Dendrobium (farmeri x densiflorum)

Sadly I lost this beautiful and floriferous plant.  But if I ever see this cross again for sale, I will buy it in a second!!

A rare hybrid of Dendrobium farmeri and Dendrobium densiflorum

The flowers of the hybrid look like those of Den. farmeri var. albiflorum but the structure of the lip and the distribution of color are slightly different

The plant packed for transportation to a local orchid society meeting where it won the "plant of the month" award.

To the left, Dendrobium farmeri var. albiflorum, to the right the hybrid of farmeri and densiflorum

Several inflorescenses together show the dense arrangement of flower that this plant has inherited from the densiflorum parent

This hybrid is more floriferous than either parent but can be erratic on its blooming patterns with several inflorescences opening together of one or two at a time over several months.

This rare Dendrobium farmieri x densiflorum hybrid combines the dense and long inflorescence of densiflorum with the white-yellow flowers of farmeri.   When I got this plant, years ago, as tiny seedlings I found that it grew well albeit a bit slowly.  In time it started blooming and producing large and dense inflorescences.  Unfortunately I lost one of my plants to rot after a repotting.  This seems to be a big problem locally with these plants and other related to farmeri and densiflorum, they grow very well but damage to the root and the stems during repotting can result in the rotting of the stems.  As a result now I am potting these plants in baskets and avoiding repotting them as long as possible.

Unlike densiflorum and farmeri which bloom once or at most twice in a season this hybrid usually blooms once with several inflorescences at the same time and the rest of the year it can produce inflorescences at irregular intervals.  It can be cultivated in an identical manner as farmeri or densiflorum but seems to be less dependent in seasonal cues to bloom.  I tried to grow this plant into a specimen but the loss of older canes to rot made this impossible.  I would love to find source for this hybrid to replace the plant I lost but so far it seems that nobody has made it again. 

The flowers of this hybrid are very much like farmeri with little to betray the densiflorum ancestry.  You have to look at the flowers closely to see the way they differ from farmeri.  The differences are mainly in the lip, the orange-yellow color of the lip extends almost to the tip of the lip, the upper side lobes of the lip don’t close over the column and the lip is more elongated.  The canes of the plant however are larger than those of farmeri and have a clear resemblance to the canes of densiflorum.  As far as I now this plant is quite rare in cultivation, I have yet to see one exhibited in a local show.  Hopefully someone will make this hybrid again as it has much to recommend it.

Dendrobium densiflorum revisited, the March 2011 blooming

Photo taken using sunglight 

Freshly opened inflorescences photographed under sunlight

Four day old inflorescences photographed with flash.  The fact that local temperatures have been significantly cooler than the norm has meant that the flowers have held up well and may last more than a week.

This is the 2011 blooming of my Dendrobium densiflorum.  It produced four large inflorescences, because of the way they were in the canes only three can be seen.  This plant has continued growing in size since I wrote about it back in 2008.  Good management when it is producing its new growths, which need plenty of watering and fertilizer, has resulted in the plant producint the largest canes to date, some achieving a lenght of 20 inches (53 cm).  Although this orchid has been at times an erratic and shy bloomer, a winter with unusually cool temperatures for our locality stimulated four of the canes into blooming.  The cooler temperatures have also helped extend the life of the flowers.  This plant is very pot bound and has been in need of repoting for some time now, but this is something I must confess I dread as this plants greatly resent root damage and can sulk or even die from a too rough repotting.  I have moved the plant indoors as thrips are driven insane with desire by the sight of this flowers and will flock to them in great numbers and damage them in short order.  Rain can also damage the flowers.  Sudden exposure to higher temperatures can cause premature wilt in individual flowers of the inflorescence which can spoil the look of the same.  I saw a number of seedlings of this species for same at the 2011 Puerto Rico Orchid society orchid show in March 17-20.  I wonder if in a few years there will be more plants of this species blooming locally.  I recall that in the nineties in every spring show you could see plants of Den farmeri, Den palpebrae and even Den. densiflorum (although this last one was the rarest of the lot).  Nowadays all you see in local shows of this type of Dendrobium are plants of Den, farmeri var. albiflora.

