More orchid show photos

Rhynchostylis gigantea x Vanda coerulea

Laelia anceps

Slc Precious Stones

Cymbidium Rocky Creek 'Dots'

Cymbidium Via del Playa 'The Globe'

Memories from orchid shows

Since I have so many photos of orchids from the various shows that I attended, I am posting some photos to share here.

Paphiopedilum Maudiae alba hybrids

Dendrobium cuthbertsonii

Cymbidium Champagne 'Feather Hill'

Laelia Spring Fires

Cymbidium Burnt Orange

Small flowers get overlooked

This photo shows a flower spike from a reed-stem epidendrum (I don't know which hybrid this is). This orchid is pretty common and it blooms many times through out the year. It grows in a wide range of growing conditions and it's fairly easy to grow. The only downside is that the flowers are less than an inch across.

Orchid companions

There are many companion plants that I grow along with my orchids. In particular, I have several plants of platycerium superbum growing with my orchids. These ferns are sometimes called staghorn ferns. The typical variety does look like deer antlers, but the superbum species grows a shield frond with a crown. The supebum is spectacular when mature. The plants that I have are still very young, so they are not that impressive yet, but I can wait. The photo on the right is my oldest superbum. It's starting to look like what a mature one looks like. Check out Rainforestflora for pictures of mature platycerium ferns. They are located in Torrance, CA.

Outdoor growing areas

The two pictures above are not that exciting, but I wanted to show what my growing areas look like. The first photo is of the side of the house that faces south. You can make out the 50% white shade cloth that stretches from the house to the fence. Since the shade cloth is very light, the grommets of the shade cloth are hooked on to galvanized screws. The section that is in the photo shows my hanging orchids and some ferns hung on pipes fixed to the fence. These orchids fared pretty well during the winter, even with the rains hitting them.

The second photo shows my growing area in the back yard. Here, I have a nearly clear plastic tarp stretched over a pipe frame (similar to structures you might see at a flee market). This is the area where the sun is too strong. I really need to order the shade cloth (thanks for reminding me, Yolanda). However, I do have orchids that can tolerate stronger light placed in this area. The orchids grow on top of plastic shelves that I got from Home Depot. They seem sturdy enough, but I do wonder if UV light might cause them to crack eventually (the shade cloth might retard that).

I have another section in the backyard that is somewhat shadier, but I didn't upload a photo since that's also the messy area with all the clutter. I've been thinking about installing a pre-fab greenhouse from WalMart in that location. But that would be yet another project that I don't have time for.

Summer heat and cool growers

Many of the orchids that I have are considered cool growing. But as the hottest days of summer approach, I always worry a little that the heat will be too much for the cool growers. But in the end, I don't do anything special other than to spray down the orchids more often. I'm planning to install automated sprinklers to help me with the hot weather, but since I'm by the beach, it's not as hot as it gets more inland. A typical summer day will be in the low 80's. But there are the odd days when the temperature will rise above 90 when we have the Santa Ana winds from inland. Fortunately, cool growing orchids are able to withstand short periods of hot weather. Here are couple photos of some Masdevallias that I have been growing for few years. These photos were taken last year. The photo on the left is of Masdevallia veitchiana "Prince de Gaulle" AM/AOS. The photo on the right is of Masdevallia coccinea "Violacea". Unfortunately, most of my orchids did not flower very well this year since many of them are still recovering from the salt damage. Masdevallias normally flower in the spring time. Hopefully, they will bloom better next year.

Reliable bloomer

The photo here shows Dendrobium amabile. I don't remember exactly where I got it, but I have had it for about three years now and it has bloomed for me reliably each year. The flowers are about 1.5 inches in diameter and grow down in a hanging cluster of couple dozen flowers. My only complaint of this plant would be that the flowers do not last very long (at least for me). I think the flowers stayed fresh looking for only one week. But it was warmer than usual and that could have caused the flowers to die sooner. It is a cheerful looking flower and maybe there is a slight scent. I have it growing in a plastic pot in coconut husk chips, but it tends to get top heavy, especially when it is in bloom. When I report it, I may pot the plant in rocks to keep it from falling over (unless I change my mind from now until then).

