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. 

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.

  

Calanthe rubens Ridl. 1890

I used to grow many plants of Calanthe rubens.  They would put a beautiful show in early winter.  However eventually I gave all my plants away.  Mainly because I acquired larger, showier hybrids that would bloom for a longer time.  However I still remember them fondly there were they first Calanthe I ever cultivated and they would bloom very well with little care.

Cattleya intermedia Graham 1828, a plant in my garden.

Brassocattleya Maikai,(Brassavola nodosa x Cattleya bowringiana) easy to grow in Puerto Rico

This common hybrid is easy to grow outside in coastal Puerto Rico.  If given regular fertilization and plenty of sun it will bloom abundantly.  I found that as my plant grew larger it would tolerate more and more sun exposure.  I think this is due to many, very closely spaced pseudobulbs which appear to protect one another from any excessive sun exposure.  This plant can grow into a specimen plant if given proper care and grooming.  My plant became heavy!

Rhyncholaelia digbyana x Cattleya Atalanta

An exceedingly old cross, this plant only bloomed for me when exposed to full sunlight for a few hours each morning.  Unfortunately I lost it to black rot during a prolonged spell of very wet and cool weather.

Psychilis krugii Sauleda, Psy kraenzlinii (Bello) Sauleda y Psy. x raganii

Psy. x raganii, hybrid of Psy. kraenzlinii and Psy. krugii

Psy. kraenzlinii

Psy. krugii

Dendrobium tortile Lindley 1847, twelve years from keiki to bloom!

In April 2004 my friend Caridad brought a plant of this species in bloom to a meeting of the Mayaguez orchid society.  I admired the flowers and she gave me a small keiki that was growing on one of the canes.  I was wildly enthusiastic about this plant and quickly potted it and gave it the best care possible. In about two years it already had fully adult sized canes plump and healthy.  But then, it kept growing, but not blooming.  I tried everything, shade, full sun, semi shade, bone dry rest periods, different fertilizers in fact all the things that are said to trigger blooming in recalcitrant adult Dendrobium plants.  None made the plant bloom.  Eventually I put it under the Dendrobium anosmum plants in a place that gets scorching hot sun, and forgot about it.  The plant kept producing normal sized canes even thought it was getting absolutely no fertilizer except those that dripped from the Den, anosmum plants above it.  It spent about four years in this location growing apparently contentedly and unremarkably.   Then last most as I was checking the new season growths of the other Dendrobium, I came face to face with not one but three developing inflorescences, two on canes and one in a keiki.  I was surprised, elated and puzzled as I have no idea what triggered blooming.  Last year's dry season was exceptionally harsh, but this year's dry season has been considerably milder.  The flowers are a bit floppy and tend to go limp in the afternoon and then perk up again in the mornings.  I almost missed the opening of the flowers by dint of being in the hospital, but was lucky enough to get back home in time to see the first flowers open.  Hopefully it wont take twelve more years to bloom again.

Dendrobium Love Memory "Fizz" close up of a single flower

Dendrobium trantuanii Perner & Dang 2003

I brought this orchid about a year and a half ago.  Compared with my other Dendrobium this plant has been a slow, deliberate grower.  The cane that produced this flower is small, a bit less than six inches long.  The flower has a nice color, I suspect this is due to the fact that the plant get full sun for several hours a day.

Cattleya nobilior Rchb.f 1883

This plant was brought to the April 10 meeting of the AOS judges on Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Caulaelia Orchidglade (Caularthron bicornutum x Laelia undulata)

I saw this plant in the 2016 Puerto Rico Orchid Society show.  I was surprised when I found who the parents of this hybrid were because at first sight the plant doesn't really resemble its parents much.  On a closer look you can see the evidence of the Caularthron parent in the lip and that of the Laelia parent in the sepals and petals.  The hybrids of the Laelias and Myrmecophila that were once part of the defunct genus Schomburgkia, are becoming increasingly popular.

