Acampe rigida, a large plant with small colorful flowers.

 Acampe rigida is a large plant that produces inflorescences with small flowers that are shorter than the leaves.  The flowers are quite colorful.  A few people locally grow this plant, most prefer the large flowered Vandas.  

Bulbophyllum mastersianum x Bulbophyllum surigaense

 Bulbophyllum mastersianum x Bulbophyllum surigaense 

Dendrobium devonianum Paxton 1840

 I brought this Dendrobium last year.  One of the few orchids I have brought after hurricane Maria.   This plant has been delicate and lost two canes to rot during the rainy season.   However the youngest cane survived.  The cane is just a fraction of the size of the older ones it had when it arrived, but to my surprise it produced flowers.  Not many but I don't complain.   I have read Dendrobium devonianum is quite variable but I was puzzled when the flowers started opening.  To me it seems as if someone grafted the huge lip of Den, primulinum of a devonianum flower.  I have never before seen a Den, devonianum with such huge yellow dot and without purple on the distal tip of the lip.   Hopefully, next year the plant will be larger and stronger and will produce even more of this beautiful flowers.   The flowers are strongly fragrant in the afternoon.

Den. Ueang Pheung (Den. jenkinsii x Den. aggregatum) cultural notes

This hybrid is the product of the cross of two similar especies.  The species are so similar that some consider them the same species.  Dendrobium (aggregatum) lyndleyi produces long inflorescences of yellow flowers.  Dendrobium jenkinsii produces one or two flowered inflorescences of relatively large flowers that can rival the size of the cane that produced them.  The culture for both species is identical.   I decided to grow this plant in a wire basket instead of the usual tree fern trunk due to the fact that the warm and wet weather of my locality tends to speed the bacterial decay tree fern to such an extent that in a few years. if it is subjected to a steady stream of fertilizer, it becomes soft and begins to break down.  

The only differences I have noted between the hybrid and the species Dendrobium lydleyi is that the species needs a stronger, longer exposure to the sun to bloom well.  And that the species will sometimes bloom poorly if it is watered during the coldest driest part of the year.

Culture: 

Light: Bright light, a few hours of full sun in the morning, but the plants are protected from the midday sun.  The rest of the day it is shaded by trees. 

Temperature:  In my climate, the temperatures are the lowest in February when they go down to 14 C.  From June to October the high temperatures are 32 C.  The plant grows well in this range.

Watering: The plant is watered every three to two days, when the basket is approaching dryness.  It is only watered in the dry season, the rest of the year the local rain pattern gives it enough water to sustain growth.

Fertilizer:  It is given a 20-20-20 fertilizer but only if it is showing new growths.  When the plant starts a growth cycle, a small quantity of manure is put over the potting material.

Potting:  In a wire basket, in medium bark.  

Dendrobium harveyanum Rchb.f. 1883, blooming late in the year, months out of its normal blooming date.

Hurricane Maria caused grievous damage to the forest where I live.  Many trees fell and the canopy was destroyed in most of the forest.  Humidity and rainfall dropped.  Because there was no canopy the area temperature went up.  Also without the canopy the full power of the tropical sun hit all the understory plants burning them severely and killing some.  I lost many of my orchids to the changed environmental circumstances.  But some survived through it all.  Among them Dendrobium harveyanum.  In the last month it has not rained and the plants are suffering.  I wonder if this period of low humidity triggered this out of season blooming of the harveyanum.

Mediocalcar decoratum Schuit. 1989, in the 2017 Puerto Rico orchid society show.

Orchid from Ecuador, truly weird, I think is a Scaphosepalum

An unidentified Pleurotallis species from Ecuador

I have not been able to identify it.

Oncidium cebolleta (Jacq.) Sw. 1800

I saw this orchid growing in an airy and sunny location in a garden near Isabela in the north coast of Puerto Rico.  Although it is a plant that does well in the hot and humid conditions of the coast of Puerto Rico, it seems to be rare in cultivation.  This is the only plant I have ever seen of this species in our Island.

Brassolaeliocattleya Rustic Spots

A variable and colorful hybrid that grows well in the hot coastal lowlands of Puerto Rico.  The plants show their Brassavola nodosa ancestry both in their plant and their flower form.   

Bulbophyllum (annandalei x frostii)

This orchid is growing will in the very heart of the metropolitan area of the capital of Puerto Rico.  It is a hot and humid place and it seems to suit this hybrid well.  The flowers form is intermediate between that of the parents.

Dendrobium Andree Millar (Dendrobium atroviolaceum x Dendrobium convolutum)

I photographed this one in the 2004 Mayaguez orchid show.  The flowers are fragrant and long lasting.  Grows and blooms well in Puerto Rico.

Dendrobium auriculatum Ames & Quisumb. 1932, a bushy untidy small plant that produces solitary flowers from summer to winter

Although in the wild, in Philippines it is reported to grow from 900 to 1000 meters of altitude, this particular plant is doing well at sea level near the north coast of the Island of Puerto Rico, in the Caribbean.  The area where it is grown is characterized by constant wild, humidity and high temperatures that for months fluctuate between 85F and 95F, only going lower in the dry season which correspond to the temperate winter and early spring.  

Dendrobium amboinense, a closer look at the lip

The most interesting feature of the flowers of Dendrobium amboinense is their lip.  The flowers in this blooming were relatively small and the plant produced only two.  But as the plant matures and grows taller, I expect it to produce up to four large flowers.

Dendrobium amboinense Hook. 1856, The flowers are ephemeral and highly beautiful.

I grow this plant outside in a spot where it gets a few hours of full morning sun and shade for the rest of the day.  The plant has thrived in my garden which is located at an altitude of 300 mts in the central mountains of the Island of Puerto Rico.  This is the first time it has bloomed and it is clear it still has quite a bit to grow to achieve full sized adult canes.  In the last few months it has been raining almost every day but this has not bothered this plant at all.  The flowers last a single day, but I don't mind, there are many things in life that are like that.  

Dendrobium (farmeri x densiflorum)

Sadly I lost this beautiful and floriferous plant.  But if I ever see this cross again for sale, I will buy it in a second!!

Bulbophyllum cocoinum Bateman ex Lindl. 1837, will do well in hot coastal Puerto Rico, as long as it gets the proper humidity and care.

This African Bulbophyllum has a coconut fragrance.  This plant was cultivated by a friend it eventually turned into an specimen plant, it completely filled the basket with growths.

Bulbophyllum medusae [Lindley] Rchb.f 1861, the inflorescence photographed from a different angle

These orchid inflorescences are usually photographed from the side.  I decided to photograph it from the bottom.  This perspective makes the inflorescence look much different than what we are used to see.

Dendrobium Chaisri Gold, peloric mutant

I received this Dendrobium as a gift a long time ago.  It is not difficult to cultivate as long as it is grown on media that doesn't become soggy and kills its roots.  Prefers media that allows for plenty of air to reach the roots.  The flowers are long lasting.

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.