Australian native terrestrial orchids

[Eric Locke]

My first flowering of Pterostylis Obtusa.

Eric

[Ragged Robin]

Arachnorchis tencullata

Wow, I love it, Paul, very, very, very cool 

[Paul T]

Nice, Eric.

Thanks Robin.

[Hristo]

Aranorchis tencullata, stunning Paul, very well flowered plant, no wonder you are stoked!

[Paul T]

THanks Chris,

Now I just hope I can keep it alive successfully and have it flower again next year! 

[Hristo]

Always the trick,
I once had Liparis kumokiri, flowered it two years in a row, third year the heater gave out in winter and it got frozen solid along with a proportion of my med orchids!

[Darren]

Paul - that spider orchid is stunning!

Mark - I find Thelymitra do well - Sleeping Beauty is a good one to start with as it has all the attributes: Pretty, scented and it increases quite quickly vegetatively. The blue ones are slower and lack scent but have bigger flowers and can be a stunning sky blue to rival Tecophilea. I actually find them easier than Pterostylis/Diplodium nowadays, either because they like the sunnier & drier position of the greenhouse in this garden or because my stocks of the latter are compromised (virus?). I tend to think it is the former as obtaining new stock has not really helped. That said - I can still just about manage Corybas despite it wanting shady/humid conditions.
I could really use a separate shade house...

[Darren]

Oops - that last sentence was spotted by the missus who has just e-mailed to ask where I intend siting said structure. I was only teasing, love, honest....

[Eric Locke]

Oops - that last sentence was spotted by the missus who has just e-mailed to ask where I intend siting said structure. I was only teasing, love, honest....

Darren

We all know your not.

[Paul T]

Darren,

I'm much luckier than you..... my missus doesn't read these pages. 

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

A few of the Aussie native terrestrial orchids on our show table at last night's (so all photographed with a flash) local Orchid Society meeting.....

Diuris sp. aff alba (one of the pink version of the Donkey Orchid)
Jonesiopsis filamentosa has an amazing head of these fine almost chocolatey coloured flowers.
Prasophyllum calicola is tiny, each of these flowers only a few mm wide and a horror to try to photograph.  
And lastly the Bird Orchid, or Plumatichilos turfosus, and you can see where it gets it's name from.  Absolutely amazing plant!!  

Please click on the picture for a larger version.

[Ragged Robin]

So intriguing, almost alive, and I thought of a hummingbird - is there another bird likeness you Aussies think of Paul?

[Paul T]

Robin,

Despite us not having hummingbirds here.... I still think of hummingbirds whenever I see it.  I think partially that is the absence of any visible wings, which is effectively what you see with hummingbirds anyway.  I'll never forget the one time I have seen a real live hummingbird.... in this tiny enclosure at the Honalulu Zoo when we were in Hawaii for our honeymoon 13 years ago.  Tiny little thing, but I can still picture it (more or less).  Would love to see hummingbirds again.  I've always been fascinated by them on documentaries.

[Darren]

Wonderful Paul. The pink/purple Diuris species seem impossible to obtain here unfortunately. Is that Plumatichilos what used to be one of the Rufa group Pterostylis? I'm rapidly losing track of the nomenclature since letting my ANOS membership lapse!

[Ragged Robin]

David Attenborough is my source of enjoyment of so many species I've not yet seen in real life - hummingbirds are one such; the nearest I get is the hummingbird moth which entrances me in the same way as it visits flowers in my rockery - thanks for you thoughts Paul