Rodriguezia decora

The Rodriguezia decora was from the 2008 SCOS summer potting party. I knew it would be a challenge to grow because the two-pseudobulb piece I got had a 4-inch rhizome. I mounted it on a large piece of cork and hoped for the best. Aside from the rambling growth habit, it has been a quite satisfactory plant. It has grown and bloomed every year.

This plant is mounted on a 14x7-inch piece of cork bark. Rodriguezia decora grows in Brazil in cool to warm mountain forests and grasslands. Fragrant, bright light.There are ten pseudobulbs. The genus Rodriguezia (Rdza) contains about 30 species mostly found in Brazil.

After I take the plant to show and tell I am going to remove the two pseudobulbs that have grown off the mount. This will become the next free plant so watch for it to be announced in November.

Cattleya Daffodil

I am going to do a skill session at the next SCOS meeting. I have already done backbulbs and mounting so I tried to think of something different. Since I have been going big on sphagnum and sphagnum and clay I decided to talk about Catts in sphagnum. I will have to do some potting while talking so I started looking at my backbulbs as candidates.

One plant that is ready to pot is a Cattleya Daffodil. Cattleya Daffodil is the cross Cattleya Mercia x Cattleya jongheana Registered by Armstrong and Brown in 1907. A pot with a dozen yellow flowers is quite a sight and certainly does remind me of daffodils.

While I feel that any backbulb will sprout, some sprout sooner and make the transition back to flowering better than others. Cattleya Daffodil is among the easiest I have worked with.

Stanhopea embreei

I was surprised this week to see buds on my Stanhopea embreei. It has been blooming at the end of July and when it didn't I assumed it wasn't going to. It was in a new, less bright location so I blamed it on light level.

Stanhopea embreei grows in western Ecuador in shaded cloud forests. It is cold to warm growing, fragrant, and blooms in spring and early summer. The genus Stanhopea (Stan) contains 55 species growing from Mexico, through Central America and South America.

I got it at the raffle table at San Francisco Orchid Society in 2005. I mounted it and it has grown and bloomed every year. It is not the prettiest plant I have but still interesting to watch over the course of the year.

Laelia perrinii

This Laelia perrinii has a history. I got two of them, this one and a coerulea at the SFOS member sale table several years ago. They bloomed once and then went into a decline largely due to this change in fall watering I have been going on about. At one point they were bits of plant barely alive.

Laelia perrinii grows in Brazil and needs bright light. It is cool to warm growing and blooms from late summer into winter. This plant is in sphagnum over peanuts in a 4 1/2-inch clay pot. There are six pseudobulbs and the plant stands nine inches above the pot.

I traded the second plant when it was in very bad condition and felt guilty about it. In hindsight, I should have kept it. It had a very nice blush on the petals.

The Rest of the Cymbidiums

One of the last things to do is to get the Cymbidiums off the ground and catalog them. I have had them three weeks and I just put it off because they are awkward to photograph.

Here is the list. 274 Cymbidium Dorothy Stockstill 'Forgotten Fruits'; 279 Cymbidium Walt Romance (early, green arching); 286 Cymbidium Sarah Jean 'Ice Cascade'; 294 Cymbidium Little Black Sambo 'Black Magic' AM/AOS (dry winter); 295 Cymbidium Pharlap 'Ruby Glow' (yellow pendant with red lip); 296 Cymbidium Peewee 'Solana Gold' HCC/AOS B/CSA (late, pendant, dry winter).

I don't intend to make Cymbidium hybrids a big part of the collection but they can be pretty and so far I have not had great success with them. Getting these to bloom well would help broaden my knowlege as a grower.

Orchid Winter Watering

The weather has been deceptively nice this fall. But I have learned the hard way that even in September the plants start to need less and less water. Watering has to be cut back. I know this, yet I was surprised to find that there wasn't a single potted orchid in either the Sonoma greenhouse or the outdoor area that needed water yesterday.

