"something greatly comforting in cyclical things. You can count on them to return. Holidays are like that, and so are seasons. Flowers can be like that, too.
Each of us has a catalog of plants that mark certain times of year. Their yearly reappearance seems more natural than the turning of the calendar. Three of the five orchids I keep at home bloom each year between Thanksgiving and the start of the New Year. I have had these plants for about 12 years. They have been divided and multiplied, treated with lavish care and completely ignored. They have lived in several different households and adapted to them all. They have performed admirably because of - and in spite of - what I have subjected them to. Necklace orchid The first to bloom is commonly called a fishing-rod orchid or a necklace orchid because of its long chains of small flowers that dangle from stiff stems. Unlike a lot of orchids, this one grows rapidly and blooms profusely, each new growth bearing a spike of these dangly blossoms. Dendrochillum is one of the orchids that have pseudobulbs. These swollen bulb-like stems are topped with leathery paddle-shape leaves. Several new growths circle the old growths every year, making for a beautiful presentation of cascading blooms all around the pot. The flowers are small, only a little over a quarter inch, but they are numerous, about 25 on each spike. They are an odd sort of yellowish-cream color. Close examination shows that each little flower is presented in a zigzag down the stem and each flower nests neatly into the one below. Each spike is suspended from a 6-inch tall stem, thus giving rise to the "fishing rod" name. It took several years for this little plant to reach its stride. This year there were 17 flowering spikes on my plant, which is in a 7-inch pot. Over the years it has become a tightly clustered mounding mass of pseudobulbs. This is how they like it - crowded, fat and spilling out of their pot, sort of like us after the holidays. This dendrochillum is very fragrant - some would say odiferous. The fragrance is not objectionable to me, but it is odd, sort of like cut hay or grass. Someone said it smelled like yeast. Scent is a subjective thing. A sweet fragrance If you have as many flowers as I did this year, the scent fills the room and tumbles into the next. The best way to display this plant is on a columnlike stand where the circle of pendulous flowers can hang in the open. There is nothing objectionable about the scent of Rhycholaelia glauca, which emits its sweet fragrance as the sun sets. It is reminiscent of magnolias and just delightful. It, too, has a creamy yellow-green blossom, but it is far larger and more beautiful than dendrochillum. Every thing about this plant is full of what orchid growers call "substance." Thick, almost plasticlike petals and sepals as well as tough leathery leaves that are covered with a glaucous gray. Perhaps because of its heavenly night fragrance, the color of this flower reminds me of moonlight. A combination of cool green makes up the petals and sepals, which together form a star surrounding a huge lower petal called the lip. The lip, which is about 2 inches long and an inch wide, dominates here, making the entire flower more than 4 inches. At its center is a very small deep-scarlet triangular flare, a guide, I suppose, for some mysterious nocturnal insect. This plant has been slowly creeping along and only throws one flower a year, though that flower will last about a month. There is one more species in the Rhyncholaelia genus called digbyana. It, too, is a cool creamy-yellow green with an even more fantastic lip that is all frills. Angraecums are African orchids that have white or off-white flowers. They also often have long, pronounced spurs on the back of the flowers that contain a sweet floral nectary. Of the more than 100 species in genus Angraecum, sesquipedale, sometimes called the comet orchid or Darwin's orchid, is the most impressive. Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary theory, rightly predicted that a moth with a tongue long enough to reach into the foot-long spur of the comet orchid would be discovered. This is a spectacular flower. It is slightly greenish-white, shaped like a star, and 6 inches across. Its thick petals appear to be sculpted from paraffin. It is a tall, upright plant that can grow to more than 3 feet tall and has long stiltlike roots that help support it. I have had mine, a gift from my brother, for years and it has seen some hard times. A branch broke off a tree and hit the table the plant was sitting on. Some minor surgery and repotting has slowly brought it along the road to recovery. It missed a year of flowering, but it is making a comeback, though much later than its usual Christmas flowering. All three of these can be grown successfully in the house. They all want a maximum of light, especially the Rhycholaelia. Give them as bright a spot as you can without direct sunlight. They want a free-draining potting mix that will retain some moisture, such as orchid bark mixed with a little long-fibered sphagnum moss. A watering once a week is usually sufficient and fertilizing once a month with half-strength houseplant fertilizer is a good idea. After the danger of frost put them outside to enjoy the sunlight, moisture and free air circulation. Bring them back in if temperatures threaten to drop below 50. Orchids are a strange and fascinating group of plants. The family is so large and diverse that a little experimentation is bound to turn up a plant that is adaptable to your home conditions and that will tolerate your particular mode of care. Once you find it, it will delight you with its own brand of floral calendar." article URL : http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_ColumnistArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192625796&path=!living&s=1037645509005 *********** Blooming for me between Christmas Day and the New Year : Comparettia macroplectron. Its inflorescence initiates in June and slowly, very slowly, elongates until the buds open at the end of December. Before I had that species blooming for me, I disliked the color 'rose' : now, I have been converted... Orchids are powerful, indeed ! *********** Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
