This fascinating looking species hail, as the name suggests, from Costa Rica. It produces a remarkable display of flowers with an uncanny resemblance to a flock of birds resting on a wire. A fairly forgiving species, a strong grower both in the shade and in brighter conditions. Apparently it can produce multiple inflorescences per pseudobulb, but mine has produced but one with twelve flowers this year. […]
I am really enjoying the Neofineta season this year… I have had one plant after the other releasing each other since this summer, filling the orchid room with the lovely scent of vanilla and spices. This is the regular white variety, but a fairly recent acquisition (‘Hisui’) with a nice yellow hue is coming up next, the buds are about to open any day […]
Vandas on summer vacation usually pays off in a big way. Here is one of this season’s vacationers that is blooming right now. Such a lovely mini, the flowers measure no more than 2 cm across but the sheer amount make up for any shortcomings in size. The the intense orange color shine like a sun in the fall gloom of […]
Some orchids are just amazing bloomers, and this is definitely one of those. It blooms with this intense vigor twice a year in spring and fall with a sweet display of 30+ fragrant flowers with a lovely scent of honey. Masdevallia roseola is a miniature intermediate to cool growing epiphyte from Peru and Ecuador where it grows at elevations of 1500 to 1900 meters. I grow […]
This intermediate, small growing epiphyte grows at at 1700 meters on the eastern slopes of the central cordillera in Colombia. It is commonly called “the copper-colored Restrepia”, and it is not hard to see why. The deep color almost seem metallic under the lights. I got it from Ecuagenera in May, and it is now blooming for the first time. I grow it mounted […]
Here is proof that good things really do come in small packages. I adore this little one. It is growing like crazy and is blooming profusely, what is not to love. Well, the flowers only measure about 2-3 mm, so you do need some good camera gear to really enjoy it, but that’s a small matter… I am willing to have oversight with the diminutive […]
I don’t grow a whole lot of hybrids, and the hybrids I do grow are usually primary hybrids within the same genus. Bulbophyllum Louis Sander is the result of a cross between Bulbophyllum longissimum x Bulbophyllum ornatissimum. When this hybrid was conceived back in 1936 it was actually classified as a primary hybrid in the Cirrhopetalum genus, and it is the earliest recorded […]
For part two of the fragrance series this summer (part one), I am pleased to present this lovely Phalaenopsis violacea var. coerulea. A warm growing species from Malaysia and Sumatra where it grows at an altitude of about 150 meters. The fragrance of my close is not super strong, but it is definitely noticeable, especially when it is warm […]
This is a fairly large, warm growing species from the exciting multi-floral Paphiopedilum Subgenus Polyantha. It is found at sea level up to 500 meters primarely in the Philippines, hence the name, but also down through north eastern Borneo. The leaves are thick and uniformly green and can grow to be 20-50 cm long, mine measuring about 30 cm. The size of the flowers can […]
This is a cool growing epiphyte from northern Peru where it grows at 2000-2400 meters. The plant is medium sized but with very impressive large flowers measuring an impressive 16 cm tall, blooming on a single flowered, erect inflorescence. I must admit I love the whole Caudatae subsection within Masdevallia, but I specially adore the shape of these flowers, so elegant and beautiful and extremely […]