Something blooming all the time ...

I guess it may actually be possible that I have some orchid in bloom almost every day of the year. It may be that the orchid in bloom may not be that exciting, but technically it's an orchid. When I came home from work today, I went out back to spray down the orchids. On looking around, I saw that I had several orchid that were in bloom and several more flower buds that probably will open in the next couple weeks. The orchids in bloom were: Miltonias, Stanhopea nigroviolacea, Epidendrum, Vanda Pachara Delight 'Pachara' (photo above from last year).

Vanda, anyone?

I've had some moderate success in growing Vandas. I know that many references recommend that Vandas should receive warm temperatures and high humidity. And generally, I would agree with the recommendation. However, I have found a few Vanda varieties that seem to tolerate cold winter temperatures. As you may know, Vanda coerulea originates from higher elevations and is often considered as a cool growing orchid. And my experience has been that Vandas with coerulea in their background are the orchids that can withstand our winters in Southern California. My one caution would be to make certain that the Vandas are watered often, especially if your water quality is poor. I had three coeruleas that were doing quite well and bloomed for me (see photo). But when my water quality became poor in combination with my infrequent watering (bad me!), the coeruleas declined and eventually died. So my lesson is to water often. I bought another coerulea at the Santa Barbara International Orchid Fair this past March from Andy's Orchids. It's doing fine so far.

Sadly, no more

There are definitely some orchids which I cannot grow. To name a couple are Disas and Dendrobium phalaenopsis types. For different reasons, these orchid genera are too difficult for me. I'll write about other orchids that are difficult for me in the future. For now, here is my experience with Disas and Dendrobium phalaenopsis.

The Disas lingered on for many months to a year before finally giving up. I think they could not handle the water quality. I thought I could grow Disas here because I thought I had the right temperature range for them. However, I didn't expect them to be that sensitive to water quality. I read that Disas needed very good water quality, but I thought that my water quality might be good enough. I found out that it wasn't. So I will just admire these from afar from now on.

The other orchid that I would like to grow are Dendrobium phalaenopsis. They seem to grow so easily for so many people. The problem that I have with these orchids is that I'm not too good about attending to plants inside the house. I forget to water them and they shrivel before I finally notice them. So once they are outside, they do well in the summer until the weather turns cold. Of course, they promptly die in the first series of cold nights. So I have given up on these orchids as well. Another problem that I have had with these is the mealy bug infestation. These orchids seem quite prone to mealy bugs.

Water Quality

It seems that my water quality got really bad in the last year. I think the drought has something to do with the increase in dissolved solids, which is over 400 ppm the last time I tested my water.

Besides having to deal with the cold winter weather, I have had problems with water quality. I know that I have lost several orchids due to salt build up in the potting medium. I have been using coconut husk chips as potting medium, which was working really well. Then when the water quality got bad, many of my orchids started to lose their roots. I didn't know what was going on for a long time, but I finally concluded that with the combination of the cold winter and bad water quality, the potting medium was retaining too much salt.

I don't think I have recovered fully yet from this situation. I need to repot so many of the plants at this point. I'm considering going back to NZ moss, but who knows what I'll do. Since it's already heading into late summer, I don't think I will do any re-potting until next spring. In the mean time, what I'm doing to mitigate the situation is to water more often and not fertilize. Not fertilizing sounds terrible, but I haven't lost any more orchids for a while. But i think watering often is what helped the most. The photo from the previous post shows the leaves of one orchid showing signs of salt damage.

Here's a photo of happier times before the cold winter two years ago.

Stanhopea tigrina "The Predator" FCC/AOS

I forgot to mention that my Stanhopea tigrina bloomed couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, the flowers on these don't last more than a week, but when they are blooming, the perfume is so strong that I can smell them from inside the house. And I only had two flowers!

