Lycaste aromatica

I have been extremely quiet of late; there are quite a few pictures lurking around waiting to be uploaded, so there should be a flurry of activity just as things are quietening down on the balcony as we head into winter. 

Lycaste aromatica is a very rewarding orchid to grow, as it has interesting yellow/slightly green flowers - but the main pay-off is in the interesting cinnamon scent its flowers produce. If you'd like to experience this smell, find the nearest packet of artificially flavoured cinnamon confectionery/chewing gum and give it a sniff - bingo! Of course, a better bet to really experience it is to own a plant of this species...

Lycaste aromatica. 21 Dec 2012

Late last year (Dec 2012), I finally abandoned Nokia/Symbian and moved to Samsung/Android with a Galaxy S3, which has a fairly decent camera, which is what took this image. As I always have this to hand (unlike my SLR, which is usually packed away) expect to see more images from this device!

Most Lycaste orchids are deciduous, including aromatica. This means they lose their leaves during the dry season (which roughly corresponds with winter). During this time, you can basically ignore them, particularly with regard to water. They only need to be watered (thoroughly) once they are in active growth. The first sign of activity will be the flower buds emerging, shortly after this, the new pseudobulb(s) will sprout leaves, which is a fairly good indication the plant might be getting thirsty after a dry winter rest! Old pseudobulbs don't seem to regrow leaves. I quite like the leaves, but they can get pretty large for a small growing area. The psuedobulbs are protected (once the leaves are gone) with some surprisingly vicious thorns, which I commented on and illustrated in a previous post.

There are several good pages about Lycaste online if you'd like to learn more:
As always, the AOS culture sheets give you a good basic overview
A good overview of the entire genus
Some more information about Lycaste culture. 

Maxillaria tenuifolia, EPOS January meeting

First of all, welcome to 2012... It's now been just over a year since my orchid collection started to expand at a fairly ludicrous rate, indeed my first post on this blog was a little over a year ago - the time has flown by!

A while back, our Maxillaria tenuifolia bloomed. These great little plants have coconut-scented flowers, which is quite a nice thing to dip your nose into! Although quite small, the flowers are quite attractive. These plants are quite compact and seem to be fairly easy "windowsill" orchids; I quite like the grassy foliage held on top of neat little pseudobulbs.

Maxillaria tenuifolia - the "Coconut Scented Orchid".

I spent most of the latter half of December and the first part of January on holiday away from OOAB; a friend kindly visited to make sure the plants didn't all dry out and die - there was one casualty (Schoenorchis fragrans), and there seems to be a bit of an outbreak of both scale and red spider mite, which need to be dealt with (fortunately, the red spider mite doesn't seem to be on the orchids - the daily mistings probably keep them at bay!). Tomorrow will probably seem me attending to those little pests...

Whilst I was away, our Lycaste aromatica decided to stop sulking and put out a somewhat underwhelming 2 blooms; these plants are fairly large, but worth the space for their attractive, yellow, cinnamon-scented flowers (think cinnamon chewing gum and it's just like that!). Unfortunately, the show was pretty much over by the time I got back.The presumably defensive spikes on the pseudobulbs are quite impressive too!

On Thursday, I went to the first EPOS meeting of the year and the talk was entitled "Phragmipediums: the Cinderella Slippers" by speaker Gavin Macdonald, who is the South African Orchid Council's official botanist, based in Durban. The presentation's central theme was that rather like Cinderella, the group is somewhat neglected and deserves to emerge princess-like onto the scene! "Phrags" are a group I quite like, indeed I have a Phrag. caudatum which is looking much happier now in hydroton instead of degraded bark mix. Through the first part of the talk I kept wondering where besseae and kovachii were - but a little later there was a "new discoveries" section that covered them! As usual, as well as covering the major species, the talk wound its way through an illustrated guide to various hybridisation attempts and noted tips on growing (like most Phrags quite enjoying living with wet feet in a tray of water - although I distinctly remember reading in various places [E.g.] that caudatum likes to be drier, perhaps even with a dry period in the winter; it was also noted that most were very intolerant of poor water quality and salt build-up).

