Oncidium orchids

Oncidium orchids are great decorative plants for subtropical gardens and apartments. They flower twice in the year, Autumn and Spring, and are ideal for bringing in as a showy houseplant.

I have two types; one with sweetly vanilla scented burgundy flowers on very large spikes, and a smaller one with dense spikes of yellow flowers. The yellow one is easy to divide, so I have a few pots which conveniently manage to flower a few weeks apart.

yellow oncidium orchid flowering
My yellow oncidium is a great plant for bringing to the house when it flowers

The orchid world is full of complex crosses, and Oncidium is a catch-all for the ‘dancing lady’ type of flower. Although they have mixed parentage, they have the same basic growth habit. Wide, pleated, grassy leaves grow from fleshy pseudobulbs, which propagate against each other, and the flower spikes grow from the base of a pair of lower leaves on each pseudobulb.

burgundy oncidium orchid flowering
The burgundy oncidium has much more sprawling flower spikes, and a lovely fragrance.

They love bright shade. Direct light anytime through the middle of the day will burn their leaves. Mine live in a shade house through the year and get watered by the rain, so they stay pretty wet through Summer, and then have a fairly dry Winter and Spring. The one I have put in a tree fork grows almost entirely without care, and that includes weeks without rain in Spring (although it is always humid and most mornings are misty). I found them easy to grow in our Sydney apartment, where they sat on our back balcony which got mid morning sun and was then in shade from the building.