I’m back on track with Orchid of the Week today! This week, I’ve chosen the very unique-looking Dendrobium spectabile. You may be familiar with Dendrobiums that look like this:
Orchid of the Week: Dendrobium Spectabile
Brooklyn Orchids Bloom & Spike Report
I totally missed my Orchid of the Week post last Friday, because I was hard at work on a freelance project. Whoops.
I also missed my Sunday morning orchid watering session yesterday, so I watered them this morning instead. And I discovered that a pretty bloom on one of my Phals opened up overnight!
There are also lots of beautiful blooms on this orchid’s side shoot:
A couple weeks ago, I noticed what looked like not one, but two side shoots from this orchid’s growing spike:
I thought the growths had that flattened-at-the-tip mitten shape that is characteristic of spikes, rather than the fuller shape of a bud. And I was right! Here’s what the spike and side shoots look like today—you can really see the difference between growing buds and side shoots in this pic (buds on top, shoots on bottom):
Yet another one of my Phals is starting to grow a side shoot. It stopped blooming a month or so ago, so I cut the spike to try and force it to bloom again. Doing this really works! Here’s proof:
A couple of my other Phals in spike have swelling buds, so I’m going to have lots of blooms in the near future. It’s so very exciting to see my patience paying off!!
Orchid of the Week: Haraella retrocalla
Before I get into discussing this week’s featured orchid, I want to take a second to pat myself on the back because this is my 100th blog post! I’m pretty proud of my blog, so yay me. Also, I had my best blog day ever this week in terms of views—188 hits on Monday, January 10! Whoever’s reading…thank you! 🙂
Okay, the orchid I’ve chosen to write about this week is Haraella retrocalla. It’s a small epiphytic plant native to Taiwan with blooms that I think look like big fat yellow-and-purple bumblebees:
The Terminator…Spike.
I was just doing some daily inspection of my orchids and noticed that I have what appears to be a terminal spike starting to poke out from the crown of one of my Phals. A terminal spike is one that grows from the center of the foliage of a monopodial orchid, meaning that the plant will no longer be able to grow leaves from there. Healthy Phals usually put spikes out from the base of the plant or in between older leaves. According to chit-chat on orchid forums, a terminal spike on a Phal may signify that the plant is not healthy but is trying to find a way to keep on truckin’. Sometimes Phals that do this will end up growing a basal keiki to try and replicate themselves, but other times they won’t survive.
The Phal with the growing terminal spike hasn’t been in great shape for awhile, and in fact was quite near death about a year or so ago.
Orchid Retail Therapy
Some women shop for clothing, shoes, and other accessories when they need a little retail therapy. Not me—I shop for orchids to get a little pick-me-up. On Thursday, I took a walk over to the Lowe’s in Gowanus, using orchid shopping as an excuse to get out of the house. OK, so the last time I bought orchids from that Lowe’s, they came down with a bad case of aphids and I ended up tossing them in the garbage. I went into this excursion cautiously, with those creepy little greenish-white creatures in mind. And when I got to the store I discovered that all the packaged Better-Gro orchids were 50% off! I’ve only bought one of these before, an Iwanagara Appleblossom, but these were such a good price that I ended up buying THREE of them (for only $7 apiece!).
Oncidium Ampliatum
Orchid of the Week: Cephalanthera austiniae
Hey, it’s the first snowfall of 2011 here in Brooklyn!
I wondered if there were any orchids known as a “snow orchid”…so I googled it and stumbled upon a really fascinating orchid called Cephalanthera austiniae. You know why it’s referred to as the snow orchid? The entire plant is white! There’s just a tinge of yellow in the center of the blooms:
