AboutOrchids

San Francisco often welcomes the summer solstice with a cool fog, but today’s warm and sunny weather feels more in line with the beginning of the season. The most northerly trek of the sun has been noted throughout human history in every corner of the world. Whether you’re enjoying long hours of sunlight, or marking the shortest day of the year down under, you’re participating in a global act. Few events so routinely unite all people everywhere, if only for a brief moment. Summer’s potential awaits.

Who doesn’t love a summer vacation? Orchids sure do. Many growers move plants outdoors to take advantage of pleasant summer weather. Orchids which have been kept indoors will thrive with fresh air and invigorating rain showers. Here are a few tips to help plan an orchid summer vacation. Bon voyage!

• Move plants into a shady outdoor spot for 2 weeks. Outdoors, the plants will receive much more light than indoors, and need a period of adjustment. Even sun lovers like Cattleyas, Cymbidiums, and Vandas can burn if they’re not given time to acclimate. Phals, Paphs, and Masdevallias should stay in the shade, but you can gradually move others into brighter light.
• Most orchids will require a new watering schedule while living outdoors. With more light and air movement, they’ll dry out faster, and need more frequent soakings. Orchids which stay on the dry side, like Cattleyas, must have protection during extended rainy periods.
• Orchid growers in dry or desert climates face an extra challenge to find a humid outdoor area for their plants. If you can’t, keep them indoors where high humidity can be maintained. Take advantage of any summer rains for quick outdoor trips.
• Track the nightly minimum temperatures in your location. Warm growers like Phals and Vandas need to stay above 65°F (18°C,) and should be brought back indoors if weather forecasts call for temps below that.
• Bugs are inevitable outside, but before you reach for a toxic insecticide, consider letting beneficial insects tackle the job. Ladybugs, dragonflies, and spiders all work for free, but can’t survive deadly chemicals.
• Wind, rain, and pests can damage flowers, so many growers bring blooming plants indoors. Check for insects before plants come back inside.

Dave’s parents keep a beautiful garden at their home in Western Pennsylvania. Certainly, their cold winters aren’t very conducive for orchids, but there’s no shortage of other stunning plants. We visited earlier this month, which was the perfect time to enjoy brilliant blooms and new spring growth.

With a great spring display, it’s easy to see why Mountain Laurel is Pennsylvania’s state flower. Its masses of bright pink buds look like pieces of candy, but then open into elegant white blooms. From another area of the garden, a mini conifer seems to float on a sea of pebbles.

Variegated leaves provide color and interest, with or without flowers. Along with diverse hues and shapes, textures run the gamut. Lamb’s Ear sports incredibly soft leaves which feel as luxurious as a fine fabric.

No garden is complete without an abundance of creatures. Dave snapped some great shots of hummingbirds visiting a feeder. Finally, another garden companion surveys his turf. We all enjoyed our time in this enchanting spring garden.

Visit Kuriositas’ blog for great photos of The Amazing Monkey Orchid, aka the Dracula orchid. If you have any doubt why they call these blooms “orquidea mono“ or “monkey orchid” in Spanish, check out the second picture. With one look at the center of the flower, you may think you’re looking at Curious George himself. Can you find a troop of monkeys in the flowers of the aptly named Dracula simia?

Draculas live alongside real monkeys in the Andes. As air plants, these Masdevallia relatives even swing from the trees. Dracula blooms emerge from the bottom of the plant, and hang upside down. They’re just full of monkey business.

Thanks to my friend Blake for taking these great photos at last weekend’s New Orleans Orchid Society Show. The society’s 60th annual show was themed “The Mystery of Orchids.”  It featured over 20 exhibits, more than a dozen vendors, a raffle, and lots of gorgeous blooms.

These samples from the show obviously enjoy the Big Easy’s humid subtropical climate. It’s the perfect home for warm growers like Vandas, Cattleyas, and other glamorous stars of the orchid world. Many varieties can live outdoors if they can be protected from hurricanes and from winter cold. Each is an exceptional beauty like New Orleans itself.

Orchid events slow down with summer’s approach in the Northern Hemisphere, but orchid lovers in Australia have plenty to choose from. Shows offer great opportunities to see amazing flowers, talk with local experts, take photos, and buy orchids for your own collection.

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Canada’s Bruce Peninsula Orchid Festival isn’t a show, but a wildlife tour. On June 1 & 2,, enjoy the chance to see Southern Ontario’s native orchids blooming in the wild. Festival events include hikes, workshops, and tours with orchid experts (many activities require reservations.) Since 44 of Canada’s 77 native orchid species grow in the Bruce Peninsula, this is a rare opportunity to see wild lady slippers, grass pink orchids, Goodyeras, and other beautiful wildflowers in their full spring colors. If you can’t make it to Ontario, fellow blogger Orchidelirium has great Bruce Peninsula orchid photos from 2008, 2009, and 2010.

