A curious fact about Gongora orchids is that they are insufficiently known by many orchid growers (and it is a hard task to find them in common flower shops, unlike common Phalaenopsis orchids). Although they were ones of the first tropical orchids grown in culture, when you think about orchid usually you imagine Phalaenopsis, not …
Aerides are spectacular Asian vandoid orchids. They are also called Cat’s-tail Orchids or Fox Brush Orchids for their multiflowered exquisite inflorescences. They could be found growing epiphytically (with one exception Aerides krabiensis, which is a lithophyte plant) in the rainforests of South-East Asia, Southern China, Nepal, India, The Philippines and New Guinea. There are 28 currently recognized …
Rhynchostylis (Rhy.) orchids are close relatives to Vanda orchids. The main difference between these related genera is flowers – unlike Vanda, Rhynchostulis orchids have one-lobed lips and usually fragrant. Before re-classification, this genus consisted of 13 species from China, Indochina, Indonesia, Indian Subcontinent, Malaysia and the Philippines, but now there are only four recognized species …
When you see beautiful orchids with ovate-flattened, stretched pseudobulbs, bright, and showy (and often fragrant) flowers, born in inflorescences, most likely this is Cambria orchid. It sounds strange, but this is not a real name for these marvelous orchids. In fact, Cambria is a synonym for a bunch of quite different names of the Oncidinae group …
Orchids are the most beautiful of all plants, so it’s no wonder why they are so popular. Given the fact that Orchidaceae family is the biggest family of flowering plants and because of orchids’ bizarre diversity, there are a lot of different growing techniques and ways to grow these wonderful plants. And a lot of …
Where to grow orchids indoors: Windowsills, Greenhouses, Terrariums, Basement Read More »
Barkeria orchids are close relatives to Cattleya and Epidendrum (and once these orchids were classified within Epidendrum genus), but they have a unique morphology, ecology, which are the reasons that they are classified within the other distinct genus. Their uniqueness lies within their morphology – they are sympodial but do not possess pseudobulbs. Unlike Cattleya, …
Leptotes orchids are among so-called “famous orchids”. Their fame is not only in their beauty and popularity as decorative plants but also in their gastronomic use. Yes, widely grown species – Leptotes bicolor – is used in Brazil as a Vanilla substitute. Its flowers and seed pods have Vanilla flavor and could be used just like …
Sobralia orchids have large and showy flowers, resembling Cattleya. The only disadvantage of the majority species fo these magnificent orchids is that their flowers are exceptionally short living – each flower lives only for one day, but some Sobralia species, for example, Sobralia caloglossa have flowers lasting for several days. Their beauty is extremely short lasting, because their ephemeral flowers …
Even though Ansellia orchids are gorgeous, beautiful and easy in cultivation, they are not very well known like Phalaenopsis or Cambria orchids. But they certainly deserve to be more widely known, not only in the circle of orchid enthusiasts. Besides that they are exceptionally fair and beautiful, they are also quite interesting. Ansellia is a …
There is a common stereotype that orchids are elite plants, and that they are suited only for greenhouse growing – and that they are extremely difficult to grow even in a greenhouse. This stereotype is just the stereotype from XIX century, when most orchids were recently discovered and it was unknown – how to grow them, …