Friday, August 29, 2014

Coelogyne trinervis

This orchid flowered again recently.  It is an easy plant to take care of and flowers very frequently.  Every new shoot starts off as a flower spike and then when the flowers wither away, leaves would start to appear at the base of the flower spike.  These would grow longer and eventually the base would swell into a bulb.

This particular plant was mounted onto a large piece of fern bark and grown in 50% shade.  The bulbs are about 4-5 inches long and leaves are about 15-16 inches long.  It is a rather big plant.


Monday, August 11, 2014

Paphiopedilums Flowering

Paphiopedilum wenshanense
This plant was bought in April 2012 and began flowering again recently.  It is found naturally in Yunnan China and has thick leaves which are dark tessellated-green on top and purplish below.  Paph. wenshanense is thought by some to be actually a natural hybrid between concolor and bellatullum and it does have characteristics from both plants.  Those plants which are man-made crossings of the two are named Paphiopedilum conco-bellatulum.  A beautiful flower nevertheless, man-made or otherwise.

The green spots on the staminode may indicate that this plant is not actually wenshanense but probably S.Gratrix instead.  Another case of sellers mis-labelling their plants.


Paphiopedilum concolor
This is the second flower on the same plant that flowered recently.  The flower is smaller than the first but still quite a nice one.  The plant is getting stronger now with larger, thicker leaves and two new growths are produced.  Hope it would fill the pot soon so i can divide the plant.  Of the Brachypetalum section of Paphiopedilums, concolor seems to be most easily adaptable to our climate.


Paphiopedilum glaucophyllum
This plant is found naturally in Sumatra and Java.  The flowers open one at a time on a long flower spike so flowering can last a long long time ( usually for months ). It can be grown in Singapore but i observed that it can be sensitive to moving around so once it is happily growing in a location, i try not to shift it too much.