August blooms

supardii and volentianum

 

Fun flowers...

love the catch basins under your benches so you can grow in more tiers.... i have been thinking about doing that for years... this is the weekend...

 

The green pink contrast is nice on the v. And the supardii pouch shape and color are nice, wonder how a supardii x stonei would come out

 

Two species that i dont have! Im afraid to try volonteanum et al.
Well done.

 

The catch basins you refer to is vinyl and it's been slung under each bench since 1990. It lasts forever.

 

Very, very nice...your orchids have been busy and lovely.

 

Excellent blooms there Rick.

 

My supardii are blooming too. Cool flowers.

 

Gorgeous both! But I'm especially attracted to your volonteanum with its broad petals and stunning colouration....adding to the attraction might also be the fact, that I sadly haven't one myself?!

Kind regards, Jens

 

Good deal Justin, let's see them.

Guldal, volonteanum should be easy enough to pick up and cheaper then say, ten years ago.

 

Such a tall spike on a small plant. I never had luck with a similar plant, hookerae.
I might have kept it a bit too dry, but they tend to be a bit expensive. I kind of gave up on them.

Is that malipoense in high bud already? Mine usually begin to spike by the time of the year, but this year they all started new shoot rather late and none are showing any spike yet. hmm
I do have quite a few malipoense hybrid in bud, which is very exciting!

 

The voloteanum is an eye catcher, long stem and the flower with good shape and nicely coloured.I like it very much, congrats Rick. The supardii is nice but this species looks always like it was a bit distorted, especially because of the petals. Nevertheless I've been growing one and I hope, it will bloom one day.

 

Amazing volonteanum. What's your secret? I've only tried hookerae, which gave up the ghost pretty quick; no idea why. I did my best to keep it humid. Sigh. Thank you for sharing.

 

fabu!

 

Years ago I came across an article on volonteanum in the wild. It described the area as wet seepage with very tall, thick grasses among trees as well. The tall grasses explains the tall spike. In fact, it was difficult to see the plants unless they were in bloom because of the grasses. The grass must help hold the spike as well for it bows way over if not supported. The water was always fresh never stale. IMO the volonts are a little more fleshier then their cousins hookerae so I assume they have a dryer winter then hookerae. I don't know this for a fact.

 

How much light, what media, wet/damp? thanks

 

Some lovely looking flowers and a really nice healthy plants. My P. supardii is in very low sheath at the mo.

 

I would say very low light as you can see in the pic surrounded by bigger plants and many baskets above not seen in the pic. There are 3 plants together of which 2 are in 4" pots, 1 in a 2" pot. The Orchiata is on the large size, #5 it looks like. Its the original mix. Some sponge rock at the same size. Watered twice a week but get a 15 minute misting every morning at 5 am.

I've been soaking my bark until it sinks to the bottom of the barrel. It appears that's what the commercial growers maybe doing and they probably don't repot very often either. At any rate, the bark is well condition by the time I get a plant.

 

I think I must have given my hookerae a bit too much light and more importantly, kept it too dry.
Kind of want to try again after seeing Orchid Inn offering.

 

Excellent vol Rick!