Sure, orchids are great, but wouldn’t it be nice to just stick one in the ground like a regular plant? Well, you can do just that with the Chinese Ground Orchid, or Bletilla. If you can grow a tulip or a daffodil, you can grow a Bletilla. Resembling Cattleyas, their charming flowers have ruffly ridges on the flower lip. There are purple, pink, and white varieties. This cultivar from my garden, Bletilla striata ‘Rosea’, has more white and pink than the wild species, which has more purple.

Bletillas are terrestrial orchids which bloom with a succession of flowers over spring. Plant them in the ground or a pot in a bright spot. For best flowering, place them where new leaves will receive some full sun. Resist the urge to water heavily when new growth emerges in spring, or it may rot. Wait until leaves are 4 inches (10 cm) tall, and then start watering regularly. They enjoy a good dose of fertilizer or compost. In their native homes in forests and grasslands of Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan, they grow in rich, sandy soil.

Also nicknamed the Hardy Chinese Orchid and Hardy Ground Orchid, Bletillas have pleated leaves which offer interesting garden texture after blooms are done. Deer and rabbits usually don’t eat them. Leaves brown and drop as plants go dormant. Some gardeners keep the dormant bulbs in the ground over winter. As long as they stay on the dry side, they emerge next spring. They can survive temps down to 20°F (-7°C,) but it’s better to avoid a hard freeze. Instead, store bulbs in cool, humid conditions. Growers in Japan keep types with variegated leaves as bonsai. The Chinese Ground Orchid is one of the easiest orchids, and certainly a great garden addition.

I didn’t learn much in my high school biology class, but many years later, I can still remember one thing: King Phillip Came Out For Green Seeds. That sentence, stuck in my head thanks to the power of mnemonics, is a useful memory trick for the levels of scientific classification of all living things: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. Botanists usually say “division” instead of “phylum,” but that messes up my sentence, so I’m sticking with what I know. In addition, there are many sublevels, but these are the main groupings.

Why is this relevant to orchid names? These classifications show orchid relations to each other and to other plants. Orchid name tags show the bottom levels in the list, the genus and species, i.e. Dendrobium nobile. Species which are in the same genus, i.e. Dendrobium, are closely related to one another. They may crossbreed to produce hybrids, and may have similar care needs. Other closely related orchids can also produce hybrids, but none can crossbreed outside its family.
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Here’s the second half of the list of orchids that I’ve grown outdoors in San Francisco. There’s no greenhouse, so they live constantly exposed to the elements. Sun lovers like the Epidendrums, Sarcochilus, Sobralia, and Zygo live on the back deck, and receive full afternoon sun when the fog retreats. Shade lovers like the Dracula, Pleurothallis, and Scaphosepalum live underneath the deck. Orchids underneath are slightly better protected from wind, but since we live about 4 miles (6.4 km) from the chilly Northern Pacific, there’s often a good breeze.

• Masdevallias love San Francisco’s climate. Most kinds bloom annually; some more than once a year. Masdevallia coccinea sulks on hot days. Masdevallia chaparensis and several hybrids thrive, and receive some full sun.
• Myoxanthus serripetalus flowers once every few years in the autumn.
• Neofinetia falcata actually blooms indoors, where it lives for the summer. Summer temps are too cool for it to bloom outdoors. However, it lives outside for autumn, winter, and spring.
• Odontoglossums do very well in this cool climate. Most flower annually.
• Orchis graminifolia did well and bloomed over a couple summers before dying.
• Panarica (Encyclia) prismatocarpa flowers every other year. This plant seems to prefer warmer temps, but manages to bloom outdoors anyway.
• Pleurothallis palliolata and Pleurothallis restrepioides bloom most years over winter. The latter has set seed pods for the past few years, but I don’t harvest them, and don’t know if they’re viable.
• Porroglossum muscosum has grown for years but never flowered. Maybe it prefers purified water instead of tap water, but I’m not set up for that outdoors.
• Pterostylis curta blooms reliably in late winter or early spring.
• Sarcochilus hartmannii thrives in this climate, and flowers for several months each spring.
• Scaphosepalum verrucosum has remained in continuous bloom for years. Seed capsules form occasionally, but I don’t harvest them, and don’t know if they’re viable.
• Sedirea japonica bloomed well each spring.
• Sobralia macrantha flowers every year in late summer or early autumn.
• Spiranthes cernua grew and bloomed well each year until it fried during a heat wave.
• Stelis species has only flowered twice over the years. It might be more reliable if I used purified water instead of tap water.
• Symphyglossum sanguineum has bloomed only once in 6 years. Possibly some of our nights are too cold for it.
• Zygopetalum BG White ‘Stonehurst’ has dependably flowered twice a year for over a decade.