A few years back I saw a photo of a flower of Dendrobium devonianum that was so
spectacular that it took my breath away.
The photo was by Dale Borders and it was posted in the Orchid Source
Forum. I wondered if I could grow it
since by all indications this was a high elevation plant whose range encompassed
areas with more temperate weather than PR.
I asked Dale how he cultivated this plant and he told me that he grew it
next to its Dendrobium primulinum. Since I had a few years of experience growing
and blooming Den. primulinum I
decided to try this plant.
When I brought my first two plants of Dendrobium devonianum, back in 2008, I must confess I was
underwhelmed by the sight of the plants.
The larger plant seemed scrawny, I had expected that, but the smaller
one with its larger cane barely six inches long, was so unimpressive I thought
it might not survive the process of becoming acclimatized to my local climatic
conditions. Eventually both plants
started producing new growths, the larger one with vigor, and the smaller one
at such a slow pace that it was glacial in comparison with the first one. This pattern repeated itself every year, the
larger plant growing ever faster and the smaller one barely making
progress. In 2010 I was quite excited to
see buds on the larger plant, alas I was utterly disappointed when the larger
one produced flower buds and it became clear it was Dendrobium aduncum. To my
defense I have to say that Dendrobium
devonianum is an exceedingly rare plant in Puerto Rico and I had never seen
one so could not tell it from Den. aduncum
on sight.
The smaller plant kept growing exasperatingly slow and producing
absurdly wiry stems. The incredible
thinness of the stem near the base is almost unbelievable. The cane produced in 2010 was eight inches
long but the width near the base was .8 millimeter. Yes that is no typo, I actually used a caliper
to measure it, the stem was less than a millimeter wide! Even the 2011 cane, which is the one that
bloomed measured three feet eight inches long but was a tiny fraction of an
inch wide near the base of the cane. To put
it in metrics, the cane near the base is 1.2 millimeters wide, the cane is 1.17
meters long, around a thousand times bigger. I want to clarify that the very thin part is
only a short stretch near the base of the plant, the rest of the cane is thicker, a little less
than half a centimeter thick.
In 2011, to my surprise the plant started producing a new
cane with previously unknown vigor. The
cane kept getting bigger and bigger unlike previous ones that would stop at a
few inches after lackluster growth. The
cane eventually measured, as noted previously more than three feet long, which
was five times bigger than the size of the previous cane. Eventually the cane lost all its leaves and
all I had to do was wait for the blooming season to come around. And I waited, and waited and waited. By the start of May all my other deciduous Dendrobium had bloomed, I assumed that
the plant would not bloom. One day in
the first week of March, as I was watering the plants, I noticed that there
were some slight swellings in the side of the cane. By then the local rainy season had started
and I wondered if it was really going to bloom or that it was going to produced
keikis.
The next few weeks were depressing. The plant kept producing
flower buds and they would start to develop but after a while they would turn
pink and fall from the flower. This
happened seven times. I despaired of
ever getting to see the flowers. The
fact that this is a Himalayan Dendrobium
and at the time the plant was producing the buds the temperatures were
sweltering and humidity sky high.
The last two buds managed to develop all the way to maturity
and opened on May 5. They are so
beautiful that all frustration was forgotten.
I expect that as the plant develops larger canes and an even more
extensive root system it will be able to bloom better. The new growth is already nine inches long
and it is slightly huskier than the preceding ones, the quoted size for the
cane of this species is three feet long, but I expect this plant to exceed this
size in the 2012 cane.
This is not a species for a beginner, particularly in Puerto
Rico. It demands patience and consistent
care. I grow this species at an altitude
of 1000 feet in the interior of PR, I don’t know how it will fare in the
coastal lowlands which in summer can reach high temperatures in the nineties degrees
range.
