Bulbophyllum forrestii Seidenf. 1973

 Native of China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and India.  

Dendrobium unicum Seidenfadden 1970

Coelogyne lentiginosa Lindl. 1852

This plant is being grown in the central part of the island, in a mountainous area where the local temperatures are usually cooler than on the rest of the island.

Coelogyne assamica Linden & Rchb. f. 1857, the flowers look different from what is identified in other places as assamica. But that is what the label said.

I brought this plant in the Puerto Rico orchid society show last spring.  I wanted to see if it would grow and bloom in my area.  Green flowered Coelogyne thrive and bloom well in my location and will even endure relative neglect with little complain.  This species is a refreshing change from the green flowers of my other Coelogyne.  I have tried to grow white flowered Coelogyne with little success.  I tried mooreana and it died.  I also tried lactea, this one grew well but flowered so rarely I gave it away.  Perhaps in the case of lactea, I was growing it wrong.

Laelianthe (Schombocattleya) Cruzan Gold

This plant was brought to the April 10 meeting of the AOS judges in Ponce, Puerto Rico.  The plant is large and the flowers delightful.  This is a cross of Guariante aurantiaca and Laelia superbiens)

Dendrobium tangerinum P.J.Cribb 1980

I saw this orchid at the 2016 Puerto Rico Orchid Society show.  I am a fan of the "antilope" Dendrobium of the Sphatulata, formely Ceratobium section of the Dendrobium genus.  But they also drive me mad with their endless variations, forms and varieties.  If you add to this mixture the hybrids which are sometimes mislabeled as species, you got a recipe for confusion when trying to determine the identification of a plant.  However I am fairly sure this is Den. tangerinum.  These are large and showy plants, however few people locally seem to have mastered their culture well enough as to be able to grow the large specimen plants the members of this section can produce.  The potential of these plants is well illustrated by the grand champion of the 2016 Puerto Rico Orchid society show which was a large Den. gouldii with massive inflorescences and an impressive quantity of flowers.

Rhynchorides (Perreiraara) Bangkok Sunset

Over the years I have tried to grow Aerides without much success.  I am not sure what I am doing wrong.  So I decided to buy this hybrid to try again.  I suspect that I was not watering and fertilizing with the frequency they need.  So to test this I have put this orchid in a spot in the shade house where I can water it several times a day with a weak fertilizer solution.  Hopefully this one will do well, love the sunset colors of this one.

Psychilis monensis, an orange yellow form of this variable species, photographed "in situ" very deep into the interior of Mona Island.

This orchid is locally common, and sometimes downright abundant in certain parts of Mona Island.  This species produces flowers that can vary in color and markings between different plants.   This particular plant has orange yellow floral segments framing a richly colored lip.

Laeliocattleya Amphion (Lc. S.J. Bracey x Laelia tenebrosa)

I saw this Cattleya hybrid on the 2008 Mayaguez orchid show.  The plant was impressively large and had a tall inflorescence.  The color was intense and very eye catching.

Dendrobium MacPerson, the first of my plants to have flowers in 2015

Dendrobium Alex MacPherson is the hybrid of Dendrobium Salak and Dendrobium helix.  Den. Salak is a hybrid of Den. stratiotes and Den. discolor.   In this particular plant the strength of the heritage of the Den. helix parent can be noted in the color of the flower.  The flowers of this hybrid resemble mainly the flowers of the Den. helix parent, although they are smaller and more numerous in the inflorescence than the flowers of my plant of Den. helix.

In this particular plant the flowers are crowded in the inflorescence which makes it difficult to take good photos of individual flowers.  I cut some flowers from the inflorescence so I could show the variation on petal orientation between different flowers.  There is also some very slight variation of color between individual flowers.

A few years back I brought a number of plants of this species because they were labeled Den. helix.  As they bloom during the year I document the differences between the different clones.  In this one the pink is confined to the sepals while the petals are orange.  Some flowers show a bit of orange color on the sepals.  

Stanhopea wardii Lodd. ex Lindley 1838, first blooming in my collection

I brought this plant a few years ago from Tropical Orchid Farm.  I potted it in a basket with bark.  As most people that knows this genus would have realized, bark is not a recommended media for this species, due to its pendent inflorescence, which can become trapped in dense media.  But I judged that my plant was small enough that it would take some time to read adults size and by that time the pseudobulbs would have reached the edge of the basket and the media would no longer be an impediment to any developing roots.

I gave the plant generous watering, constant fertilizing and it thrived.  Last year the new growths reached the edge of the six inch basket, growths after that had their bases exposed rather than being sitting on top of the media.  A few months ago the latest growths showed two inflorescences, one at each opposite end of the basket.

The flowers are beautiful and have a good size.   In fact the inflorescence is impressively massive considering the size of the pseudobulbs from which it develops.  The flowers opened well but one collapsed quickly, probably due to the stress of being moved from the mountains to the hot coastal lowlands.  The plant started blooming on Friday  24 of 2014, and I feared that because I was going away for the weekend, when I returned they all might have collapsed, so I took it with me, so that I could photograph the flowers when they were freshly opened.

This plant has not represented for me a cultural challenge.  The only special thing I have made for this plant is a custom made basket I made ao I could fulfill the cultural needs of the plant without using a lot of potting media.  The plant is healthy, however it lost many leaves during this year, maybe due to unseasonably dry weather in my locality at a date where it normally rains constantly,

Bulbophyllum lobbii var, Malacca, blooming with multiple flowers for the second time in 2014

In the past I had tried to grow this orchid without sucess.  In January of 2013, I received this plant and the nominate variety.  Both were treated identically, potted in the same media and in the same type of basket, they were growing side by side.  The nominate type died a low and messy death, the var. Malacca has thrived and blooms very well.  I wonder what is the difference that caused the different outcomes in the cultivation of plants that are essentially identical in their needs.

Bulbophyllum tingabarinum Garay, Hammer, Siegrist 1994, blooming in 2014

After two years in my garden I can attest that Bulbophyllum tingabarinum is easy to grow and flower at middles altitudes in the mountainous interior of Puerto Rico.  It does demand careful fertilization when it is producing new growths or the pseudobulbs will be smaller than their full potential.  For me it blooms like clockwork every August.  In 2014 it has produced two inflorescences.  The high winds and the copious rains that tropical storm Bertha brought to the island the last two days didn't affect the flowering process.

Bulbophyllum blepharistes Rchb.f 1872, this orchid doesn't seem to be common in cultivation

I have seen this interesting orchid only once, in the orchid collection of a cousin of mine.  The flowers are different from those of most other Bulbophyllum.  This orchid is a sequential bloomer that can produce a few flowers at a time from an elongating inflorescence.

Phalaenopsis KV Charmer

Gongora gratulabunda Rchb. f. 1857

Phalaenopsis Dajao's Red Buddah, even flowers that have been long open and have slightly faded are wonderful

Phalaenopsis Memoria Julio Rios Pagan 'Janice' HCC/AOS

Seen at the March 2014 meeting of the Mayaguez orchid society.

Dendrobium Frosty Dawn

Photographed at the 2014 Ponce orchid society show, Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Rhyncholaeliocattleya Duh's Papaya

Photographed at the Ponce orchid society show, Ponce, Puerto Rico.