The outdoor area is just about as it will be through the winter. The primary group of the outdoor plants is, of course, the Mexican Laelia species. In my collection, that is Laelia anceps. Besides that I have some Laelia purpurata and a half dozen pendant and cascading Cymbidiums that will join them.

Talking to Steve Christoffersen this week I learned that my Laelia lobata plants can be outside also. This is good news because it is a large species. The Sonoma greenhouse is starting to look full as the last of the plants that were outdoors through the summer go back inside.

Laelia lobata grows in Brazil on the coast on rocks exposed to full sun and ocean spray. It is cool to hot growing, fragrant and blooms in spring.

Laelia purpurata werckhauseri x schusteriana sib

I separated the Laelia purpurata seedlings from the compot and got a good yield. The compot contained six nice seedlings and I potted those in 2-inch pots. In between those there were four other seedlings. These looked strong enough but were being strangled by the other seedlings. I put those together in a new 3-inch compot.

Laelia purpurata grows in Brazil and needs a dry winter rest. It is fragrant, cool to hot growing and needs bright light. It can bloom any time from late spring into fall.

These seedlings will winter in the greenhouse. Even though Laelia purpurata will do just fine outdoors in our climate, these are seedlings and need some time to grow before they are ready to face the winter weather.

Big NOID Catts

Along with the Laelia purpurata compot I got on my visit to Steve Christoffersen I came away with several big Catt hybrids that are not part of his stock. I am only too glad to help out a fellow grower solve a space problem. These will end up on the SCOS opportunity table after they are divided and re-potted. Some pieces will be added to the Sonoma collection.

All but two of these Catts have proper tags. This is one of them. It is supposed to be a Carter & Holmes with a catalog number of 4067. However, I have checked with them and this could not be that number. The plant has buds in a sheath so I will be able to get a flower picture which may help. Even if it is not identified, we have members who will enjoy having a piece.

Laelia purpurata werckhauseri x schusteriana sib

Yesterday I went across town to visit Steve Christoffersen and see what is going on in his greenhouse. His benches have a full array of potentially great species crosses. He has a great eye for quality and a well educated sense of how mixtures of traits might express.

I left there with several plants but I am most excited about this Laelia purpurata compot. There are about a half dozen plants in it and they are ready to be separated. Laelia purpurata can grow outside in my climate so once these get to be big enough that the space they take presents a problem, they will graduate to the new outside area. They will winter inside the Sonoma greenhouse this year.

Laelia purpurata grows in Brazil and needs a dry winter rest. It is fragrant, cool to hot growing and needs bright light. It can bloom any time from late spring into fall.

Bulbophyllum maximum

The third plant from the DVOS show and sale is this Bulbophyllum maximum. This plant is in a 3 1/2-inch plastic pot. There are two pseudobulbs and it stands 4 inches above the pot. I don't have this species, and, well, one can never have too many Bulbophyllum.

Bulbophyllum maximum grows in many places in Africa from 1500' to 6000'. It is warm to hot growing, blooms in the fall and needs a dry winter rest. The genus Bulbophyllum (Bulb) contains 1500 species found in all tropical areas on earth.

Why is this called "the largest Bulbophyllum" when the plant obviously isn't the largest and the flowers are about a quarter inch? It seems it is because of the inflorescence which looks very interesting and should be fun. I hope I don't have to wait until next fall to see it.

Rhyncattleanthe Shinfong Little Love

The second of three plants I bought while Miki (from our Google+ mini-forum) was showing me the member sale table was this beautiful mount. There are good roots and the flowers beautiful. This plant is mounted on a 15-inch hardwook stick and consists of five pseudobulbs.

This is the cross Rhyncattleanthe Free Spirit 'Miami Sun' AM/AOS x Rhyncattleanthe Love Sound 'Dogashima' AM/AOS. That's what was on the tag.

I have found that a cross between two awarded plants will be given a name, so I checked the RHS database and found that it had indeed been named. It may well have been awarded also, but since I don't know that I didn't guess.