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.

 

Trichocentrum Ollie Palmer (Maureen x haematochilum)

 

Sobralia callosa keeps getting bigger and better

I have this plant so that as I pass the shadehouse in the morning, when I leave for work, I can see if it has flowers.  The flowers last a single day, but the plant blooms several times a year.  The plant is very pot bound in a 3 inch pot, and yet it keeps producing new stems.  I plan to repot it soon.  This blooming is the biggest up to date.  The plant has proven to be asy to cultivate under my climatic conditions and impervious to local insect pest.  Unfortunately the flowers are delicate and are often damaged by insects or local birds looking for nectar.

Bulbophyllum Lovely Elizabeth, it bloomed in spring and in the fall produced an inflorescence that was larger than the previous one

Myrmecophila tibicinis [Bateman] Rolfe 1917

These flowers are from an enormous plant grown under a tree in Moca, Puerto Rico.

Bulbophyllum ambrosia[Hance] Schlechter 1919

I received this orchid as a gift several years ago.  Unlike all my other Bulbophyllum, it has only produced two new growths in all that time.  The plant seems healthy enough and it is sorrounded by other orchids of the same genus that are doing pretty well, so the reason for the slow rate of growth is a mystery.  Some of my friends have this plant and they produce new growths regularly.  My plant had never bloomed and I had almost given up on it.  Yesterday I returned from a vacation and was surprised to find a flower sticking up from the moss in the pot.  The flower is lovely, I hope it blooms regularly in the future.

My Dendrobium amethystoglossum lost its roots, so I did this...

Please note that I made slits on the side of the plastic pot to increase
both drainage and the circulation of air around the media and roots.

This Dendrobium amethystoglossum grew relatively well for several years in my garden and bloomed a number of times in that time span.  Unfortunately, last year the media began retaining too much water, this caused the death of the root mass.  When I noticed something was wrong almost all the roots were gone.  So I took the plant from its pot, trimmed away the dead roots, removed the decayed media from the meagre remains of the root ball and repoted it.   I used as media the hardest part of the trunk of the tree fern.  I cut the pieces of tree fern by hand into medium sized flakes.  The flakes were put on the pot so that they would make a relatively loose open mass that could be easily penetrated by the roots.  This part of the trunk of the tree fern is particularly resistant to decay so I expect it will last a while.  The orchid started growing in April and now it is producing new roots.  I expect that in the next two years it will have a good root system and will start producing larger canes.

Rhyncholaeliocattleya Duh's Papaya

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

Psychilis macconelliae, a comparison between a plant seen in Puerto Rico and those seen in St. Croix.

In the above picture you can see a plant of Psychilis macconnlliae I photographed at an orchid show in Puerto Rico.  I have seen pink colored flowers like this in the island of Culebra, which is to the east of Puerto Rico.  When I visited St. Croix early in 2013, I found the Psychilis macconnelliae differed in color from those in Puerto Rico.  Particularly the sepals and petals had a different color from those that I have seen in Puerto Rico.  

The difference is interesting, however it has to be noted that the plants that usually show up at orchid shows sometimes are not typical representatives of the species. Orchid growers have a clear preference for strickingly colored forms and unusual plants and as a result  of this, the cultivated strains of certain species hardly bear even a passing resemblace to the average plant of the same species in the wild.  Hopefully in the future I will be able to visit Culebra and Vieques and take photos of Psy. macconnelliae in the wild.