Rhyncholaeliocattleya Memoria Crispin Rosales 'Volcano Queen'

 If you want a large purple Cattleya flower you cannot go wrong with the hybrid Rlc.  Memoria Crispin Rosales.  There are a number of clones of this hybrid available to the public.  I used to have the clone 'Hawaii'.  My plant usually produced two flowers but sometimes it would produce a single humongous flower on the inflorescence.  In my experience very susceptible to white fly and mealy bugs.  I had to be watchful because sometimes white fly would proliferate unnoticed under the dried sheaths of the youngest bulbs.

Myrmecocattleya Marissa's Aurora, (Cattleya Martin Wolfe × Myrmecophila tibicinis)

This cross between Myrmecophila tibicinis and Cattleya Martin Wolfe is 50% tibicinis, 25% Catt. schilleriana and the other 25% is from 9 other species of Cattleya.  Its most notable trait is the rich color of the flowers.

 

Rhyncholaeliocattleya Nakornchaisiri Delight

 Rhyncholaeliocattleya Nakornchaisiri Delight photographed at the Mayaguez Orchid society show in the Mayaguez Mall. 

Cattleya Jairak Cosmos

 

Cattleya Monte Elegante 'Hsin Pu'

 I photographed this orchid at this month meeting of the PR orchid judging center.  The plant was tall, had immaculate pseudobulbs and the inflorescence was held high over the foliage.  The head of flowers was quite eye catching, it was slightly fragrant.  The flowers were in perfect condition. 

Rlc. Waianae Starburst 'Volcano Queen"

 

Bulbophyllum mastersianum x Bulbophyllum surigaense

 Bulbophyllum mastersianum x Bulbophyllum surigaense 

Renanstylis Susan Lim 'Howdy Doody'

 This is a cross of Renanthera phillippinense and Rhynchostylis gigantea alba.   

Lc. Llory Ann 'Paradise' x Myrmecophila lyonsii

 This is a first bloom of a seedling of this cross.  It still has some way to go before reaching adult size.  Adult plants are tall and produce an inflorescence that can carry 6 or 7 flowers.

Rlc. Regal Red 'Paradise' x Laelia undulata 'Waldor'

 A cross of a Rhyncholaeliocattleya with a Laelia of the group formerly classified as Schomburkia.   The hybrid has a lovely color that this photo doesn't really capture well.  The flower doesn't resemble much either parent.  Rlc. Regal Red is a round red flower, and Laelia undulata produces a head of small wavy flowers on a long inflorescence.

Rhynchodendrum Cabalgata en Verde x Brassavola cucullata

 This hybrid is a cross of Rhynchodendrum Cabalgata en Verde (Epidendrum ciliare x Rhyncholaelia digbyana) and Brassavola cucullata.  It has a fimbriate lip that shows mainly the influence of Epi. ciliare and B. cucullata.  

A cross of Lc. Lory Ann 'Paradise' x Myrmecophila lyonsii

 This cross of Lc. Lory Ann 'Paradise' and Myrmecophila lyonsii is a large plant that produces a head of lilac colored flowers.  The flowers have different orientations but that is due to the fact that the Myr. lyonsii parent has non resupinate flowers.

  

Myrmecocattleya Rio's Little Treasure (Myrmecophila albopurpurea x Cattleya violacea)

 This cross of Myrmecophyla albopurpurea and Cattleya violacea is beautiful and apparently easier to grow than either species.  The flowers are larger than the Myrmecophila parent but smaller than the Cattleya.   Cattleya violacea is notoriously tricky to cultivate and many times it can grow well and bloom for a time only to start to go downhill and die.  My experience with Myr. albopurpurea is that it has failed to thrive and eventually died.   This plant doesn't seem to be as delicate as the parents.  

Dendrobium culture: Dendrobium Mentor 2023 growing season

 

This Dendrobium is a hybrid of Den primulinum and Den anosmum.  This plant is from a remake, the original hybrid was made in 1893.   This plant is attached to the bottom of a custom-made wire basket.  As you must have noted from my posts on orchid culture, I prefer to grow these pendent orchids attached to the bottom of wire baskets.   I do this because when these plants become larger the canes tend to outweigh the pot many times, even when potted in a heavy terracotta pot.  As a result the pots lean to the side, making watering and fertilizer more difficult than usual.   Also these plants are heavy feeders which tends to deteriorate the potting material at an accelerated pace in a pot.  In a wire basket the media stays sopping wet for only brief moments with helps control the bacteria and fungi that destroy potting material.