Someone asked me why grow plants with such short lived flowers.  The flowers of this species can be short lived, but during the time they are in full bloom they are so beautiful they outshine everything else.  The japanese people have a concept where certain things are beautiful because they are transcient.  Then these flowers have double measure of beauty, they are transcient and also beautiful on their own right.   This concept of fleeting beauty can be seen on the poem of Kokan Shiren (1278-1346) a poet and Zen Master This poem was written after a large earthquake has struck the part of Japan where the poet lived.

Still things moving,

firm becomes unfirm,

land like ocean waves,

house like a boat --

a time to be fearful,     

but to delight as well;

no wind, yet the wind-bells

keep on ringing.

Dendrobium densiflorum, culture

A fully mature flower of Den. densiflorum

An inflorescence

Dendrobium densiflorum is an orchid that is widespread in the south of Asia. I got my plant from a friend that got tired of waiting for it to bloom. When I got the plant it had canes that were about a foot tall and had scars that showed that in the past, before my friend had it in his possession it had apparently bloomed. I put it in a pot made out of a plastic soda bottle and put it with my other Dendrobium without too much hope of ever seeing flowers. The plant initially had a measly root ball, but under my care it started producing a significant number of new roots. In 2005 it produced a cane larger than any before, this happened again in 2006 and 2007 when it produced a cane almost two feet long that dwarfed all previous canes. In 2007 it produced its first inflorescence. I suspect that even though the climate might not have been conductive to blooming, this plant was probably immature during the time my friend had it and what we took for inflorescence scars might have been aborted inflorescence buds, something that immature or weak plants sometimes produce. My plant is growing vigorously with routine care and hopefully in the future it will be strong enough to produce multiple inflorescences.

How do I cultivate it.

Light: Full sun most of the morning, dappled sunlight the rest of the day, but much care is taken that the plant is not so exposed as to get sunburn.Temperature: 85F day in summer with a 10F degree drop at night, 75F day between September and April with a 10F degree drop at night.

Watering: Daily when it is producing new growth, when new growth matures all supplemental watering is suspended and it only gets water when it rains.Fertilizer: Weekly diluted 20-20-20 when it is in full growth, none after the cane matures. Organic fertilizer is also used to help the canes to plump up.

Humidity: The climate supplies a humidity level from 70 to 80 percent during the day.

Media: Medium sized bark.Potting: The middle tube of a plastic soda bottle was used, the media was held in by a very open wire bottom that allows for decayed media to fall.

Repotting: The plant was allowed to become pot bound, but it is in need of re potting because the canes have begun to grow against the side of the pot.Seasonality: It gets little special care when not growing or blooming, it gets concentrated care when it is producing new growths as canes grow relatively fast.

This is a magnificent plant that is quite rewarding if you are able to give it the growing conditions it needs. Sadly the flowers are short lived and last only five to six days. I have another plant that was also labeled densiflorum but that has not bloomed even when it achieved a large size. However its canes are deeply furrowed which makes me think it may be thysiflorum. The thyrsiflorum plant grows very well and it’s very hardy but has not shown any inclination to bloom even after ten years under my care.

Pests: Snails and slugs may eat the tender canes but little else seems to bother this plant in my location. Unfortunately the bright color of the inflorescence seems to attract all the thrips in the local area and they will converge of the inflorescence and damage it if it is not protected. (I usually take the plant indoors when its in bloom). Unfortunately thrips seem to find these flowers so alluring that they will wallow through a thick slurry of Sevin dust to sink their thrice accursed mouth parts in the flower, they then die in transports of ecstasy all the while spoiling the flowers with their unsightly little bodies.


A link to the most recent blooming of this species in my collection
http://ricardogupi.blogspot.com/2011/03/dendrobium-densiflorum-revisited-march.html