{"id":10980,"date":"2012-04-16T16:01:22","date_gmt":"2012-04-17T00:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/?p=10980"},"modified":"2012-09-20T08:57:30","modified_gmt":"2012-09-20T16:57:30","slug":"outdoor-orchids-in-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/16\/outdoor-orchids-in-san-francisco\/","title":{"rendered":"Outdoor Orchids in San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to a new blog category for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/category\/growing-orchids-in-san-francisco\/\">&#8220;Growing Orchids in San Francisco&#8221;<\/a> with info of interest for the Bay Area. Some old posts fit the new category, too, so I&#8217;ll go back and re-label those with local relevance.<\/p>\n<p>This post is the first half of a list of orchids I&#8217;ve grown outdoors over the years, with a few notes added. They&#8217;re all cool or intermediate growers, befitting San Francisco&#8217;s mild, foggy climate. Most have survived <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/27\/hail-no\/\">an occasional hailstorm<\/a>, and we&#8217;ve managed to protect them from our rare winter freezes. For fellow gardeners in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sunset.com\/garden\/climate-zones\/sunset-climate-zone-bay-area-00418000067175\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sunset climate zone 17<\/a> where <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardening.cornell.edu\/weather\/microcli.html\" target=\"_blank\">microclimates<\/a> rule, you may find varieties that will work outdoors for you. The second half of this list will follow in a future post.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/04\/ada\/\">Ada aurantica<\/a> grows and blooms reliably every spring.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/07\/hyacinth-orchid\/\">Arpophyllum giganteum<\/a> flowers\u00a0dependably every fall. A few seed capsules appear each year.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/07\/orchid-of-the-day-bletilla-striata\/\">Bletilla striata<\/a> grows and blooms reliably every spring.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/13\/orchid-post-mortem\/\">Chondrorhyncha lendyana<\/a> flowered well, but died after <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/care\/details\/potting.html\">repotting<\/a>. I believe it prefers to be mounted.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/15\/cochlioda\/\">Cochlioda vulcanica<\/a> grows and blooms faithfully every fall. Flowers often last through the winter into spring.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/15\/coelia\/\">Coelia bella<\/a> was a new purchase last year, and flowered nicely for the first time last winter.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/23\/coelogyne\/\">Coelogyne mooreana<\/a> grows and flowers reliably every summer.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/13\/cymbidiums\/\">Cymbidiums<\/a> guarantee blooms every winter. One of my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/04\/hybrid-vigor\/\">hybrids<\/a> has never failed in 15 years, and another blooms a second time in spring.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/06\/cyrtochilum\/\">Cyrtochilum macranthum<\/a> flowers dependably with dozens of large blossoms at the end of each summer.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/08\/dendrobium-kingianum\/\">Dendrobium kingianum<\/a> and Dendrobium x delicatum grow and bloom reliably every spring, Den. kingianum needs <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/care\/details\/dormancy.html\">a dry winter<\/a>, but the Den. x delicatum hybrid can tolerate winter rains and still bloom.<\/li>\n<li>Dichaea glauca has grown for years but never flowered. I&#8217;ve tried it indoors too, without success. It continues to put out new growth each year, so there&#8217;s still hope I&#8217;ll figure it out.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/05\/orchid-of-the-day-2\/\">Dockrillia striolata<\/a> didn&#8217;t bloom for the first 6 years I had it, but now blooms each spring.<\/li>\n<li>Domingoa (Nageliella) purpurea has flowered over the past 2 summers.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/25\/dracula\/\">Dracula sodiroi<\/a> flowers sporadically. It might be more reliable if I used purified <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/care\/details\/water.html\">water<\/a> instead of tap water, but I&#8217;m not set up for that outdoors.<\/li>\n<li>Encyclia vespa grew and bloomed well for many years. It required full sun.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/07\/epidendrum\/\">Epidendrums<\/a> flower continuously for years. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/13\/keiki-a-baby-orchid\/\">Keikis<\/a> of cool-growing varieties turn into large plants within 3 years. The most vigorous type, which may be Epidendrum x obrienianum, is pollinated by local <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/guide\/annas_hummingbird\/id\" target=\"_blank\">Anna&#8217;s Hummingbirds<\/a>. Seed capsules often form, and seed is viable. Seedlings pop up in nearby bonsai pots, and can grow to flower in 3 years.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/05\/stream-orchid\/\">Epipactis gigantea<\/a>, a San Francisco native, grows and flowers vigorously each summer. Seed capsules occasionally form. It lives in a tray of water all year, even during winter dormancy.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/10\/flower-of-the-day\/\">Helcia sanguinolenta<\/a> blooms every other year in winter.<\/li>\n<li>Holcoglossum kimballianum has grown outdoors for 2 years, but not flowered yet. It lives indoors over winter.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/12\/laelia-anceps\/\">Laelia anceps<\/a> thrives and blooms 2 or 3 times each year.<\/li>\n<li>Lemboglossum majale has only flowered once over the years. It may prefer warmer nighttime <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/care\/details\/temperature.html\">temps<\/a> than we have.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to a new blog category for &#8220;Growing Orchids in San Francisco&#8221; with info of interest for the Bay Area. Some old posts fit the new category, too, so I&#8217;ll go back and re-label those with local relevance. This post is the first half of a list of orchids I&#8217;ve grown outdoors over the years, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3,27,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cool-growers","category-growing","category-growing-orchids-in-san-francisco","category-intermediate-growers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10980"}],"version-history":[{"count":64,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13117,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10980\/revisions\/13117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}