The stunning Dendrobium devonianum

A few years back I saw a photo of a flower of Dendrobium devonianum that was so spectacular that it took my breath away.  The photo was by Dale Borders and it was posted in the Orchid Source Forum.  I wondered if I could grow it since by all indications this was a high elevation plant whose range encompassed areas with more temperate weather than PR.  I asked Dale how he cultivated this plant and he told me that he grew it next to its Dendrobium primulinum.   Since I had a few years of experience growing and blooming Den. primulinum I decided to try this plant.

When I brought my first two plants of Dendrobium devonianum, back in 2008, I must confess I was underwhelmed by the sight of the plants.  The larger plant seemed scrawny, I had expected that, but the smaller one with its larger cane barely six inches long, was so unimpressive I thought it might not survive the process of becoming acclimatized to my local climatic conditions.  Eventually both plants started producing new growths, the larger one with vigor, and the smaller one at such a slow pace that it was glacial in comparison with the first one.  This pattern repeated itself every year, the larger plant growing ever faster and the smaller one barely making progress.  In 2010 I was quite excited to see buds on the larger plant, alas I was utterly disappointed when the larger one produced flower buds and it became clear it was Dendrobium aduncum.   To my defense I have to say that Dendrobium devonianum is an exceedingly rare plant in Puerto Rico and I had never seen one so could not tell it from Den. aduncum on sight.

The smaller plant kept growing exasperatingly slow and producing absurdly wiry stems.  The incredible thinness of the stem near the base is almost unbelievable.  The cane produced in 2010 was eight inches long but the width near the base was .8 millimeter.  Yes that is no typo, I actually used a caliper to measure it, the stem was less than a millimeter wide!  Even the 2011 cane, which is the one that bloomed measured three feet eight inches long but was a tiny fraction of an inch wide near the base of the cane.  To put it in metrics, the cane near the base is 1.2 millimeters wide, the cane is 1.17 meters long, around a thousand times bigger.  I want to clarify that the very thin part is only a short stretch near the base of the plant,  the rest of the cane is thicker, a little less than half a centimeter thick.

In 2011, to my surprise the plant started producing a new cane with previously unknown vigor.  The cane kept getting bigger and bigger unlike previous ones that would stop at a few inches after lackluster growth.  The cane eventually measured, as noted previously more than three feet long, which was five times bigger than the size of the previous cane.  Eventually the cane lost all its leaves and all I had to do was wait for the blooming season to come around.  And I waited, and waited and waited.  By the start of May all my other deciduous Dendrobium had bloomed, I assumed that the plant would not bloom.  One day in the first week of March, as I was watering the plants, I noticed that there were some slight swellings in the side of the cane.  By then the local rainy season had started and I wondered if it was really going to bloom or that it was going to produced keikis. 

The next few weeks were depressing. The plant kept producing flower buds and they would start to develop but after a while they would turn pink and fall from the flower.  This happened seven times.  I despaired of ever getting to see the flowers.  The fact that this is a Himalayan Dendrobium and at the time the plant was producing the buds the temperatures were sweltering and humidity sky high.

The last two buds managed to develop all the way to maturity and opened on May 5.  They are so beautiful that all frustration was forgotten.  I expect that as the plant develops larger canes and an even more extensive root system it will be able to bloom better.  The new growth is already nine inches long and it is slightly huskier than the preceding ones, the quoted size for the cane of this species is three feet long, but I expect this plant to exceed this size in the 2012 cane.

This is not a species for a beginner, particularly in Puerto Rico.  It demands patience and consistent care.  I grow this species at an altitude of 1000 feet in the interior of PR, I don’t know how it will fare in the coastal lowlands which in summer can reach high temperatures in the nineties degrees range.  

Dendrobium Adastra a hybrid of anosmum and cucullatum

I brought this plant many years ago in a Puerto Rico Orchid Society show at el Coliseito Pedrin Zorrilla.  When I brought the plant it didn’t have an ID but given its distinct flowers it was easy to identify it using the sources available over the Internet.  This orchid is a hybrid of Dendrobium anosmum and Dendrobium cucullatum (pierardii).  I have seen a number of plants of this hybrid and there is a certain degree of variation on flower size, the color has been the same in all the flowers.  The plants I have seen fall into two broad types, the ones that favor the flower size of the anosmum parent and the ones that are on the cucullatum parent side of the spectrum.  The plants that have flowers that are more similar in size to anosmum tend to produce less flowers that the ones that favor cucullatum, which has smaller flowers.  I personally like the type that produces the smaller flowers.  None of the plants I have seen have had any fragrance that I could detect. 

This plant is a vigorous grower under my local climatic conditions and the care it receives is the same that my anosmum plants are given http://ricardogupi.blogspot.com/2008/10/dendrobium-anosmum-when-cultured-so.html.

To my surprise I have found that my clone of this plant is less tolerant of exposure to full sun than the clones I have of the parental species.  Plants grown with an exposure to a few hours of morning sun are smaller and weaker that those that are under shadier conditions.  It is unclear whether this is a result of an endemic susceptibility of this hybrid or a particularity of my clone.

My plant produces flowers that are brightly colored when they open but that become lighter in color as they age.  As a result the plants are at their most beautiful in the first few days after the flowers open.  My clone of this hybrid produces canes that are shorter than those of most anosmum and cucullatum clones I have even though it is grown under the same conditions that they are.   Since some of my cucullatum and anosmum plants can produce six feet long canes I can only surmise the plants that were used as parents for this hybrid were of a smaller stature. This plant produces keikis fairly frequently in older canes and the keikis grow well with routine care.  Sometimes the base of the older canes succumbs to rot but the rest of the cane stays alive.  When this happens I put the cane in a shady and humid area and very often the cane will produce one or more keikis.

Phaiocalanthe varieties, the sadness of being spurned for being easy

A white lipped variant of Phaiocalanthe Kryptonite

Phaiocalanthe Kryptonite 'Ursula'

Phaiocalanthe looks particularly good when shown in groups

A white form of Phaio. Kryptonite, for a time it used to be the most commonly available color

A group of white Phaio. Krytonite with inflorescences growing toward the light

A yellow clone of Phaio. Charlie Khlem

Pastel pink Phaio. Charlie Khlem, the intensity of color of the flowers seems to be greatly influenced by temperature.  In my location warmer temperatures means lighter colored flowers.

When grown in a place where the light shines on them evenly from all directions the inflorescences grow straight up

A bicolored Phaio. Charlie Khlem

The previous flower, freshly opened

A select clone of Phaio. Charlie Khlem

A group of Phaiocalanthes and Calanthes

Pity the poor Phaiocalanthe, it is burdened by the lack of those things that most attract orchidists.  It is not rare, it won’t take 10 years to bloom, the flowers are not ugly, contorted, or weirdly bizarre.   It has a sad tendency to resist dying if slightly neglected and a bit larger than normal variations in temperature won’t cause it to defoliate and depart for that great terracotta pot in the sky.    The lack of all the things previously listed means that Phaiocalanthe is generally less valued than other orchids that are the source of much confusion and handwringing among orchidist.  But if you value pretty flowers that demand only a modest amount of care, Phaiocalanthe has much to offer.  Here I show a selection of the varieties I have cultivated.  All were cultured the same, you can read about their culture in this same blog under the description of the culture of Phaiocalanthe Kriptonite ‘Ursula’.