Tolumnia Pink Panther, brought as a sacrificial victim to the gods of orchid culture, it surprised me by not only surviving but thriving.

In the past due to a poor understanding of their cultural needs, I sent many a Tolumnias to the great, happy terracota pot in the sky.  I became so frustrated at my inability to grow them that for many years refrained from buying them.  But last year I decided to try a different way of cultivating them.  As a sacrificial victim to the gods of orchid culture, I selected this plant which was on Home Depot on the spot where they put plants that have finished blooming before being sold.  I wanted to buy a cheap one so that if it did die It would not be a great loss.  I put this plant on a flat plastic dish on top of a very thin layer of moss, all the original roots were left exposed and not buried in the media.  

The plant gets full sun from sunrise to about 10 am and the rest of the day it is in light shadow.  I fertilize it weekly when it is producing a new fan.  The local temperatures are between 75 and 85 most of the year with low down to the sixties for a few weeks in January and February.

The plant has been growing well and finally bloomed this March.  Now that I know the way that I can keep them alive I plant to add one or two additional plants to my collection.  Hopefully they will do as well as this one.  The plant was identified by my friend, Rene Enrique Garcia Lopez.

Dendrobium gouldii Rchb. f. 1867, "blue", the grand champion of the 2016 Puerto Rico Orchid Society show

This orchid was the Grand Champion of the 2016 Puerto Rico Orchid society show.  The plant was big and had a number of massive inflorescences with a large number of flowers.  Unfortunately, it was on the very center of the exhibit where many other plants obscured its size.  The flowers have a nice shape and a delightful color.  The size of the plant makes clear that its owner is skilled at growing these plants which can be tricky to grow to this large size.  

Paphiopedilum Susan Booth x Paph. Prince Edward of York, an elegant hybrid

I saw this tropical ladyslipper in the 2016 Puerto Rico orchid society show.  This hybrid plant is large when adult and the flowers are big and elegant.  The petals are long and held in a nice stance to the sides of the plants.  Few people cultivate this type of multiflora Paphiopedilum in Puerto Rico even though the plants are very easy to grow in our climate.  However the plants can be expensive and slow to reach blooming size.

Paphiopedilum Michael Koopowitz (phillippinense x sanderianum) the first blooming of my plant

I brought this plant a few years ago and hardly expected that it would bloom in a relatively small plant.  The plant has two leaf fans, a mature, the one that bloomed and one that is still growing.  Compared with the parents the plant bloomed relatively small.  It produced three flowers.  The longest petals measured 13 inches long.  The flowers lasted well, but I cut them after two weeks to allow the plant to spend its energy growing.  I expect this plant to increase significantly in size in the future and to produce even larger inflorescences.  So far this orchid has presented no challenges in its culture.  I keep it with my collection of multiflora Paphiopedium, under the shade of saran cloth.  It is growing in bark in a six inch pot.  It gets watered twice a week and fertilized once or twice a month.

Paphiopedilum lowii (Lindl.) Pfitzer 1895

I has been my experience that this species of tropical ladyslipper grows very well and blooms reliably in the coastal lowands of Puerto Rico.  I wonder why they are not more popular.  Perhaps the reason is that they are not often offered for sale and can be expensive when brought as adult plants.  This one was for sale in the 2016 Puerto Rico Orchid Society show in the Jardin Botanico de Rio Piedras.

Bulbophyllum maximum (Lindl.) Rchb. f. 1861, was ID in the exhibit as Bulb. oxypetalum

I saw this orchid in the 2016 Puerto Rico orchid society show in the Rio Piedras Botanical Garden.  This plant has a strange otherworldly look with its large flattened inflorescences on the sides of which the tiny flowers are produced.  Given that the flowers were pretty much invisible from a distance, I have to give thanks to the PR Orchid Society which gave me permission to enter the exhibit to give a close up to the tiny flowers.  The plant body of this orchid is hardly distinct from many other Bulbophyllum species, but the inflorescences are outstandingly weird looking in a genus where weird infloresences are common.   The plant is mounted on a tree fern plaque and is doing well.  The massive inflorescences dwarf the plant body and, to the uninitiated, look utterly unorchid like.