Orchids Winter 2009

[Craig]

Hello Michael,
It's very interesting to hear about your Pleurothallid culture. Did you rig up the dripping wall yourself ? I'd like to see a picture of that.

Ophrys in pot culture don't really need a very alkaline soil. Neutral suits them just fine & you can use a standard potting compost or (even better a loam) diluted with plenty of perlite / seramis, grit etc. so it's not too rich in nutrients. Top dressing the pots with the grit they sell for birds to get calcium from (Chicken grit they call it here) can help to stop the substrate acidifying over the course of the growing season too.

As far as pollinating your Dendrophylax.Ha Ha !...would I pollinate if it was mine ?...probably not....not unless I had a lab waiting to culture the seeds to give me 100s of them to play with To be fair, even then I'd probably try & get a bigger plant going first, but I'd be scared of losing it before I could do the deed. Where did you get yours from ?

[Slug Killer]

Calanthe tricarinata flowering a little early as its been kept in a sunny porch.

[Anthony Darby]

I notice that one of my cypripedium pots is showing some nice buds. Must tidy it up!

NB: Just checked the label. This is a pot of Cypripedium 'Sabine'.

[Hristo]

Very nice looking Tricarinata Dave!
My offering, a Ponthieva sp from Brazil. This was bought as a seedling from Richard Warren many years ago.
It is terrestrial with hosta like leaves and whilst grown indoors endures temperatures down to +5c.
The flowers are miniscule and I would guess are gnat pollinated in the wild!

[Alex]

OPhrys oxyrrhynchos

[Craig]

Corybas pictus - Found in Borneo, Sumatra, Java & probably the Malay Peninsula, growing mainly on mossy banks in shade in primary forest (700-1800m) from a tuber about the size of a piece of fine grade perlite. Like most Corybas, it's a colony former & I know at least one grower for whom this has no season & spreads vigorously, but hasn't multiplied much for me yet. I'm just very happy to have flowered it twice Still trying to pluck up the gumption to mutilate the flower (wherefore art thou sexy bits ?) & pollinate it. Very difficult to capture well in photos but these are the best me & my shonky digital have managed so far. To give some idea of scale, the leaf is just over 1cm across.

If anyone out there has any other Corybas, I'd be very interested to know, I'm totally in love with them! I have a pot of C.diemenicus, which was decimated from 11 to 2 plants when the frost caught me out earlier this year

Dave - that is a lovely tricarinata
Alex - Corr! Can't get enough Ophrys & thats a smasher.

[Hristo]

Thought I would share my BG Version 1 Kitchen sowing device! Used to plate in the UK but eventually time demands from work stopped me! First sowing of the year - Ptersostyllis curta, Ophrys helenae will be the next subject! I'm sowing on full and and glucose dilluted Allan medium. Ingredients are fairly cheap and obtainable.

[Hristo]

Maybe not worthy company for Corybas or Ophrys but here shown Serapias lingua light.

[Slug Killer]

Craig, I think the Corybas are stunning little plants and will have a go at some next. Where can you get them from?

Paphiopedilum micranthum

[Craig]

Maybe not worthy company for Corybas or Ophrys but here shown Serapias lingua light.

That's a really lovely form of Serapias lingua Hristo & I think the genus can stand proud with those two ! 
That lil' lab setup looks very intriguing......... what a great thread a little pictorial tutorial would make

Mr Matador de las babosas (sorry I mean Dave) - The C.pictus came from Orchideen Wubben. I got the C.diemenicus from Richard Manuel at a Hardy Orchid Society meeting but I think Paul Christian has sold them too.

[Slug Killer]

Cypripedium debile. I've put a matchstick in one photo to show how small it is.

[ranunculus]

Absolutely matchless, Dave! 

[Craig]

Fantastic Dave! Is it a tricky one to grow ?

[Slug Killer]

I find like the roots are more susceptible to rot than some other Cyps. This plant has aborted its flower two years in a row but third time lucky. I’ve got three which I'd like to pollinate for the seed but being so small it seems an almost impossible task. Will try in a few days with one of them.

[Joakim B]

Nice cypripedium Dave
Hope You will be able to get seeds. They are not common so the more they get around the better. Maybe some of the kids will be easier to grow??

I finally got to see some orchids in the wild just Orchis (Anacamptis?) mascula. Just two plants with only one in bloom and the other in bud. I took two pics of the one in bloom. I looked for more since previous years there had been more but we also saw them cut down so maybe they did not all return?
Vale de Cana, Coimbra, Portugal
Kind regards
Joakim