My plant of Dendrobium Mentor tends to favor the primulinum parent in regards to plant form.  The canes grow almost horizontal, in the direction of the strongest light, until they grow to a size that makes their weight force them into a vertical alignment.   My plant needs heavy fertilizing during the growing season and daily watering to get the best rate of growth.  It also needs strong light.  I have it in a place where it gets full sunlight for a few hours each day between 8 am and 11 am.   In primulinum, the best flowers I have seen were in canes that were exposed to so much sunlight that they were purple.    At this moment, in August, the plant is about halfway to its final size which it will reach December.

 My Dendrobium anosmum plants shed their leaves in December.  I have not paid attention to when Dendrobium Mentor becomes deciduous.  In my garden, this orchid blooms in March or April.  I was slightly disappointed that the two adult canes of my plant bloomed at slightly different times in 2023.  This year the plant has three canes that have the potential to reach blooming size.  The best outcome will be for the to open their flowers all at the same time.  This orchid produces a single flower from each flowering node.

 Den Mentor is fragrant in my garden, although its fragrance is not as powerful as that of Den. anosmum.   The fragrance is subtly different from the sweet smell of Den. anosmum, but I lack the training to give an exact description of the fragrance.   I find its fragrance pleasing.

 As can be seen in the photo above the plant has a few keikis.  These will be removed and planted separately at the start of the next dry season, when the plant is dormant.  Some keikis will be removed along with the cane they are growing from to give them a sizeable reserve of water and nutrients to fall back on when they are producing their next year growth and roots.

Encyclia culture: Some notes on root initiation

One of the most important events in the seasonal cycle of Encyclia is root initiation. It At this time of the year, in early February I am expecting my plants to start growing their inflorescences. Most of my plants finished the growth of the new bulbs at the end of last year. A few, are doing their own thing. Encyclia Borincana started producing a new growth for an old, small pseudobulb, a newly brought Encyclia alata is showing new growth. A few roots with green tips can be seen here and there. This pseudobulb of Encyclia Renate Schimdt (Enc. Orchid Jungle x Enc. Alata) decided to produce a massive growth of roots. Locally, it is the start of the dry season, not a time I find desirable for a plant to increase its water needs to nurture root growth. But you got to do what the plant needs. Because I grow my orchids outdoors this mass of delicious, tender green tipped roots is a very tempting target for insects and other critters. To stop the roots from becoming food, I give the plant a spot application of a systemic insecticide. Systemic insecticides tend to concentrate on new growths, making then inedible to any insect that might be tempted to nibble on them. Protecting the roots at this stage is vital for the future survival of the plant. The loss of the root system of its newest pseudobulb can severely set back an orchid and might even endanger its survival. Note the length of the green part of the root. A very short green tip is not a good thing, it means the plant is not getting enough water. the lenght of the green in this orchid shows it is getting the right amount of watering to promote good root growth. Root initiation in many types of orchids is not like other plants, it can only happen a specific time of the year. So when it happens the plant has to be given the care it needs to produce a strong system of roots capable of sustain the next year growth, there will not be a second chance. On some instances a plant whose lead growth is damaged will produce a secondary growth a bit back in the stem, but that doesn’t always happens. Observing the long-term growth pattern of my Encyclia I have noted that they tend to rise slowly raise they stems away from the media. After a few years the pseudobulbs are sitting on a mass of roots a few inches tall, rather than directly on the media.

Encyclia culture: Mounting on wood. After a decade and two hurricanes, Encyclia Borincana

Encyclia Borincana

New growths and aerial root skirt

The spot where the orchid was originally attached.  

I like growing Encyclias attached to pieces of wood or to tree fern pieces because the plants can grow in them for a very long time with no need to repot.   This Encyclia Borincana (alata x bractecens) has been in this piece of teak for more than eight years.   The wood is teak, which is a very tough wood and it is still in good shape.  Many other woods would have been turned to slush a long time ago by insects, bacteria and fungi.   I attached this Encyclia to the wood piece some time in 2014 or 2015.   When mounting orchids, it is very, very important to make sure the plant is firmly attached to the mount, if it can wiggle it will die because the roots will never be able to achieve a firm hold.   

