta spotted lip, difficult for me to describe. If I've indexed it right, it can be found by clicking on the Cymbidium label.

As I was walking around taking photos, I noticed a new spike on this Burrageara Stefan Isler "Lava Flow". I am SO EXCITED! COOL! I was ready to give up hope for reblooming Oncidium alliance orchids. This one really grew nicely last year, several new pseudobulbs, a full specimen plant. I've been noticing the newer pseudobulbs swelling, and looked as recently as this week without seeing the any new spikes. I was starting to think about whether I wanted to keep it.

So like a proud parent with a camera, here is the spike! Did it grow from almost nothing to 3 inches overnight? Or did I just not notice it? Still quite some growth to happen before it blooms, but I think that the biggest hurdle is getting it to decide to make a spike. This is so cool!

Like the good child in the family, this Yamamoto Dendrobium Fancy Angel "Lycee" continues to behave and impress, without much encouragement, out performing everyone else and not getting a lot of credit for it because it is so reliable. Starting to spike again after a beautiful performance 2 months ago. A very reliable and beautiful flower.

This Trader Joe's Yamamoto Dendrobium "NOID Purple" (my name) is also a strong performer, but hasn't bloomed before this winter. Here we see new buds swelling. I also bloomed last winter and again during the summer. (Added later - I forgot I had decided this is Yamamoto Dendrobium Love Memory "Fizz". Looks just like it, and with that name I must have it.)

Here is the keiki that I started from above Trade Joe's Yamamoto Dendrobium "Purple", sharing a supplemental light source in the South window. The light is mainly there for the two Dendrobium phalaenopsis - type hybrids, that I suspect need more light in the winter. They are "Anching Lubag" and "Genting", for the record. Whether they will grow and rebloom is a question I hope is answered this year. The Yamamoto keiki, now a plant on it's own, is fattening up nicely and is maturing. It would be cool if it bloomed at a small size, but regardless, it's fun to have started an orchid plant "from the beginning".

Here is the Trader Joe's Epidendrum "NOID Red" (again, my name. Creative....) but it needs to be called something. These are said to be very easy, but you never know until you grow them yourself. It's making several new spikes on growth that happened in 2010 so it's another case of "I did it!" It's in a South window.

Iwanagaara Appleblossom "Fantasy" appears to have a nice spike on one of the new, larger-fatter pseudobulbs that grew last year. It's in a South window. I understand that these can give up while there is still a sheath, but have some hope. Holding it to the light, there appears to be a flower bud inside that sheath. Same is true for unpictured Potinara Achung Yoyo "Little Goldfish" which, if only because of the name, I would love to see it bloom.

A beautifully burgundy-leafed Phalenopsis (or is it Doritonopsis?) which has had a slowly growing flower spike for about 6 months. Inch by inch..... It's in a North window.

This rebloom-on-old-spike Phaenenopsis is another case of reliability to the point of taking for granted. Of course, I haven't had it bloom from a de novo new spike yet, but it's been in bloom for months and months. The photo doesn't do it justice, it's darker than the photo shows. It's in a West window.

Another Phalaenopsis about to rebloom on existing spikes. This one is white with pink polka-dots. Quite pretty. It also has a de novo spike. It's in a South window. In my area, even South windows are gloomy this time of year.

Orchid Blogging

Still learning about orchids, and watching their progress over the past year. It's been about that long since I started becoming more interested in them.

The way I look at it, the first part is to not-kill them. The second part is to get them to grow. The 3rd part is to get them to bloom. Propagation is optional, but fun. If purchased in-bloom, another aspect of the first part is to keep them blooming as long as possible. That seems to be rather easy.

This unlabeled Paphiopedilum hybrid, Maudiae type, was one of the first that I obtained. I need to check - I think it's a green flowered type. Should be back in the links (labels). I've been treating it as the books instruct, medium light, general orchid plant food weakly weekly. It added a couple of new growths. I count the leaves, thinking that if a growth reaches 5 or 6 leaves, it will be time to bloom. Not certain it that's true, but last week I noted the appearance of a bud. Cool!

