{"id":25001,"date":"2016-05-12T20:00:45","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T04:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/?p=25001"},"modified":"2016-09-06T15:18:39","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T23:18:39","slug":"tough-masdevallia-withstands-strong-winds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/12\/tough-masdevallia-withstands-strong-winds\/","title":{"rendered":"Tough Masdevallia Withstands Strong Winds"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a common belief that all orchids are delicate and fragile, unable to adapt to any adverse conditions. A few orchids may fit that description, but many others are tough as nails. This magnificent yellow Masdevallia<\/a> fits into the “tough as nails” category. Despite any flimsy appearances, these big, brilliant flowers can withstand strong winds.<\/p>\n

\"Masdevallia<\/a>\"Masdevallia<\/a>\"Masdevallia<\/a><\/p>\n

I bought this beauty last year at the gift shop of the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley<\/a>. It’s lived outdoors at our home in Pacifica ever since. With sunny, yellow 4 inch (10.1 cm) blooms at the top of 2 foot (61 cm) tall flower stems, it’s a real standout. It looks so delicate, but these flowers defy strong winds coming off the ocean. I keep the plant next to a wall in a sheltered spot, but it still endures occasional 50 mph (80 km\/h) wind gusts. It also endures a steady assault of old blossoms and leaves raining down from a nearby camellia tree. After a month, the flowers are starting to look beaten up, but I’m just amazed that they’re standing at all.<\/p>\n

\"Masdevallia<\/a>\"Masdevallia<\/a>\"Masdevallia<\/a><\/p>\n

While it would be impossible for many orchid growers to keep these outdoors, here on the Northern California coast, it’s a piece of cake. This species,\u00a0Masdevallia coccinea, is native to the Andes, where it lives in cool<\/a>, breezy, moist<\/a> conditions. I keep it shaded<\/a> from direct sun, and water<\/a> it daily. Our cool, foggy weather seems to provide a great substitute for its native home. This Masdevallia is a beautiful addition to our garden, and a testament to how tough orchids can be.<\/p>\n

\"Masdevallia<\/a>\"Masdevallia<\/a>\"Masdevallia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a common belief that all orchids are delicate and fragile, unable to adapt to any adverse conditions. A few orchids may fit that description, but many others are tough as nails. This magnificent yellow Masdevallia fits into the “tough as nails” category. Despite any flimsy appearances, these big, brilliant flowers can withstand strong winds. […]<\/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":[15,3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cool-growers","category-growing","category-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25001","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=25001"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25053,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25001\/revisions\/25053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}