                I hung this plant inside an ornamental croton bush whose leaves provided light shade from the sun and a cooler, moister microclimate for the plant.  The bush was about five feet tall, the plant was four feet from the ground.   In September 7 a category 5 hurricane Irma passed very close to the island of Puerto Rico, in September 20 Maria a high end category 4 hurricane did a direct hit on the island of Puerto Rico. 

                The Encyclia, as well as other plants that were in the bush spent the hurricane outside since I was away from my garden and could not move them to a sheltered spot.   The hurricane ripped the leaves of the bush and when the skies cleared after the hurricane all the plants that were in the bush were exposed to full sun.  They burned and died.  Fortuitously, the Encyclia was covered by some fallen brush and survived.   Weeks later, when I finally was able to get back home, I rescued it and moved it to a shade house that had survived the hurricanes (the shade house was designed to do so, I will write about that in another post).

                The Encyclia has been slowly recuperating and growing larger after the damage it suffered in the hurricane.  It has developed a skirt of aerial roots.    Most of the year I don’t fertilize this plant.   Local rainfall is enough to cover its needs outside its growing season.  When it is growing I fertilize it weekly and water it several times a week, always making sure that the mount is dry before watering it again.

                As you can see in the photo, the pseudobulbs that were in the original attachment site have long ago decayed completely, but there is still an untidy mass of the remains of its dead roots.   I don’t remove them as they retain water and that makes the mount dry slower, allowing more time for the living roots to absorb the water.  I expect in the future that this plant will grow even larger and will start producing branching inflorescences. 

Encyclia Rioclarense, a hybrid of Enc. cordigera and Enc randii

Encyclia Rioclarense

This hybrid of Encyclia cordigera and Encyclia randii has adapted well to my garden.   It is grown under shade cloth that gives it protection from the sun while allowing bright to pass through.  It is grown in a pot full of coarse media composed of limestone rocks, charcoal, bark, river pebbles and Styrofoam peanuts in the bottom of the pot to improve drainage.    It is watered twice a week.   The new pseudobulb it produced under my care, is much larger than the ones it had when I purchased it.  It has produced a few flowered unbranched inflorescence.  I expect that as it gets older and have several mature pseudobulbs it will produce larger inflorescences.   

Den. Ueang Pheung (Den. jenkinsii x Den. aggregatum) cultural notes

This hybrid is the product of the cross of two similar especies.  The species are so similar that some consider them the same species.  Dendrobium (aggregatum) lyndleyi produces long inflorescences of yellow flowers.  Dendrobium jenkinsii produces one or two flowered inflorescences of relatively large flowers that can rival the size of the cane that produced them.  The culture for both species is identical.   I decided to grow this plant in a wire basket instead of the usual tree fern trunk due to the fact that the warm and wet weather of my locality tends to speed the bacterial decay tree fern to such an extent that in a few years. if it is subjected to a steady stream of fertilizer, it becomes soft and begins to break down.  

The only differences I have noted between the hybrid and the species Dendrobium lydleyi is that the species needs a stronger, longer exposure to the sun to bloom well.  And that the species will sometimes bloom poorly if it is watered during the coldest driest part of the year.

Culture: 

Light: Bright light, a few hours of full sun in the morning, but the plants are protected from the midday sun.  The rest of the day it is shaded by trees. 

Temperature:  In my climate, the temperatures are the lowest in February when they go down to 14 C.  From June to October the high temperatures are 32 C.  The plant grows well in this range.

Watering: The plant is watered every three to two days, when the basket is approaching dryness.  It is only watered in the dry season, the rest of the year the local rain pattern gives it enough water to sustain growth.

Fertilizer:  It is given a 20-20-20 fertilizer but only if it is showing new growths.  When the plant starts a growth cycle, a small quantity of manure is put over the potting material.

Potting:  In a wire basket, in medium bark.  

Vanda Boschii (Vanda luzonica x Vanda tricolor)

Photographed near the town of Lares, in Puerto Rico.  The climate in the central mountainous part of the island of Puerto Rico is well suited for the cultivation of these orchids due to the high local humidity frequent rains and moderate temperatures.

Bulbophyllum (echinolabium x phalaenopsis)

I brought this plant a few years ago from Carter and Holmes.  It has been growing slowly, at least when compared with my other Bulbophyllum.  The flower is richly colored and the stink it produces is faint when compared with the sheer revolting and powerful smell that issues from the parent species.  I will repot it when it finishes blooming to a basket to see if this helps the plant grow larger.