Sunday, April 13, 2008

AVO Orchid Exhibit This week was the AVO (Asociacon Venezolana de Orquideas) at the Sambil Mall in Caracas. the lighting there was not great, but I managed to take some good shots below. Cat. Luddemanniana Coerulea on the lft, Cattleya Mossiae Coerulea on the right. A big Mossiae semi alba on the left. My Sophronitis Coccinea Aurea on the right, won first prize. On the left, Shomgburkia Undulata alba against the lights. On the right a very nice Cattleya Violacea that won first prize. On the left a nice Zygopetalum. On the right Laelia San Bar My Dendrobium Helix, won third prize among species Dendrobiums. 10:57:32 PM    comment []

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Eduardo sends some good ones Two vies of a very nice Venezuelan Coryanthes Macrantha Clearly Eduardo had a Mossiae semi-alba indigestion last month. Truly stunning! A nice Shomburgkia Superbiens alba 11:54:01 PM    comment []

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

A bit of everything On the left a hybrid of Cattleya Intermedia with Blc. Morning Glory. This flower won second prize at the recent Natural Sciences orchid exhibit. On the right, a Cattleya Mossiae semi-alba, which unfortunately has a funny shape. On the left, a Cattleya Giga from Colombia, huge flower! On the right a hybrid of Cattleya Walkeriana with Blc. Morning Glory. My faithful Cattleya Violacea. I took it today to the orchid exhibit of the Venezuelan Orchid Society and someone I respect a lot was very impressed with the size, shape and number of flowers. I thought it was an unusual plant, but I am no expert on Violaceas. 8:50:21 PM    comment []

Monday, April 07, 2008

Santos sends a bunch of pictures, evne of people!!! Santos sends pictures of species, hybrids and even of la Gran Sabana and even people!!! Two pictures of what Santos considers to be his best Cattleya Lueddemanniana Left: Cattleya Lueddemanianna Coerulea, Right Cattelya Lawrenceana concolor Diana, both Venezuelan Cattleya :oddigessi color on the left and alba on the right Pescatorea Dayana, a Colombian species Pescatorea Dayana on the left, Rincholaelia Digbiana on the right Vanda on the left, orange hybrid on the right. Quebrada Jaspe (Jade Brook) in Gran Sabana on the left and Eriopsis Biloba in situ in the Gran Saban On the left Santos' family in the Aponguao. Epidendrum in the Gran Sabana, in situ 9:23:52 PM    comment []

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Three Cattleya Aclandiae This week was the Natural Sciences Society Orchid Show, I took a few plants, but for complex reasons was unable to take pictures. Since I was away, I had not been checking my plants, so I did not notice the three Cattleya Aclandiae from Brazil were all in flower. Pity people could have compared how different they are: 12:34:15 AM    comment []

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Araguaney in full bloom in Caracas During this time of the year lots of trees flower in Caracas with dense yellow flowers. Today I found four examples of these spectacular tress within three blocks in Altamira. People always say these are Araguaey, the national tree of Venezuela, but there are two tyes, Araguaney and Acapro. It's hard (at least for me) to tell them apart, but Araguaney is not as tall, seldom reaching more than 20 meters. Above four pictures of these beautiful trees at their most spectacular time. My guess is that only the lower one on the right is a true Araguaney, the remainder were taller than 20 meters. 9:41:59 PM    comment []

Yes, I do own hybrids Above left, a nice Blc. Morning Glory right after watering, on the right a close up Top left. Onc. Alohii flowered again from the same spike. On the right, one of my favorite hybrids Blc. Jungle Gem, how could I resist those spots, that purple lip and all in yellow!!!. I showed you a close up of this Pot. Hoku Gem Freckles, now the whole plant is blooming! 9:41:01 PM    comment []

