Some Recent Flowerings

Paphiopedilum Philippinense

This is one of my most free flowering philippinense and it usually flowers after a few days of cool weather.

Coelogyne celebensis

Another of my all time favourites. This Coelogyne has one of the biggest flowers in the family.

Bulbophyllum sp?

This Bulbophyllum was recently purchased from Mr. Lim Song but i have no idea what is its name.  Will update the name when i get it from him on my next visit. Interesting thing about the flower is that the petals seems to secrete a slimy mucus and i only came to  realise it when i saw two flies stuck to the petals and when i tried to brush them off with my finger the sticky mucus formed trailing threads behind the dead flies. Will try to verify again on next flowering.

Dendrobium fimbriatum

This is an extremely beautiful Dendrobium found in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.  Bought it from WL nursery many years back.  It flowered lst year but i think i did not manage to get good pictures of it.  Beutiful orange-yellow flower with a deep maroon patch.

Nice violacea

This plant belongs to MH nursery.  It is a very nice Phal. violacea with strong, even color.

Coelogyne mayeriana

I bought this plant from WL nursery about six months ago and it flowered recently.  The plant has pseudobulbs which are almost half a foot apart so it is not really suitable for confined spaces.  It would be most happy if allowed to climb up a tree branch.

Phalaenopsis Valentinii 'Red'

This is an extremely red form of Phalaenopsis Valentinii (Phal.cornu-cervi x Phal. violacea).  The color of the flower is of a deep bright red when it first opens.  Extremely pretty.

A Few Plants Of Phalaenopsis amboinensis 'Common'

I recently acquired a few different plants of Phal. amboinensis 'Common'
First plant has quite beautiful flowers with dense bars although the bars are thinner and the flower shape is average.  Hopefully the shape will improve when the plant is bigger.

The next plant produces huge flowers with very clean and bold bars but the bars are not so dense.  The flower shape is better than the one above but maybe because the plant is very well grown.

The flower below belongs to a plant of Phal. amboinensis 'Nicole' AM/AOS which is an award winning amboinensis 'Common'. This plant has a bigger and rounder petal and brighter color.

The next flower belongs to another plant of amboinensis 'Nicole' but this one has more flower count and the flowers are bigger.

Dendrobium indivisum var. lampangense

This Dendrobium has small flowers which are pure greenich yellow in color.  This particular plant is from Thailand.  The typical Den. indivisum has cinnamon colored stripes whereas var. lampangense has pure color.

Phalaenopsis from Yih-Cheng nursery

Got this from Yih-Cheng nursery a couple of years back when they participated in the Garden Tech Festival in Hort Park.  This is one of those hybrids with a complicated parentage and i am not even sure of its name.  Just enjoy it for its beauty.

Dendrobium farmeri

This plant flowered recently and i totally did not notice the developing flower spike at all.  It is mounted next to some coelogynes and i thought i wanted to "starve" the coelogynes to induce flowering so i did not water them at all for a few days.  The Dendrobium farmeri formed a flower spike instead and until now there is no response from the coelogynes at all.  That's a classic case of "有心栽花 花不发, 无心插柳 柳成荫".

Bulbophyllum plumatum

This is a Bulbophyllum with a flower structure that looks like a lantern.

The long petals are about six to eight inches in length.

Dendrobium lamellatum

This small, warm loving Dendrobium can be found in Myanamr, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines.  This particular plant was collected from the Baring region of Malaysia.  It has interesting stems which look as though they had been flatttened by a rolling pin.  It also appear to be very free flowering.

Phalaenopsis violacea var. Sumatra and Phalaenopsis bellina (just added Phalaenopsis pallens)

Very nice Phal. violacea var. Sumatra. This is the first time it flower after i bought it a few months ago.  There is some improvement in the shape and color of the flower.

This very round-shaped Phal.bellina is flowering again.  If you are looking for good quality big and round Phal bellinas, the most famous local breeder has got to be Mr. Law Moi Hwa.  Many oversea nurseries and breeders also produce such bellinas and you can get them in local shows and exhibitions but they are not cheap either.  The problem is that those plants were grown in well sheltered nurseries with perfect temperature and water quality control so there is no guarantee that the plant will preduce the same quality flower when grown in our climate. 

Many of our locally bred bellinas are grown in our weather since seedling and if you see a big round form then what you see is what you will get.  So when some hobbyist say that their flowers are not the same as when they bought it from some reputed oversea growers the reason is obvious.

So instead of buying unreliable plants, it is better to spend a bit more and get one good one, or else you end up having half a dozen of $30 plants instead of a single good quality $200 plant. 

So, how much is a reasonable price to pay?  There are bellinas that cost $1000 or more all the way down to $5 a plant.  The price for the plant above is about $200 so if you can get it for less, then you've got a great deal.

This is a Phaleanopsis pallens with excellent color.  The bars are of a deep cinnamon which gives a very sharp contrast with the background of white.  Although the color and marking of this flower is very similar to Phalaenopsis amboinensis 'Common', the lip is very different.  The front portion of the lip is wider and triangular with hairy fringes and a tuff of hair near the front portion of the lip.  Phalaenopsis pallens is supposed to have pale coloration but this one is deep.