Close-up of the bud. Another may be headed there as well, I'll add it if it really is a flower bud. I understand that the process from bud to blossom is gradual, and patience is needed. The upside of that slow process, is that once in bloom, the flowers can last a month or more. Regardless, I'm excited!

The books and the Yamamoto website (see prior posts) promote a season of coolness in bright light to promote Dendrobium nobile hybrid blooming. These are under eaves (out of the rain) south side of house (bright light). One can hardly call the light here in the Pacific Northwest "direct sunlight" so I'm not concerned about sunburn, and anyway these plants were in full unfiltered sun all summer long. This treatment, allowing coolness at night and not soaking them, keeping them in bright light, is considered key to obtaining nice flowers on these hybrids.

Of course, this NOID Dendrobium nobile hybrid continues to cheerfully violate the rules, blooming and blooming and blooming. It is indoors in a south exposure, but spent the summer in the same location as the others.

Dendrobium phaelenopsis "Genting" obtained last month at Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis, after traveling to midwest for my dad's funeral. It continues to bloom cheerfully. I'll hold off any repotting until it finishes blooming.

This Cymbidium has been in a full-sun exposure, all summer. I generally gave it "weekly weakly" feeding, but on occasion provided some higher nitrogen plant food, because most instructions suggest higher nitrogen in summer. I'm keeping it outside for cool nights, per standard instructions for this genus.

Here's the question now - Is this a flower bud? Or another growth spurt. Watchful waiting!

Now we get to "the problem with impulse buying". Last year I bought this plant on impulse at a big box store. It was in a tiny plastic bag. The label is below.

I didn't know anything about Vandas or Ascoscendas at the time. Both are probably inappropriate for this setting and my house, needing more light than I can provide.

Instructions not too helpful either. Can't even tell, is it an Ascocenda or a Vanda? Peobably should throw it away, space is valuable. But, it stays alive, growing slowly, so I'll keep it for now.

Orchid Update

Summer may not be the time to expect a lot of flowers on home-grown orchids. I'm still not ready to say that I know how to grow them in my circumstances. However, one Dendrobium nobile gives me a lot of hope.

This unknown variety is on its second rebloom. According to the web information on D. nobile hybrids, they usually require a period of sun in the summer, dormancy in the fall, and then bloom in winter or spring. This plant keeps putting out new flowers. Not a lot, but that doesn't matter. In addition, it has many buds. It just doesn't know the rules. I did have it in full sun, but now it's in a shaded south window. The other D. nobile remain in the sun, and seem to be more conventional. Currently I'm giving them a low-N plant food, continuing the weakly-weekly method.

Dendrobium phaelenopsis hybrid, purchased at the Missouri Botanical garden in St. Louis. My selection was restricted by size. I wanted small, so that I could keep in the carry-on. I made a loose tube of newspaper, seemed to protect this plant well enough. They had no problem with this at the St. Louis airport security. It fit well under the airplane seat. Label gives variety as "Genting". Given the appearance of the plant, and the shape of the flower, I wonder if the gift plant that I identified as "Vappodes" is really a D. phaelenopsis hybrid? If it blooms, I'll have a better idea. The leaves are somewhat different but that may be due to age of plant and my culture conditions.

I like showing the whole plant, for general morphology, and a close-up of the flower. That gives a nice idea of what the plant really looks like

Also from the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, same transport idea. There were several that were much taller and full of flowers. I chose this specimen for the same transportation issues above. It did suffer a little in travel, but not too much. The variety is listed as "Anching Lubag". This plant has a nice fragrance. I liked the green color of the flower, and the shape of the flower.

Some of the cool-loooking arial roots were damaged in transport, so I snipped them off. When this plan finishes blooming, I'll repot in the same medium that I use for all of my orchids.

This Zygopetalum was from Trader Joe's, I purchased it a few weeks ago. It's a demonstration of how tastes change. I didn't like these before. It's nicely fragrant.

