Orchid Lithographs

These old lithographs are genuine treasures. They were published at a time when growing orchids was a hobby for the wealthy, who could grow them in their own greenhouses. The key as to which orchid is what, is here in Wikipedia.

Epiphyte house at Knypersley-Bateman



The above lithograph is by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel , a German biologist, this photo 1860 from wikipedia.
Haeckel and his assistant von Miclucho-Maclay Canary Islands, 1866. From Wikipedia, "an eminent German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist who discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms, and coined many terms in biology, including phylum, phylogeny, ecology and the kingdom Protista. Haeckel promoted and popularized Charles Darwin's work in Germany and developed the controversial recapitulation theory ("ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny") claiming that an individual organism's biological development, or ontogeny, parallels and summarizes its species' entire evolutionary development, or phylogeny." Which is still taught today. Also typical for learned men of his time, he had generic ideas that we now rightfully consider racist. I like to think that, if he lived today, he would have seen those ideas as profoundly flawed, while expanding on his evolutionary studies.

I especially like the illustrations that show the entire plant, roots, stems, leaves, and flowers, such as this Laelia speciosa by Bateman, in 1840. This drawing is one of my favorites, showing the roots attached to a branch, and the elegant form of the plant and its flower.

Oncidium micropogon, from Curtis's Botanical magazine, 1887. A typical drawing for the series. These drawings could be used to identify the plants, even today, as well as a photo. Somewhere, I read that the flowers resemble local bees, and that on seeing them tremble in the wind, a bee becomes agitated and attacks the 'foreign invaders'. This attack leads to transfer of pollen, ensuring the next generation. I don't know if this scenario is accurate, but I do see the resemblence.

My collection contains one plant similar to this variety, but the 'bee mimicry' is less obvious.

Oncidium longicornu, also from Curtis's Botanical magazine, 1842Any variety that I grow will doubtless be a hybrid, and also doubtless much easier to grow, compared to these freshly collected species plants. Even so, it's possible that my plants could be descended from these.

Dendrobium nobile, from John Lindley's Sertum orchidaceum (1838-1841). Also from wikipedia, "It is one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine, where it has the name shí hú (Chinese: 石斛) or shí hú lán (Chinese: 石斛兰)."
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Orchid Blogging

On Friday I received the new Blc. "Ports of Paradise" Emerald Isle, mentioned in previous blog entry. Beautiful plant, nice condition. Learning from prior failure-to-repot, I turned it out of the pot on Sat. am and repotted it in a glazed orchid-type pot with plentiful holes in the sides for air exchange. The majority of the roots looked great. All of the leaves were nice. The original medium was not rotted or soggy. Nice plant! Pic is an old lithograph, I believe that was from 1840s.

I learned from gardenweb and internet sources, that waterspots can be cleaned off from orchid leaves using lemon juice. I just used lemon juice directly from a lemon-juice squeeze bottle, and wiped the leaves with paper towel. The leaves look clean, but not the super shiny leaves that result from leaf polishes. Nice info to know!

I also looked for information on growing Dendrobium nobile, since I have 2 specimens. It seems they should do well here, just need to know when to water, when to feed, when to leave outside, and where to put them. It appears that the most important aspect is lots of sun. Today was high 60s outside, and overcast, so I set the dendrobiums outside for a while. Only about 3 hours, I didn't want them to sunburn. From my reading, looks like they need generous water and feeding until August, then change to low nitrogen feeding and cut back watering. Keep outside until nights drop into the 40s. Then keep dry until they show signs of growth again. Something like that. And as much sun as they can get, especially during Summer growth. Even direct sunlight, as long as they are watered frequently and not allowed to get sunburn. Scheme is from Yamamoto Dendrobiums, click for more readable scheme and better explanation.

19th century print of a Dendrobium nobile. This is a cool arrangement - instead of a round plastc pot (plastic wasn't invented for, say, another hundred years), it's sort of a box or bonzai pot, with a tree-branch-like structure and moss, and the dendrobium growing as if in nature. I like the smaller number of flowers - some modern plants seem too lavish. I spent a fair amount of internet time determining that my plants were this species.

My Buddy Charlie

Charlie is a difficult photo subject. He is so excitable, it takes many photos to get one decent shot. He loves to shake hands. Pink Cherry blooming in background.

Kitchen garden. What's ready? What's getting started?

Radishes are ready in the barrel containers. Perfect timing! When they are gone, it will be time to plant the peppers. Greens as well - taking both to work tomorrow for lunch salad.

I couldn't be happier with how the barrels turned out this year. After 9 years of trying, I finally know how to grow radishes here! It's about time, they are supposed to be the easiest vegetable to grow!

The mesclun and scallions in the barrels are also growing like gangbusters. Also, spinach and lettuce. This is great!

Tomato plants had their first outdoor excursion today. The already seem a little more stocky. Probably my imagination. Getting off to a fast start this year.

Peppers among the tomatoes. Growing nicely, but stems are a bit lanky and weak. I hope they improve with more time outside. Probably started too early, then with dreary days, not enough light in the South windowsills.

Most of the seedlings. Will set outside again tomorrow, if the temp is mild. Not in full sun, since I'll be at work.

What else -
First potato barrel with potato plants sticking their noses through the medium.
Scallions, lots of them from starts off from the Egyptian Walking onion. Growing them in the barrels was perfect! I debated keeping them, now glad I did.
Apples blooming - including Golden delicious, which is in its first year of significant blooming. Cool!

Chives too - this is the 5th or 6th batch of garlic chives. Great chopped and scrambled with eggs, too?

In the front yard, those Yellow Potato Onions that I planted in, what, December? are growing nicely to. I didn't kill them after all. Peas are groing, but most didn't germinate.

Cattleya walkeriana alba

After promising myself that I would not add additional orchids after the last mentioned order, and especially from the grocery store, I walked past the orchid display at Trader Joes yesterday at lunch, saw the usual suspects, nothing jumped out at me. Then this one. Very nice in the store. I lost skepticism for about 15 minutes and bought it. Based on multiple web pics, it's Cattleya walkeriana alba, a Brazilian species, not a hybrid. Small size, wanders across the pot rather than being vertical. Likes the dry side.

Immediately on getting home, I unpotted. What a mess. There were actually 2 plants, but one with tiny pseudobulbs, and one small broken leaf. The other with the flower. There was a small vestige of original bark medium, but mostly soggy sphagnum, and about half of the roots were rotted.

I removed the old bark and sphagnum, trimmed off the rotted roots. I dipped the roots in a diluted solution of Dip'n'grow, a plant hormone that is used for rooting cuttings. That is a practice that some growers use for plants that need stimulation of rooting. I don't know if it will help. Then repotted in the same commercial medium that I've been using.

Then I noticed this leaf. I hope this is just an old leaf, and bad growing practices. And I hope it's not a sign of virus infestation. I looked at many web pictures of virus infestation, and most don't look like this.

I sprayed with neem, and this morning sprayed with a foliar feeding of dilute orchid food, same as the weakly weekly food. We'll see how they do, and I'll avoid using tools or containers for other plants, which is a good practice anyway

It's a nice little plant, and the flower is very nice as well, white with a pale green center. Interesting citrus fragrance. I hope it survives, grows, reblooms, and doesn't turn out to have virus. And it will be nice if the 2nd tiny plant grows, so I have one to share (You know who you are!).