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 spectabile (Blume) Miq. 1859, an orchid with contorted, otherworldly flowers

The flowers of Dendrobium spectabile have a strange otherworld appareance due to their highly contorted floral parts.  The orientation and twisting of the florarl parts can vary wildly even in the same inflorescences.   The color of the flowers can vary from plant to plant, some are more yellow and some are more purple.  The flowers in the inflorescence can look down, up or sidewise.  In my own plant the flowers, no matter the direction in which their petals are twisted, have their lips pointing downwards, this means that many flowers have sidewise oriented lips.  The texture of the flowers can also vary, my own plant has flowers moderately good substance but some clones that I have seen in exhibitions have flowers which have a leathery texture.

The inflorescences can also vary in the way they show the flowers.  In my plant the flowers are separated by enough space that you can appreciate each one individually.  But some plants I have seen in exhibitions have their flowers all bunched in a ball like inflorescence in which all the flowers are crowded together with their floral parts overlaping each other in an untidy mass.

This plant is well worth growing but it seems individual plants vary in their frequency of blooming.  Some seem to be shy blooming, while others, like my plant, bloom like clockwork each year and sometimes two times in a season.  My only complaint is that the sideshoots my plant has produced have never kept  growing, so after 9 years in my garden my plant still has only a single growing point.

Dendrobium gouldii 'Black Koa' a yellow colored "antilope" Dendrobium

A mature flower with fully curled petals.

A newly opened flower.

A few years back I brought a seedling of this plant from Tropical Orchid Farm.  I have always liked “antelope” Dendrobium from the section Sphatulata (also known as Ceratobium) because of their resemblance to the heads of antelopes. This plant is native of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islandsm it has a number of differently colored forms.  Unfortunately my first plant proved to be a slow grower and would only produce small squat canes.  Undaunted, I brought another plant from TOF.  The new plant grew vigorously and promptly produced a cane that was at one feet and a half tall, much larger than any of the previous ones.  This cane produced an inflorescence in January and the first flowers opened in March. Now it is the middle of May and most flowers are still in good shape.  The inflorescence had about twenty flowers.

The flowers are yellow with a finely sculpted lip and the upraised twisted petals that are a notable characteristic of the section.  The distal end of the petals is a deep brown color which contrasts well with the color of the rest of the flower.  The flowers last for months in perfection, even when subjected to wind and rain.  My plant is growing in a pot with medium size stones as media as I have lost many a Dendrobium from root rot as a consequence of a waterlogged media.

The cultural advice I can give about this plant is the following.  I grow my best plant in a bright, airy spot.  I have grown my plants both in full sun and under shade cloth and the plant under shade cloth grew better.  Give the plant plenty of fertilizer and water when it is producing new canes.  When they are not growing I don’t fertilize my plants.  Avoid putting this orchid in media that can become so packed and waterlogged that the roots are deprived of oxygen, this will kill the roots.