Orchis, Ophrys and others 2013

[krisderaeymaeker]

Anacamptis papilionacea

[krisderaeymaeker]

Ophrys fusca ssp. iricolor
Ophrys speculum

[mark smyth]

My plunge is too warm, 19.5C, so can I move all my orchids outside. A few have died which may be due to fluctuating temperatures. I'm sure Anacamptis morio and Orchis mascula will come to no harm if I move them out. I can go buy some green house shading.

Tomorrow I'll make a list of what I have in the plunges but its mostly Orchis and a few Dactylorhiza. The latter are in there so I can keep an eye on them.

I'm disappointed the size of the man orchid. I thought it would have been larger.

[Anthony Darby]

I'm still curious why you would want to grow these inside Mark. I just grew them in the garden and they did fine with no help from me. Greenhouse was for Mediterranean species.

[mark smyth]

When I got them I had no where to put them. They are going in to troughs when they go dormant

[SteveC2]

As I type the sun is shining, the flowers are blooming and my greenhouse is like a house of ill repute.  (How do you put that delicately?)  There are bees everywhere moving from one Ophrys to another, heads covered in pollinia.  Now I have always wondered just how true the claims of each Ophrys having its own pollinator are, after all I'm not sure just how much real research has been done as opposed to anecdotal observation, and what I'm seeing here makes me doubt the so called facts even more.  Watching carefully it seems that the different bees are picking up pollinia from several different flowers, but it is more difficult to see where they are depositing them, if at all.  I had hoped to hand pollinate and harvest the seed but they are beating me to it.  Still I suppose that it could produce some interesting hybrids.
The photo is of a bee at an Ophrys sphegodes, (named by a lumper not splitter!), pollinia on its head clearly visible.  The same bee has, to put it bluntly, copulated with O. speculum and O. lutea and if I'm not mistaken has left one of the pollinia at the lutea.  Could yellow spider orchids be in the pipeline?
Anyway I'll leave you now and go watch some more sex.

[Tony Willis]

Steve

smashing picture. Only an odd bumble bee here but some butterflies so mine are safe. All that indiscriminate  mating sounds like Chorley on a Saturday night.

Chris looks like we grow and enjoy much the same things. Saw lots of the O. cretica a couple of weeks ago in Crete. One area had dozens in flower.

[krisderaeymaeker]

Chris looks like we grow and enjoy much the same things. Saw lots of the O. cretica a couple of weeks ago in Crete. One area had dozens in flower.

  ,  Yes  Tony we have the same interest.    Good to hear that O. cretica was stil there ! It is one of my favorites.
Crete is such a nice place ....We have been  there 7 times and I stil want to go there ....
Did you go also to the eastern part ?   

[Tony Willis]

Kris

three days in the West visiting the Omalos Plain and then near Spili for the orchids

Then three days in the East which was very dry but in the Kalamafka Gorge there were hundreds of orchids  and in cultivated ground about 1km up masses of O cretica. It was our fourth visit.

Ophrys cretica Kalamafka Gorge

[krisderaeymaeker]

Kris
three days in the West visiting the Omalos Plain and then near Spili for the orchids
Then three days in the East which was very dry but in the Kalamafka Gorge there were hundreds of orchids  and in cultivated ground about 1km up masses of O cretica. It was our fourth visit.
Ophrys cretica Kalamafka Gorge

Thanks Tony ! Never been in that gorge , so maybe another reason to go back 
Did you notice some difference between the western and eastern cretica ?

[Tony Willis]

Kris

never found any in the West this time. The small area I remember seeing them before near Spili was now growing wheat.

[mark smyth]

These are what I have in terracotta pots on the sand plunge. Can any of these be grown outside? Most have spikes just starting to grow

Ochis laxiflora
Ophrys ferum
Orchis purpurea
Anacamptis pailionacea
Anacamptis x alata
Dactylorhiza cordigera
Ophrys scolopax ssp cornuta
Dactylorhiza sambucina
Orchis anthropophora

[Anthony Darby]

I would only be tempted to grow Orchis purpurea, from that list, outside.

[Darren]

Orchis laxiflora grows outside successfully at Wakehurst Place (it was used a a trial species for introduction projects). It is the one on your list I'd try. I suspect it would dislike being too hot and dry under glass - I have always found it in dampish habitats in the wild.

[Tony Willis]

The first of my Calypso bulbosa have opened a full month later from last year.

The second one appears to have two leaves but this is not the case,the plant produced two new bulbs last year and these are separate plants.