This photo shows the tubby pseudobulb. The growth habit is similar to Oncidium orchids.

Dendrobium nobile - I'll try starting from a keiki

I've been debating whether I should leave this keiki on the plant longer, or go ahead and remove it and try to start a new plant. The stem was looking very withered, so I decided to go ahead and remove the keiki.

A close-up on the plant. This is a purple-flowered Yamamoto-type Dendrobium.

Most references say to twist or pull to remove the keiki. However, some state that whole pieces of stem can be sectioned, laid on beds of sphagnum, and used to start new plants. I decided to remove some stem along with the keiki, to give it a little nutrition and avoid damage to the baby plant.

There is always concern about mold. Mold and fungus hasn't been much of a problem for me so far. Never having tried cinnamon, I decided to dist the cut end with cinnamon. I'll leave it overnight to dry, then plant in the shown container. If I think of it, I'll add a photo of the started plant to this entry.

Orchid starts & progress. Oncidium and Vappodes phalaenopsis (Cooktown Orchid)

Today was another homework day. No time for yard work. I did take some photos.

I've been wanting to write up on Dendrobium bigibbum, except it's now called Vappodes phalaenopsis. My friend gave me a start from her plant, so I don't have photos of the blooming plant. I identified it from web pictures, which look exactly like her plant.

(This drawing from wikimedia commons under Dendrobium bigibbum. Illustrator is Vera Scarth Johnson)

Here is the start, I imagine it was a keikei. That was about 3 months ago. It sat for 2 months, then started to grow from the point where the aerial roots are seen. So it's about doubled in size now. I take that as a message that I'm not killing it. Now it's responding with a small shoot from the base - cool! Currently the leaves look a lot like Epidendron leaves, but the botanical drawings of Dendrobium bigibbum also show similar leaves and stems. I had potted up the keikei in the same bark/perlite/peat medium that I use for other orchids, and it's been getting the same weekly/weakly fertilizer regimen as well. I will guess, it's 1 to 2 years from blooming.

The color is a bit darker purple, compared to this drawing. Source is Swiss Orchid Foundation, with drawing originally from Lucien Linden & Emile,
Lindenia Iconographie des Orchidées 1892 I edited the pic with a little color enhancement and cropped a little. Given over a century of fading, this editing may have brought the drawing back toward its original color.

Also from the same source and with a little electronic color enhancement. This was such a handsome print, I wanted to include it even though my plant won't be this color.

Dendrobium bigibbum is also called "the Cooktown orchid" and originates in NE Australia. Let's make it really confusing. D. biggibum was conflated with Dendrobium phalaenopsis, which has flowers somewhat similar to Phalaenopsis but is really distant from that genus. Since then this species has been renamed Vappodes phalaenopsis. So I shouldn't call it dendrobium after all, but that still appears to be the commonly known name. Unless you just call it "Cooktown Orchid." Per Wikipedia, "It lives in a wide variety of habitats ranging from coastal scrub on trees and rocks, to mangroves, riverine vegetation, rainforest, vine thickets, gullies in open forest and even swamps. It used to be prolific around Cooktown but is now rare in the wild, due to over-collecting by commercial collectors."

It's hard to find specific culture information - from the Cooktown orchids website, are a couple of items - "where they grow naturally they have monsoon downpours in the summer and can have no rain at all for 2 - 3 months in the winter." and "fertilise weekly and weakly (1 gram/litre) in the growing season, September to December [in Australia - so here probably March to June?], with a low level nitrogen fertiliser... change to higher level phosphorous and potassium fertiliser... in flowering season, January [in Australia] till the flowers drop. The plants make new growths, flower from those growths and set seedpods between September to April [in Australia] so frequent feeding is almost mandatory for best results."

This is the Oncidium that got it all started for me. No ID, my wild guess is "Gower Ramsey" but that may change if I can get a picture showing the pseudobulbs. I'm hoping a current tiny bud at the base of the newest pseudobulb on the original plant is a bloom spike. However, the last "bloom spike" turned out to be a new growth instead, which matured into a nice plump pseudobulb.