I remember now that I do have a few other Stanhopeas getting ready to bloom. I think there is another tigrina just about to open. I'll post pictures when they are open. The photo here is of the tigrina "the Predator" which I got last year from Santa Barbara Orchid Estates.

Stanhopeas grow really well in my climate. They seem quite able to tolerate the winter temperatures. All my Stanhopeas grow in hanging baskets and get watered about twice per week. Because my water quality is so poor now, I do try to water as often as I can. The orchids do show signs of salt damage in their leaf tips.

July is for purpurata

My Laelia (Sophronitis) purpurata orchids just finished blooming last week. Most of them flowered in early July and by the time they were finishing, the Laelia tenebrosas were blooming. They have also finished flooming now, and unfortunately, I don't have any orchids blooming for me now heading into August. I expect that my Cattleya labiata orchids will start to push out their buds (hopefully). I also have one Cattleya loddigesii alba getting ready to flower in a few weeks.

I think if the weather was a little bit cooler and I had watered the plants a little more often, they may have stayed in bloom for another week or two. I always end up saying that next year I'll do a better job. Hopefully, I will. It's really a matter of how much time and energy I have to devote to growing the orchids better.

I also have to get out there and spread some snail bait. it's incredible how much damage those little critters can do. Over night, a beautiful flower can look like Swiss cheese. How frustrating. Again, time and energy is what I need. Of course, the time that I'm spending to post this could be spent in the garden.

The photos here are of my favorite purpurata and tenebrosa orchids. These are very "cold hardy" in that they tolerate our winter nights quite well. I have not seen any of these experience any ill effect from the cold. Two years ago, our night temperatures were in the 30's for days on end. I don't think I lost any purpuratas or tenebrosas. I've grown these in almost full sun without any burn spots, but I do think they prefer a little less light than what I have been giving them, which is under a nearly clear plastic cover. The leaves look too yellow for my taste. I will provide a 50% shade cloth soon (somebody please remind me!).

My Orchid Genera

The list below include some of the orchid genera that I grow.

• Sophronitis
• Cattleya
• Laelia
• Cymbidium
• Paphiopedilum
• Phragmipedium
• Vanda
• Dendrobium
• Oncidium/Miltonia
• Masdevallia/Dracula
• Stanhopea
• Phalaenopsis (indoor in the winter)
• Lycaste

Of course there are some miscellaneous genera that would make this list much too long. I grow mainly species and most do pretty well outdoor especially in the summer. The winter is a different story and I have to do some shuffling of plants to make sure that the cold tender ones have to be moved indoors or protected in some way.

Couple years ago, our winter was very severe. There were many nights when temperatures dropped low enough for frost. I think I lost over two hundred individual plants. Many were rare or otherwise expensive. I still have a clay pot full of the plastic labels from all the dead orchids. I don't know why I keep them since it is a bit depressing to look at them, as they represent failure and a lot of money. Oh well, it was a learning experience.

But I was also happy to learn that there were several orchids that survived really well despite the cold nights. Of those that survived were the little Sophronitis orchids. I have to say that they even thrived in the winter weather. I wanted to share a photo of one of my favorite orchids, Sophronitis coccinea aurea. This flowered this past winter, which made me feel a lot better about having lost so many plants the year before.

Growing Orchids

I've been growing orchids in Southern California for many years, and over the years, I have gravitated towards a few genera of orchids mainly because of their adaptability to the climate in my area. I live fairly close to the beach which makes the climate cooler in the summer and somewhat warmer in the winter.

Obviously, the orchids that do best in my area are the cool-growing orchids. But I have found that several Cattleya-type orchids will tolerate the cold winter nights. But there are also many that won't survive. I'll write more on that later.

In this blog, I hope to share with you my successes and failures. I've had many successes over the years, but I still have plenty of failures. I think my sharing this information could be my small contribution to the general knowledge of growing orchids well.