This sweet little orchid, native to the East coast of Australia, has been amazingly forgiving of some pretty harsh treatment, but hopefully it is now in a spot where it can flourish. It is an epiphyte, growing on a piece of wood on a tree trunk, and has lovely spikes of white flowers in early Spring.
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This has been the runaway success of the orchids I have planted in trees here. Dendrobium nobile takes care of itself high in the fork of a tree above our house, and is making a lovely show on the driveway for Spring.
Read MoreWe don’t have a lot of shade in the garden yet, as all the big trees are sensibly well away from the house, but there are a couple of small rainforest trees above the house, and I’ve used them to house some of my orchids. The Dendrobium nobile is looking quite happy way up in this fork, and has started to flower. I’m afraid I don’t know yet what the tree is, but it is quite common in the region, and holds a lot of lichen on its bark, so…
Read MoreThis is a good climate for having orchids out in trees. Our Summers are warm, wet and humid, so many orchid types like to have their roots in the air or under a light cover of leaf litter. The driveway down to our house has a few old standing stumps and a couple of trees which get a good dappled shade. This Cymbidium had its pot broken in the move (or it might have just burst out of it, they have massive root systems), so I just wedged the root…
Read MoreMy first orchid to flower in the new place. The yellow and burgundy Oncimiums have been gracing (and perfuming) the living room since we moved, but they were already in flower. This one has gone from spike to inflorescence, and survived the possibility of being chewed by whatever lurks under the house at night, although it did lose a terminal bud or two. Until I can secure my greenhouse, I’m glad to get any flowers. This is the lesser, Winter flowering, so I hope to get more in late Spring. I…
Read MoreThe Phals have been rewarding this year, now that I’ve found the secret to flowering is to keep them indoors for June to August. With the oldies augmented with a couple of newbies that were too good to pass by, they’ve been giving indoor colour for many months, and should continue till Christmas. Next up will be the burgundy Oncimium, I’m guessing in January.
Read MoreOrange flowers seem a little unorthodox for a Phalaenopsis, but they’re lovely just the same. I might try crossing with a standard pink and white, a long-term project but who knows what would result? This year this one is flowering on a new winter spike, and off last year’s spike at the same time. It seems that these flowers are always relatively small.
Read MoreI’ve finally sussed this orchid, and it’s responded with a mass flowering, just coming on now with faintly hyacinth-scented blooms. It’s got an unusual growth habit and wanes slowly if it’s not maintained. The new stems shoot from the base in Spring, grow with handsome leaves for 18 months, then drop their leaves and are bare, but succulent, through their second Winter. They need a slight chill, then in late Winter the bare stems send out flower spikes. The secret to them seems to be that they need to be…
Read MoreApparently the Latin name is in dispute, but yellow dancing ladies probably describes this one better than Oncidium anyway. The main flowering for this is late October but this year it’s flowered well in August. It’s an odd cultivar, with a twisted mass of pseudo bulbs and twisted leaves, and like its purple relative it clambers away from its origin and needs frequent re-setting. Bright indirect light, plenty of water, go light on fertilizer, and cold tolerant to 5C.
Read MoreOne of the last flowers of Winter, this Dendrobium is sweet like snowdrops. It’s a rock orchid native to the Sydney area, but grows in sand or bark or whatever. Dropping shoots is its specialty, so you could multiply a plant to completely cover a balcony in a few years. Comes in whites and pinks. Give it plenty of morning or dappled sun.
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