Paphiopedilum Song of Love (Paph lowii x Paph. liemianum) this is a first bloom seedling

This is a first bloom of a plant I brought from Carter and Holmes some time ago.  Paphiopedilum are not really that popular in Puerto Rico among the average orchid grower, but they are not rare in the larger local orchid collections.  I find most Paphiopedium very easy to grow in the coastal region of Puerto Rico.   

Bollopetalum Midnight Blue (Zygopetalum Arthur Elle x Zygopetalum Skippy Ku)

I saw this hybrid on the December meeting of the Orquidistas de Puerto Rico.  These types of hybrids are not that common in the island of Puerto Rico.  However recently these hybrids have become available locally.  I am looking forward to see these plants show in local orchid shows.

Psychilis kraenzlinii (Bello) Sauleda 1988, from the north coast of Puerto Rico

This is Psychilis x raganii, sometimes shown as Psy. kraenzlinii Note the different coloring

These are the first flowers of Psychilis kraenzlinii I have been able to see in its native habitat.  These flowers are from the north coast, near the town of Isabela in Puerto Rico.   It is not easy to see these plants in the wild, the habitat they favor, near the coast, is also a favorite of humans, which means where there were strand of native vegetation there are now vacation homes near the beach.  Also people will collect these plants from the wild, which means that if you are in a place where humans have easy access the probability of seeing these plants in the wild is essentially nil.

I had seen these plants previously in orchid shows but never in their natural haunts.  Unfortunately these plants almost always die in captivity, due to the lack of knowledge of their cultural needs buy the people that collected them.  Paradoxically, all the ones I have seen that survived in captivity where in the hands of people that just tied them to a tree and essentially ignored them. 

There are exceptions to this rule as I have seen one or two large specimen plants in local exhibitions.  However I have been unable to talk with the owners of the large plants, so perhaps they way they cultivated the plants was to give them careful neglect.  

Psychilis kraenzlinii is sometimes confused with Psy. x raganii.  The two orchids are similar, their main difference is their color and in technical details of the callus of the lip.  Psy, raganii has a reddish color as you can see in the photo.

Epidendrum ackermanii Hágsater 2004, in Maricao, the inflorescence of a plant growing under the shade of a Clusia rosea

Most flowers of this species are a pale lilac color, this inflorescence had unusually deep colored flowers.  I saw this plant in the Maricao forest in an area where a rockslide had obliterated all plants in its path.  This orchid is growing under the shade of a Clusia rosea tree.

This is the most common color of these orchids.

Schomburgkia undulata Lindley 1841 now Laelia undulata

I brought this plant many years ago from Tropical Orchid Farm which is in Hawaii. 

Sobralia callosa L.O. Williams 1946

This is the first blooming in my garden of this orchid.  The color is impressively bright and eyecatching.  This orchid bloomed at the same time as Dendrobium crumenatum, I wonder if they are using the same environmental cues.  A few days ago there was a tremendous thunderstorm of such violence that the local temperature went down a few degrees in a short time, surely prompted the Dendrobium to bloom, perhaps the Sobralia too.  I will be watching to see if this happens again.

Bulbophyllum facetum Garay 1997

 This is the first blooming of this philippine endemic in my collection.  Compared with other members of the sestochilus section of Bulbophyllum that I grow, this one is a slow and deliberate grower that ocassionally loses growths due to rot, a rare thing among my Bulbophyllum.  The flower came out of the side of the pseudobulb and initially I thought a new pseudobulb was going to develop.

Dendrobium Fulum, an "antilope" Dendrobium hybrid

I photographed this plant in the garden of Edna Hamilton of St. Croix.  The plant is remarkable, not only for the beauty of its flowers but also for its floriferousness, the two inflorescences come from a single cane.  I plan to acquire one of this orchid.  Hopefully I will as successful as Edna in getting this plant to produce lots of flowers.