Dendrobium culture: Observations on the color of the mature canes in some Dendrobium species when exposed to strong light

Many Dendrobium need high light to bloom at their best, but the way they respond to it varies depending on the species.  My Den. nobile blooms with larger flowers with richer color when the canes are getting so much sun that they take a yellowish tint.   On the other hand, the Dendrobium primulinum from Laos produces larger flowers when the canes are exposed to full sun and turn purple.    Den anosmum doesn’t change color too much even when exposed to full sun, perhaps the canes are just a bit lighter green color.  I haven’t noticed a color change in the canes of Den devonianum, but the flowers of my plant which is exposed to full sun for hours in the morning show very pale color in the sepals and petals, so pale that it can make one think the flowers are not of devonianum unless one looks closely.  My newly acquired plant of Dendrobium ceraula shows a deep purple tint on the side of the cane that receives the sun and green on the side that is under the shade of the leaves.  In my experience Dendrobium cucullatum becomes yellowish and stunted if exposed to too much sun.   

Aulonocara hansbaenschi, Red Shoulder Peacock in an exhibit that shows exotic fish at the Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refugee

Phalaenopsis Dajao's Red Buddah, even flowers that have been long open and have slightly faded are wonderful

Bulbophyllum lepidum flowers, a close up reveals interesting colors, textures and patterns

A close up view of the flowers of Bulbophyllum lepidum reveals interesting colors, textures and patterns.  Local flies go crazy about these flowers and it is not rare to see some of the small ones with pollinia of this species on their backs,

Anolis cristatellus, the camouflage fail of rorschach patterned headed lizard

Generally the local immature Anolis cristatellus are quite a wary bunch.  Given that pretty much every predator around would love to snack on them, including the adult A. cristatellus, their alert demeanor is understandable.   The color of these immature lizards resembles quite closely the leaf litter.  When standing on the forest floor these small lizards are well camouflaged and virtually invisible.  But when these lizards step away from their normal background the color pattern makes them quite conspicuous.  Normally it is not easy to get close to these lizards because they are prone to run away quickly if they become even slightly alarmed.   But this lizard seemed to feel so comfortable perching on the flowers of this Renanthera orchid that it showed an unexpected reluctance to move away.  This allowed me to get close enough to it to take several photos against a background that highlights its camouflage pattern.  The fact that the lizard lacks the tip of its tail means that even a good camouflage is no guarantee of survival in an environment full of hungry and sharp eyed predators.

Amazona ventralis, the hispaniolan parrot, in flight

This photo shows particularly well the belly area of a hispaniolan parrot.  The colors of the belly of the hispaniolan parrot can be used, along with other things, to ID this species.  One of the most distictive characteristics of the hispaniolan parrot is its white forehead.  The blue patches just behind the eyes are also useful to identify this species.  But it is the combined observation of the various traits that can give you the best confidence that you have correctly identifed this species.  In this photo you can see the white forehead, the blue patch behind the eye, the red patches in front of the legs and the red tail feathers.  This bird was photographed in one of the Rio Abajo aviary flight cages.  Hispaniolan parrots are used here as foster parent to eggs and chicks of the Puerto Rican parrot.  They are not for sale.  A selected few of these birds stay in the project their entire life where they receive exactly same care as the PR parrots.  Because the hispanionan parrots on ocasion are allowed to raise their own chicks, we produce a small number of birds of this species.  Some of the chicks stay in the program, most are sent to the Dominican Republic where a number of them have been released into the wild in El Parque del Este.  The USFWS sometimes keeps a few in the Iguaca aviary hispaniolan flock.

Here you can see the flight feathers.  The flight feathers are black and navy blue.  The colors of the flight feathers of the hispaniolan parrots is different from the color of the same feathers in the PR parrot.  In the PR parrot the flight feathers are turquoise.  This photo is of Ivan.  He if flying in the Rio Abajo bird hospital room.  Sometimes birds have to be hospitalized for a few days to receive treatments.  If they are alone in the hospital they can become depressed.  Ivan was born in May 2012, I plan to use him as a companion parrot to birds in the hospital.  Ivan is relaxed among humans and is familiar with the inside of office and the hospital.  I hope his generally unstressed demeanor among humans will be reassuring to birds in the hospital.  I have to add that infectious diseases are extremely rare in the RA aviary, almost all the birds that end up in the hospital do so because they need treatment for accidents or scrapes due to fighting .  After a few days of antibiotics they are sent back to their cages none worse for the wear.  In the case of a suspicion of an infectious disease we have a separate quarantine building that is used for this cases. 

