Brad Lau
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Might be how much stored energy the plant can capture while growing then throwing a flower spike when ready. Maybe your other plants are happy just to grow and get larger first. Then if light levels are favorable you might get blooms.
You can try for slightly higher light by moving the plants but be careful not to move too far if the leaves are a deep green.
These are doing great. Do you fertilize?
Key to get reblooms is to keep the plants healthy and growing new leaves.
Yours are in baskets which is nice, you can hang to change light and air movement levels that may help the plants.
If they bloom then you are doing a great job.
Wow, That isn’t obvious to me to be an orchid. But when going on a walk in the spring or summer it is possible to find an unusual orchid in the wild. Unusual for us maybe but not for the trained eye.
Nice find. Thanks for snapping a few pictures. The flowers are delicate and don’t look like they last for too long.
I think the leaves of the Jewel orchid are eye catching by themselves but you found the flowers which is extra cool. Any fragrance? White flowers- maybe moth pollinated?
And this orchid is terrestrial!, growing in leaf litter like slipper orchids do in forrest areas of the US.
This is Vanda tricolor. It is tied to a wire with a hook at the top. The roots are free to grow downward and in the air. If the roots get too wild you can twist them into a ball or tie them with a wire. For fertilizer you can tie on a tea bag and put nutricote pellets in it and staple closed (change every 6 months).
Thanks for sharing your Vanda tricolor. Your orchids are growing so well in your yard. From the green of their leaves you can see that they are getting good levels of light. Often plants that are adjusted for their location and can’t be moved will adapt and resist being sunburned.
The high light levels also may help the plants to grow and bloom regularly. I think in the past you may have noted that the color and pattern on some plants can vary.
Very unusual orchid. At my house I have weeds that look similar. Maybe I am growing the wrong stuff?
Cool to warm growing, grows at 3000 ft- it’s an intermediate grower like what James Keach was talking about in January. Would be interesting to see how this plant does over the next few years for you.
Thanks for sharing.Really nice color and pattern! Did it get a fragrance? Hopefully as it gets older you will have larger flower spikes.
Very very nice Rylan, thanks for sharing this photo.
Cattleya trianaei (pronounced tri-an-ee) is a long lasting winter bloomer, it is known for it’s finely shaped flowers (of the unifoliate Cattleyas) and excellent range of colors (with many pastel shades, varieties with flares, and feathering in the petals). It is the national flower of Columbia.
It is a vigorous grower with two growths a year in sequence and both flowering in winter.It produces two or three flowers per stem unlike other unifoliate species like C. mossiae, C. labiata and C. dowiana that may produce four or more flowers per stem.
There are several Cymbidium orchids that are common to find growing in Hawaii yards.
Cym. dayanum has more white in it’s petals and sepals with a strong thin maroon stripe and dark lip.
It is a strong grower with pendant flower spikes about 2 feet in length.This picture may be Cym. aloifolium which has a broader center maroon stripe in petals and sepals. This orchid looks very similar to Cym. dayanum when not in bloom as both have very thick heavy leaves with many new growths each year.
Cymbidiums benefit from being potted in tall but narrow pots as they have abundant root growth that literally fills the pot. The height of the pot may help the pendant flower spike to cascade horizontally or you can put the plant into a hanging basket.
In general orchid media needs to hold moisture and be able to dry out completely just as pine bark does. Look at the old growth fiber and try soaking it in water for a few minutes. Then bring it out and lay flat in a ventilated area and see how long it takes to dry out completely.
If it dries out readily it could be used to pot orchids but may need to be watered often depending on how tightly packed you use it in a pot and how many roots fill the pot.
It is also possible to mix with the fern fiber a little traditional orchid media like pine bark, tree fern, lava rock, perlite or even foam blocks to create air gaps and to hold moisture longer.
Do check the fiber over time to see if it is rotting or breaking down and replace it if this does occur.
One thing to note as you repot is that orchids like to be secure in their pots or containers and not loose fitting so use enough media to hold it firmly or even wire the plant in the pot tightly.
Habenarias are very interesting orchids to grow, understanding their normal growing cycles makes it easy to care for them. Asian species of Habenaria grow in areas that have a monsoon type growing season. They grow from corms that go dormant in the dry soil of the dry season. In early spring, rains return softening the soil and triggering new growth.
The new growth leads to a beautiful upright bright orange flower spike. The spike has sequential blooms with older flowers near the bottom and new buds at the top. Eventually all the flowers die off and the leaves turn brown as in this picture which is normal. At this time reduce watering and cut back to no water. Mark the plant and put into safe place to rest, it’s OK to repot in a dry mix.
Around Feb or March check if any new shoot is emerging and only start watering if you see growth. Once April arrives if you don’t see much then a light occasional misting is OK.
Wow, thanks for sharing this picture. This is a wonderful landscape orchid.
Angraecum eburneum (Latin eburneus means white as ivory) is a species orchid native to Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles, Kenya and Tanzania.
It is known and the “Comet Orchid” and has a great fragrance. It’s pollinator in nature is bats in search of nectar in the long spur of the flower.The Comet orchid name comes from the white petals and long spur that resembles a shooting star.
These orchids and other Catasetums will drop leaves in the late fall and through the winter months and benefit from a long rest until about march or early April when new shoots will appear. From Fred Clark of SVO Orchids we are now gaining experience growing them with plans to start watering and fertilizing when the new roots are about 3 inches long but not before. The plants will live off and grow from energy stored in the very large round pseudobulbs. If plants don’t start to wrinkle up, minimal watering is OK. Over watering when the plant is resting will risk rotting.
Beautiful example of Miltoniopsis hybrid, many were grown in Maui and now offered through Big Island nurseries such as Hilo Orchid Farm. They vary in color and pattern but have large showy flowers and are known as “Pansy orchids”. They have relatively thin delicate roots and need to be kept evenly moist, a cooler climate with good ventilation is helpful.
Yes, this orchid is fragrant as are many of it’s offspring crosses. Originally from Brazil, it’s in a group called bifoliate Cattleyas. This particular flower shows nice full form, spectacular color and wide cream yellow side lobes to the wide lip. Excellent picture as well.
