Grammatophyllum (elegans x scriptum 'hieroglyphica')

There are a number of Grammatophyllum elegans hybrids in the market.  Most differ from each other only on minor details.   I like them all.   

Dendrobium Burana Sunshine x Dendrobium discolor

The influence of Dendrobium discolor is unmistakable in this hybrid.  Unlike Den. discolor, this plant blooms in a relatively small plant.  I love the color and the ease of culture of this orchid.  I grow it outside, under saran shade cloth.  The local climate is hot, not warm, and during the dry season the plants experience much drier conditions than normal.  However this plant takes it all in stride and grows well without any special care.  It is in a terracota pot with very clean and hard bark.  It has been my experience that these orchids resent mightly any kind of media that stays soggy for a long time, this usually results in the loss of roots.

Stanhopea panamensis

New growths have been popping out of the sides of the basket,
some three to four inches under the level of the top of the media

Some time ago I put this Dendrobium harveyanum keiki on top of th Stanhopea basket and forgot about it.  The little plant became totally trapped in the Stanhopea root basket, it can't be removed without harming it severely.  Recently it started producing a new cane.  It seems it will survive being in the root mass of the larger orchid.

My plant of Stanhopea panamensis blooms in a somewhat erratic manner.  I never know when an inflorescence will pop out of the bottom of the basket.  But generally it tends to bloom in summer and autumn in the rainiest part of the year.  The media I used of it was the cheapest bark I could find, most of it has decayed and whatever is left is held together by the root mass.  The top of the basket is filled with old pseudobulbs, new pseudobulbs are now appearing from the sides of the basket, several inches under the level of the media on top of the basket.    

Encyclia cordigera [HBK] Dressler 1964, this is the type known as var. rosea

The color of the leaves is not due to a disease.  The color is a response to growing in a high light intensity area.  The plant is potted in chunks of coconut fiber and small pieces of tree ferns.

Cymbidium Dorothy Stockstill 'Forgotten Fruit'

I brought this plant the annual PR orchid society show in San Juan in 2007.  When I brought this orchid it was a small seedling.  It grew well and soon had large and handsome growths.  Unfortunately it would not bloom.  Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it tried to bloom frequently but the inflorescences never developed fully.  What happened was this, the plant would start producing an inflorescence, it would start developing but then, when it was barely half and inch long, it would stop growing.  The inflorescence would stay the same size for weeks and then rot and turn black.  I saw this disheartening chain of events happen over and over.

Eventually I stopped paying close attention to the plant.  The plant kept growing and producing new bulbs and I moved it to a larger pot.  It would still not bloom, even though it kept producing what were clearly incipient inflorescences.  Then in February 2012 I noticed that one of the inflorescences had lengthened considerably without rotting.  I kept watch over it and to my delight a few days later a stem full of buds came out of the bracts that covered the base of the inflorescence.

The inflorescence kept lengthening until it reached about two feet long.  It produced thirty flowers of an excellent leathery texture.  The flowers were not as red as I thought they would be but nevertheless the color was nice enough.  The flowers lasted a few weeks in perfection mainly because I protected them from rain and the abundant insects of Rio Abajo which would have probably damaged them pretty quickly.

This is not, by any account, a free blooming plant under my conditions.  But the flowers are so nice when they are produced that I am willing to keep it, if only for the sake of the occasional inflorescence.  I expect that this orchid will bloom again and perhaps next time it will produce more than a single inflorescence.