Grammatophyllum elegans a delightful representative of this genus that doesn't need a gigantic space to grow and bloom

This is the normal flower of the species

An incomplete flower, the first few flowers to open
 at the base of the inflorescence tend to be this way

An inflorescence that has been allowed to grow in a pendulous manner

A mass of pseudobulbs showing a very modestly sized root basket

A mature plant blooming, the inflorescence has been trained horizontally
 for better display.  Notice the heftly log needed to keep
 the plant upright against the weight of the inflorescence.

Grammatophyllum Tiger Paw a hybrid (elegans x scriptum) 
just after its removal from a plastic pot

The tree fern plaque in which Gramm. elegans grew originally, notice the 
large ferns and begonias and sundry plants growing on the plaque.

I brought this plant as a seedling around 1990, I think I brought it from H&R orchids in Hawaii.  Following the recommendations of other orchid growers and from seeing plants in orchid shows, I planted mine in a slab of tree fern.  The plant thrived and by 1993 it was flowering.  But them the plant started to decline.  At first I was puzzled because there had been no significant change in any parameter relating to the care of the plant and it had not been attacked by any pest.  But then I noticed that the fern plaque was becoming harder and harder to keep clean of ferns, begonias, and other assorted plants that would grow with wanton abandon anytime I became careless in weeding them out.  The reason for the decline became clear when I noticed that the base of the root basket these plants make had died and was decaying.  It turned out that the fern plaque, as it decayed, was holding too much water.  This meant that the root mass of the Grammatophyllum would never dry at the base; this meant death for the active roots and accelerated decay for the dead ones.

In the end, my formerly large plant, became three clusters of sorry looking pseudobulbs with few live roots.  I decided to try something different with this species.  I potted the plants in plastic pots that had a small reservoir of water at the bottom.  The pot was filled with rocks, Styrofoam and bark pieces.  The plants were tied on top of the pots because they had few living roots to anchor them in the media.  With time the little plants sent their roots into the pots and then began producing their characteristic root basket.  I repotted these plants in 1994 and they are still in the original plastic pots.  However, at the same time they are not in the pots at all, what happened was that as the plants grew in size they produced a large root basket and as pseudobulbs grew upward the living roots essentially abandoned the pot and grew into the mass of the root basket composed of the previous year root growth.  Nowadays the plants are still attached to the plastic pots by their massive root mass but the living roots are all independent of the pot.  I have not removed the pots because they are a convenient counterweight when the plants produce their massive inflorescence.

If there is any advice that I consider most important in the care and culture of this plant is that you should strive to keep the root basket that these plants naturally produce around their pseudobulbs in a good state.  This means that you should allow the root basket to dry between waterings to avoid killing the roots.  If the root basket decays  this can cause a severe setback for your plant.  Actually the key is allowing the best possible drainage and plenty of air flow around the root mass as it is not excess water that kills the roots but lack of oxygen.

This plant can produce an impressively large, massive inflorescence that can seem at odds with the size of the plant.  I recommend this orchid to those that don’t have space to grow Grammatophyllum speciosum but can accommodate a smaller plant.  So far Gram. elegans has proved to be relatively easy to care as long as you respect its need to have exposed roots that are not kept wet all the time.

Unlike Gramm. speciosum, Gramm. elegans doesn’t take a decade to grow to blooming size, its blooming seems to be controlled by the size of the last mature pseudobulb.  It has been my experience that large pseudobulbs that are at least four or more inches tall will bloom, smaller ones won’t.  The larger the size of the pseudobulbs of a given plant the more spectacular the inflorescence.  A relatively small plant with pseudobulbs five or six inches tall can produce an inflorescence five or six feet tall with dozens of large flowers.   Inflorescences can grow to such size and weight that they can destabilize the plant so care is needed to fasten the pot of the plant firmly to its basket or base.  Inflorescences can be staked or allowed to grow in a pendulous manner.  I have both trained inflorescences upright and allowed them to hang naturally and I personally prefer the trained ones.  The only significant problem when this plant is blooming is the need to keep the inflorescence safe from snail and slugs which seem capable of sensing the tender tip of the inflorescence from afar.

Media: Any material that resists decay, after the root basket formed, none.

Potting: First on well drained plastic pots, then on a very strong metal basket.

Fertilizing: 20-20-20 every week during the growing season. When it has a root basket of a significant size I put a few pieces of very dry horse manure on top of the root mass at the start of the growing season and keep replacing them as they degrade and are washed away by the rain.  Feeding this plant conscientiously during its growing season is the key for producing the large pseudobulbs that are the key to blooming this species.

Light: Full morning sun, light shade after midday, It gets this regime because it is what is available on the only spot that I had to put this plant.

Temperature: From 95F high during the day in summer to 60F during the night in winter.