Orchids spring 2008

[Lesley Cox]

Keep calm lads!

[Anthony Darby]

It's Ok Lesley, I'm feeling much more better now.

[Tony Willis]

Lesley thanks for your mediation but I think there is not a problem.We all get it wrong sometimes and I do not find it difficult to apologise when its me.

[Tony Willis]

Anthony

I agree they are difficult to propagate and except for a few such as serapis which stem to make several off sets a year usually stay as singles.Have you tried the method of cutting of the newly formed tuber at flowering time and replanting the stem and trying to get it to form a second tuber? I have tried this with mixed success but have been able to increase a few species. The second(or third) tubers are very tiny and difficult to keep through the dormant period but if this is acheived grow away okay.

[I.S.]

  I would like to edd one from my country. I love these small beauty but I have read in a web side it says these are too difficult to grow. That keeps me away from to grow but not from to take photos.
Ophrys lutea subsp. minor 

[Lesley Cox]

This might be Minor but it seems to be one of the biggest we've seen posted here. A lovely species, thanks Ibrahim.

[Anthony Darby]

Very impressive clump.

[Joakim B]

Nice threads with lovely pics.
I love to see the orphys in the wild and now I am in the right country with lots of different ones. The only problem is to find them. I only find orchids in Portugal when I am not looking
Here are a few beside the walkway in Cascais. I think they were sprayed with herbicide but I am not sure.
Only when I came home I realized that they where flowering and where not just in buds.
When I tried to figure out what it was I got them as man orchid Aceras anthropophotum. This may no longer be a valid name and it might be wrong. It is amazing to see how many that passes them without realizing they are there and if You ask people in Portugal if they have wild orchids they say that in Madeira they have Cymbidium growing. Even in the flower shop/ garden center 20m away they did not know about the orchids. They did not know anything about spraying with herbicide either.

So here are the pics they are the best I got under the circumstances.
When going there three weeks later many of the plants are just rotten and only a few survived.
That is a second time I see orchids in Portugal and a second time they are destroyed.

Hope to get an ID or confirm my own

Kind regards from a rainy Portugal
Joakim

[tboland]

Impressive collection Anthony!  I grow lots of orchids but mostly the tropical types.  I do have a couple of Bletilla blooming now...not hardy in my area but kept outside until November then brought into a frost-free basement for the winter.

[Carlo]

Joakim,

Try Rocha da Pena in the Algarve. It's a bit inland and higher in elevation. Last May I photographed a couple of Ophrys species--and that's late. There are any number of them scattered about southern Portugal and Spain.  I didn't see any in Lisboa or Cascais but am sure that any are not completley given over to cultivation or habitation will have some.

[Joakim B]

Carlo Thanks for the information- I have heard of Rocha da Pena in the Algarve and will try that some day. :)First I will try try something more central between Coimbra and Lisbon.
I must admit that I did not expect to see any orchids in Cascais but I did even if they seemed to be sprayed with herbicide.
We have here seen orchids from around Batalha and that is close so I hope to see some there on my way between Lisbon and Coimbra.


BTW Is my identification of the orchid correct?

Kind regards
Joakim

[Carlo]

Aceras should look like a little man hanging from under a hood. It's a little hard to tell from your pictures, but you may be correct...

[Joakim B]

Carlo Thanks then I think they are correct they do look a bit like men hanging under a hood. Live it looked as if there was a tongue sticking out of the buds so only when I came home I realized that the flowers actually had opened.

Kind regards
Joakim

[Maggi Young]

I've just been sent these orchid photos, which I thought you'd like to share....
Calypso bulbosa occidentalis ....

[derekb]

The first time I have flowered this,

Masdevallia coccinea.