It was quite fun to try and see the various ancestors in the hybrids, and to witness the various directions the hybridising programmes were taking. At one stage, Gavin pointed out the quite marked differences between "normal" caudatum hybrids and those with warscewiczianum in their ancestry; quite a lot of people synonymise the two, but it certainly looks like warscewiczianum deserves at least subspecies if not full species recognition - indeed, some have decided it ought to be named as an outright species - dubbed Phragmipedium popowii. It will be interesting to see where the introduction of kovachii will take things - I'm not convinced it will be in directions I like; they're rather reminiscent of outlandishly giant parvisepalum group Paphiopedilums, which I think are rather unpleasant looking toilets! Still, a plant with flowers that giant and the vibrant pink colours are likely to lead in some interesting directions. Of course, taking some 5-7 years (or more) before you see some flowers from seedlings, progress will be slow!

On the plant table there were, as always, some nifty plants; I was particularly taken by an unidentified vinicolor paph with variegated leaves, two Paphiopedilums with some Paph. rothschildianum in the backgroud (a St. Swithin and one that wasn't identified) and there was also a Phragmipedium Eric Young, the first time I've seen one.

Fingers crossed 2012 turns out to be another fun year for OOAB!

OOAB Blooms Spring #1

I have, alas, continued in my plague theme of being far too busy to muck about with plant photography and blog posts; there have been quite a few nice blooms come and go here at OOAB HQ. I did manage to snap a few pictures of them here and there - sometimes only with a cellphone camera, but here they are nonetheless!

Beallara Peggy Ruth Carpenter 'Everglades'
(Bllra. Tahoma Glacier x Milt. Purple Queen)
Taken way back in September

This plant has recently re-bloomed; the flower looks better coloured this time (last time the inflorescence had several crowded blooms; this time just one - see below) - although Senior Management reminds me that the colour fades as the flower gets older, and the picture above was of fairly old blooms.

This plant seems very easy to grow and keeps throwing out new growths like crazy - it's starting to look quite crowded in its pot and may be ripe for a spot of dividing. One thing I was surprised at is if you stick your nose right in the flower and sniff, it smells very much like freshly ground white pepper. I've decided I quite like the idea of fragrant orchids, so I often "stop to smell the flowers". Apparently some of the other closely related hybrids smell of pepper strongly enough to fill the room with that scent.
Senior Managemetn and I really like the crazy petals both in their blotching and twisted shapes, but I'm sure orchid judges - those whimsical arbiters of "greatness" - would hate their deviance from perfection!

Zelglossoda Calico Gem 'Green Valley #1'

This is a great little plant that Senior Management saw at the local florist and decided we must have. I had spotted it a few days earlier and been sorely tempted by its deep purple flower buds, but Senior Management had strongly hinted that there is little space at OOAB HQ for new aquisitions, so I sadly passed it by. Imagine my delight when it showed up a few days later in bloom as a gift! Unfortunately, it didn't have a label and was a NOID for a little while. Shortly after we got it, I thought I should take it to the next EPOS meeting in case anyone had any idea what it was. It turned out that local orchid vendors Caro-Lin remembered selling this to the local florist, and so a few days later, I was given the name of this charming little plant.

Aerangis fastuosa

We took this Aerangis fastuosa plant along with the Zelglossoda above to the September EPOS meeting. One member remarked to me that we should have taken it to the annual show, where he considered it would have done very well in miniature or African sections - of course, stubbornly, not a single flower was open in time for the annual show. In the end, it won best species on the plant table at the meeting, joining the ranks of our plants other people think are quite good (the other being our Rhynchostylis coelestis)! This plant is remarkably strongly scented, like jasmine - almost overpoweringly so in a small car, particularly as the scent is strongest in the early evening; precisely when we climb into the car to go to EPOS meetings! I really like the delicate white flowers. I'm thinking about mounting this plant when I can find something to mount it on; the flowers would display much better.

Finally, here is our Dendriobium kingianum, one of our original orchids (prior to the fateful trip to Exotic Plant Company nearly a year ago) - i.e. before full blown orchid mania struck!

Dendrobium kingianum

These plants have an amazing variety of different lip and flower patterns - some people have literally hundreds of them! They're quite tough, forgiving orchids - pretty good beginner plants in my opinion - although their flowers are quite modest in size. I think they smell like hyacinths (not a smell I particularly enjoy).

I'll add another post a bit later with some more - spring time is good to us around these parts!