Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Orchids for the Dry Season

Even if our dry season kills some plants, stunted others, and stressed the rest, others are forced to show their beauty. Or maybe these are distress signals to hopefully save the species before they die, that is to flower and hope to have seeds. 


This Vanda might not be too beautiful in terms of color and shape! On second thoughts you will not disregard it, nor forget it, because of its heavenly scent which is just light and sweet that prevails the whole day. However, it faints at night and resume again the following morning. It is really heavenly, trust me! 



This other Vanda is not scented, but it has an attractive color which will catch your attention. It just produced a short flowering spike because it was affected by the high temperature and waterless conditions. Our water in the property is also a problem, so it just thrive on its own, and will recover growth again this coming rainy season. I hope it will still be able to survive the torture!

Another Vanda with more pale purple color, but the checkered designs are more prominent. 


This is an endemic species, Cymbidium finlaysonianum. It suffered extreme deaths of the plants in the clump two years ago, leaving only four plants to start growth and development again. Even the lanzones tree it is attached on died that year. This spike reaches to more or less 1 meter in length flowering at  nodal intervals. 


This is a flower taken at the same month last year from the same clump of this orchid. I put this as i might not be able to go home when the present flower buds open.  Notice the long internodes between the individual flowers. The hybrids already have shorter internodes. 

Above is a long spike of the same orchid plant almost reaching the ground. Turnera ulmifolia served as its barrier so it wont touch soil.

This is the fruit or pod of the above orchid, Cymbdidium finlaysonianum. Sometimes it gives 2 to 3 pods per spike, but we don't use the pods for propagation. It is much easier and cheaper to be using the plantlets. Seed propagation is only used by big nurseries if they are intending to produce a lot of seedlings for commerce, and is utilized mostly for unique and difficult to asexually propagate hybrid species. It takes years to produce flowering orchid plants from seeds, and lots of resources also to do so.

Our World Tuesday Graphic  Outdoor Wednesday: Click on the picture below to learn more...

14 comments:

  1. It's always interesting watching the effect a yearly dry season has on plants. Some plants that you expect to come through well, don't, and then there are some that really surprise you. Your Orchids are looking wonderful, and even though your Cymbidium has struggled, at least there were some surviving plants.

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  2. Maybe the orchids that we grow as pot plants in the UK are not stressed enough. It's difficult to get them to flower again. Great to see them in their natural environment.

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    1. hahaha, mine flowers but not as beautiful as when they are not stressed and given plenty of what they need. I don't think your plants are not stressed enough. They are just not receiving what they need, the most important requirement is sunlight in proper amount! And that varies on the species.

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  3. Extrapolating from your comments, it sounds like you've had more drought in recent years than your normal dry seasons bring. Am I understanding you correctly? I'm curious as to how your weather seems to be different than normal. We've certainly been having unusual weather here in the middle of the Great Plains in the U.S.

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    1. Hello Gaia, thanks for your visit and comment. Our dry season has been long for the last two years which killed even some of our deep rooted fruit trees, and killed most annuals. However, this year temperatures rose faster and higher, but there was rain once in March and one again in early May. This confused some plants and their patterns changed, for example bulbs broke dormancy, although not many flowers emerge as the normal season. There are other symptoms and effects i observed, and will tell you if interested.

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    2. I would love to learn more. Here we seem to be in a "feast or famine" time: either we have so much rain that we are getting major flooding or we get no rain at all for months, occasionally years, on end. This spring has been exceptionally early, with flowers blooming almost a month ahead of season. It worries me that they are getting so out of sync with migrating birds and with insect life cycles. Last year (2011), we had a single week in February where we went from 87 during the day to -20 (Fahrenheit) one night - a horrible stress on the biota. Then during the summer we had 53 days over 100, with essentially no rain the entire time.

      I know that weather patterns are unusual in many places, but the U.S. news media is so myopic that they aren't good about giving us news about what's happening in other countries around the world. Add to that the political climate here, where global warming has become a political topic that one side "doesn't believe in" and I feel we are becoming dangerously uninformed. I appreciate, so much, learning about what's happening in other places. Thank you!

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  4. Oh these are so lovely! How amazing to have orchids outside, I can't keep them inside :-)
    I am your newest follower :-)
    Bella

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    1. Thank you Bella for following, i hope you see my older blogsite, Andrea in this Lifetime, which has more diverse topics.

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  5. beautiful to see your tropical orchids

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  6. Thanks for visiting! Very beautiful pictures you show!
    Thanks for your words on my blog, they warm.

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  7. I am stunned at how beautiful these look and it seems so easy to grow them..I of course have no luck with them but am trying to nurse an orchid in the office back to health...we shall see.

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  8. The orchids are so beautiful.

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