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Lots of new flowers! My specimen plant of Cattleya Skineri (Central American species) is in flower, a little too early for the Ciencias Orchid Show like last year, but I took this neat picture of part of it. Top left: One of the lesser known Venezuelan Cattleyas, Cattleya Lawrenceana, very delicate. On the right, my best Cattleya Jenmanii coreulea. This variety tends to give flowers which are not well shaped, but this one is quite good. Above left, another one of my Cattleya Loddigessi growing on cork, sometimes they can grow in any direction when they are on a slab of cork. On the right Encyclia Cochleata, a very straneg looking one. Above and below three more of the new Australian Dendrobia I spoke about last week, trying to sort out the names. 9:51:03 PM    comment []

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Some Australian tropicool Dendrobiums and some species About two years ago, I bought some Australian "tropicool" Dendrobiums from Duno Orchids in flasks and some plants. Only oe of them had flowered, but all of a sudden I have five in bloom and I love them! Below three of them: On the left above De. Burgundy Cream x Dendrobium Aussie Quest. On the right Dendrobium Danang On the left Dendrobium Brinawa Charm x Dendrobium Vivid. On the right, Cattleya Lueddemanniana (Maruja x Pto. Cruz), a sort of funny shaped on really spread out and the back sepal sort of leaning back. Above a firts bloom of Cattleya Jenmanii Gerd x Claudia, I thought this plant was not doing well and look at thos beauties! Coerulea Jenmaniis seldo ahve a great shape. Very delicate! 7:30:20 PM    comment []

Growing Cattleya Loddigessi on cork in Caracas I have always liked Cattleya Loddigessi from Brazil. I find it very beautiful and delicate. However, the ones I had were not doing very well. Basically, the plants flowered erratically, did not have many roots and the leaves would dehydrate like in the picture below on the left. I had them potted in fir bark with charcoal like all my Cattleyas. This seemed to happen to other people in Caracas, so I decided to experiment and took a small plant and tied it to cork instead of having it in a pot with fir bark. The results were immediate and incredible. On the ight below, you can see the first plant that I did this to about a year and a half ago, which has four flowers. In fact, I ahve had four of the Cattleya Loddigessi flower in the last month. I never had such results with the plants in pots. Below left, you can see the roots at the base of the plant and see how vigorous the plants have rooted on the cork. On the right you can see the whole plant and how the last five leads have grown two and three times the size of the original ones when I tied it to the cork. The leaves no longer dehydrate in te back and the one I show above was from a plant that was already in trouble. I have now moved all my plants to cork and they are thriving. Above I show two close ups of the bug plant above, one (right) with the sun hitting from behind.You can see how delicate this flower is and how well shaped they are. This is a different Cattleya Loddigessi, also on cork and doing very well. This is a much smaller plant that I placed on the cork after the initial experiment worked. While some people say Brazilian species have this problem because they are not repotted at the right time, my feeling is that they do not have in Caracas the humidity they have in their natural habitat and they do not like having the roots wet. On the cork the roots dry fats and I have more humidity than usual in my orchid room than most people. 7:24:13 PM    comment []

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Santos sends soe very nice species to compete with Eduardo... Santos sent me these very nice pictures of species Two very nice Cattleya Lueddemanniana crosses, the one on the left has the "Haydee" plant in the cross. The one on right has very nice color. Left: A first flowering of a C, Lueddemanniana coerulea. On the right Jumelea Sagitata A nice Brassia Rex 8:53:51 PM    comment []

Friday, February 15, 2008

Five wonderful Venezuelan species from Eduardo Eduardo M. sends this incredible sequence of Venezuelan species: Top left a first bloom of a Cattleya Lueddemanniana from Orquideario Cerro Verde with a spectacular lip, standing next to Catttleya Lueddemanniana "Clarines" fampus for the huge lip, you can see the new one is spectacular. On the right the first bloomer up close.      A very nice Cattleya Lueddemanniana Corelua on the left. On the right a Sch. Undulata alba, Eduardo tells me that Carlos Garcia Esquivel thinks it is a tetraploid. You don't see many Cattleya Lawrenceana plants, it is almost the "forgotten" Venezuelan Cattelya, but Eduardo has in this picture a coerulea form on the left and a concolor one on the right. Great showing! 8:47:07 PM    comment []