This may be due to my enhanced interest in orchids. It seemed to bloom fine with neglect, but now it's getting water and is in a brighter window, and getting weekly/weakly plant food, and the resultant pseudobulbs and leaves are shiny and lush. Maybe it needs neglect in order to bloom. We'll see.
OK, so this is the first of the starts to take off and grow. I've blogged on these Oncidium backbulbs before. They continue to grow, and are all producing lots of aerial roots that then find their way into the medium and become nonaerial roots, just like the parent plant. I think now they have progressed beyond being called "backbulb" and can now be considered actual orchid plants. If the parent plant blooms, then these might bloom in a year or two.

Here are the 2 smaller ones. One is in a clear plastic pot, so I can see roots as they develop. The other is in a clay pot. I can compare notes on how they grow in the 2 pot types. The plant in plastic is smaller but started much later as well.

Not pictured here are some "sort-of starts" of Cattleya. One is a piece of the Cattleya walkeriana alba, it has no leaves but is starting to grow a new growth. very gradual. The other is a group of 3 tiny, tiny plants that came with Jewelbox orange. When that plant arrived, I repotted it. There were 3 pieces that must have been in the same community pot when it was cloned, but didn't take off and grow. Those are in a sphagnum baggie. If they grow, I'll be impressed at the plant's resilience. If not, nothing really lost.

Dendrobium nobile hybrids, continued

I think this is the limit for my hyrid Dendrobium nobile collection. They require enough window space, I need to limit them. The current conundrum is: To promote growth of new canes (pseudobulbs) that will produce next year's flowers, they should be in full sun. To lengthen the life of the current flowers, they should be out of the sun, and kept cool. So which is it, warm in the sun, or cool in the shade?

I figure, they are all about the flowers. Even if not 100% optimal for next year's flowers, I'm keeping them in a bright space but not direct sun, until the flowers are done. Then they'll gradually go into full sun. I think they'll have enough cane growth for at least a few flowers, and mine don't need to look like the lush, massive bouquets on the Yamamoto dendrobium site. Just be bright and cheerful in the gloomy late winter / early spring here in the US Pacific Northwest.

Tentatively identified as Fancy Angel "Lycee" although I can't say for certain. Two unbloomed canes are already mature and plump, so it probably won't suffer from lack of full sun while blooming. I like the appearance of the pseudobulbs, they look exotic and Dr. Seussian. That's one reason that I like to show the entire plant, it adds to the exptic appearance.

Blossom closeup. I hate to say it, but I'm less crazy about these blossoms than some of the others. Even so, with the smaller number of flowers, it's possible to concentrate on the Cattleya-like shape of the flower.

Tentatively identified as Love Memory "Fizz". Coloration is bolder and the lip marking is more prominant. I like this one a lot. It has 2 new canes that are not nearly as plump as the mature canes. It will be interesting if they plump up like the original canes. I hope so.

I'm 99% sure this is Oriental Smile "Fantasy" from Yamamoto. Nothing else looks similar. I picked it up at Trader Joe's 2 weeks ago. Potted into the standard bark/perlite/peat mix, same as the others, in the slotted container for aeration. Yamamoto states this is a later bloomer than most.

View of entire plant, Dendrobium Oriental Smile "Fantasy". Nice glowing warm coloration. It has that strange ultra-thin lower part of the cane, widening into a fatter cane above, typical for Dendrobium nobile.

New aquisition, Dendrobium Yellow Song "Canary". Mail order from Hauserman. I didn't expect for it to be in bloom. The flowers are a bit crushed, otherwise they are bright and sunny. Being without defining lip markings, I think that the flowers may benefit from thinning to set them off. We'll see if it blooms next year.

The original pot was only about 2 inches across. I didn't want to overpot, since Dendrobium nobile is known to require limitation of root space, but the original pot was so small . I went up about 2 inches in diameter. The original medium was coconut husk, so tight that I couldn't get it out without damaging the roots, so I left most of the old medium in place.