Cleisostoma subulatum

A very interesting miniature orchid from Thailand.  it is very free flowering in Singapore and produce many small cute flowers. This plant is growing on a coco-husk pole and requires little attention.

Paphiopedilum bellatulum

This nice bellatlum flowered again.  A fine specimen from Thailand with beautiful dark purple spots.

Bulbophyllum fascinator

This is a very free-flowering orchid and its flower is truely fascinating.  Its natural habitat includes Burma, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam in primary montane forests at elevations of 1000 to 2000 m so it is suppose to be a cool-loving orchid.  However, it does not seem to mind our warm weather here and almost every new pseudobulb produce a flower.

Rodriguezia secunda

This is an orchid that can be found fromThe Leeward and Windward Islands, Trinidad, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Surinam, Guyana, Fr Guiana to Brazil.  Bought it from Song Orchids a few years back.  It has beautiful bright pinkish red flowers arranged in a neat row down the drooopng flower spike.

It is a warm loving orchid so we've got the perfect weather for it here in Singapore.  Sometimes 3 to 4 flower spikes are produced together in response to some environmental trigger.

The flower has a "tail" which i suppose has a bit of sugary reward for its intended pollinators.  That may explain why ants are attracted to the flowers.

Pure Yellow Oncidiums

I have two pure yellow 'Golden shower-type' Oncidiums.  One of them is from MH nursery while the other is from WL nursery.  The one from MH nursery can truely be considered pure yellow because there are no markings on the flower at all.

The flower above belongs to the plant from WL nursery where some greenish yellow markings can be seen on the petals.  The flower below came from MH nursery.  The plant itself is smaller in size and the flower is pure yellow without any markings.  Both of them are highly sought after for their pure color.

天上掉下来的礼物

This is a gift from above.  Yes it looks a bit beaten, as though stepped on by someone.  Hope it can survive and flower so i can know what it is.

Coelogyne celebensis

Coelogyne celebensis, also known as the 'Coconut Orchid' or 'Anggerik kelapa' in Sulawesi where it comes from.  The bud is hiding something beautiful behind the leaf that gives it its native name.

Phalaenopsis lamelligera

A new flower bud on this Phal. lamelligera is about to open. 

Habenaria lindleyana

This plant of Habenaria lindleyana went into hibernation mode after flowering, fruiting and then withering.  Recently it sprouted again, pretty much near the same spot behind the cluster of Lemon Grass.  There is also a very young plant which sprouted nearby after i spread the seeds nearby.  So far only this small little one survived but i am quite doubtful that it will make it to maturity because most of last year's seedlings didn't make it.  Anyway i am not too worried because Habenarias have underground root tubers with which to store food supply just like sweet potatoes so as long as i don't disturb the soil, the same plant will keep sprouting year after year.

Bulbophyllum at Mount Kinabalu Resort and Spa

This is the reception desk of the Hotel.

This is the resort

This is the spa

This is the pine tree in front of the hotel (after the car park) with a very new colony of Bulbophyllum.  The plant is growing at about a height of 2 storeys.

The next tree has another colony of orchid but it is too high for me to figure out the genus.

Coelogyne species

This clump of Coelogyne species produced another flower spike shortly after the first one withered.  This flower spike is on the other side of the plant.  the flowers and flower bracts are also creamy white in color and till now i am still unable to identify it.  The flower is the same form as trinervis and flaccida but it has no markings. The leaf in front belongs to Bulbophyllum lindleyanum.  its own leaf is very plicated as shown in the pic below and the pseudobulb is more than twice the size of my other Coel. trinervis plant.  Also the flower spike is produced from the base and does not come from the centre of freshly developed new shoot like in the case of trinervis. 

Phalaenopsis amboinensis 'Common'

I bought this from Song Orchids some time ago.  It captured my attention because the flower is big and the cinnamon-colored bars are quite dense.

Bulbophyllum medusae

This plant came from Mr Lim Song's nursery in Penang.  A fine specimen of Bulbophyllum medusae with very long petals.

This is as close as my camera could get.

Paphiopedilum spicerianum

This is a nice Paph. spicerianum which i bought from Song Orchid many months back.  It decided to flower recently which goes to show how easy it is to grow this paph in Singapore.

Phalaenopsis bellina and Phalaenopsis violacea

This is a very big and round Phal. bellina from MH nursery.  The flower gets bigger as the plant grows in size.

This is a Phalaenopsis violacea 'sumatra'.  Bought it recently because it has very even color distribution compared to the rest of the lot. The flower is a bit distorted because it was tucked below a leaf.  Hopefully the next flower will look better but the most important thing is that the petals don't curl backwards. 

This is a Phal.violacea alba bought from Penang last year.  According to Mr. Lim this plant was collected form the wild. It sure has all the malayan violacea features and scent too.