[OGD] photos / AOS, Delray Beach, Florida (US)
The Color of Light: Photos of orchids by Anthony Merone... American Orchid Society Visitors Center and Botanical Garden... Delray Beach URL : http://www.miamiherald.com/business/real-estate/story/652049.html ** Regards, VB ___ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
[OGD] Peristeria elata / expoferia in Las Minas, Herrera (Panama)
La Expoferia del Espíritu Santo... anualmente se celebra en... Las Minas, provincia de Herrera... Peristeria elata, posee un encanto especial por tener la forma de una pequeña paloma blanca con las alas abiertas, insertada en el centro de sus pétalos. Fue el 21 de octubre de 1980 cuando la Asamblea Nacional de la República de Panamá la declara como la Flor Nacional. ... la temporada de su floración... es entre los meses de julio a octubre. ... en Las Minas se han podido ubicar unas 12 variedades de la flor del Espíritu Santo, y aunque las han llevado a otras áreas del país no se reproducen tan grandes como las que hay en este distrito herrerano [really ?]. ... orquideólogos (estudiosos de orquídeas) de El Valle de Antón, de Santa Fe de Boquete, de la Capital y los orquidiófilos (amantes de las orquídeas) de Chitré exponen... una variedad de orquídeas... aunque la conservación de esta flor del Espíritu Santo ha estado en manos de 12 personas, que integran la Asociación de Orquideología de Las Minas, han tenido que fajarse para proteger esta orquídea, que ha tenido que ser rescatada de algunas fincas que han sido vendidas, y su[s] nuevos dueños por no ser de Las Minas, no las valoran... rescatados de las tierras altas de Las Minas, porque algunos campesinos querían comercializarla, a pesar de su prohibición URL : http://turismo.prensa.com/articulos/2008/Herrera/08/29/ photo : http://turismo.prensa.com/articulos/2008/Herrera/08/29/imagenes/img.jpg ** Regards, VB ___ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
[OGD] QA / Phalaenopsis
Arthur Chadwick... president of Chadwick Son Orchids Inc. answers : 1) Q: ... looking for a Phalaenopsis that is orange with blue spots or blue with orange. I'm hoping for University of Virginia colors. Is this possible?... Answer: ... Orange and blue are rare hues in orchids, even rarer in Phals, and the odds of the two together defy calculation. These... are predominantly found in whites, pinky-purples and yellows. Orange, a secondary color mix between red and yellow, is possible and the well-known hybrid P. Baldan's Kaleidoscope, though technically yellow with red stripes, does give an orangish appearance. Blue, a primary color, doesn't exist in the moth orchid family. The closest thing is bluish shades of violet, called blue violet or indigo, and these are miniature flowers about the size of a dime... Vandas boast the large stereotypical ocean blue blossoms and though they breed with Phals to make Vandopsis, there have been no successful large blue offspring thus far. Spots (and stripes) have been in circulation for some time, thanks to the breeding influences of the species P stuartiana from the Philippines, but not much progress has been made toward other popular patterns, such as plaids, paisleys and pentagrams. In the jungle, pollinators are attracted to the blooms for any number of reasons -- enticing shapes, irresistible fragrances, sexy color, etc. Man-made hybrids, on the other hand, are not bound by the same constraint of having to attract insects; their mission is to attract man [and woman...]... * 2) Q: I received a... Phalaenopsis... It had been in the car before they gave it to me and the petals were already drooping... Is there any way to revive it?... Answer: ... Once an orchid has suffered heat stroke and the blossoms are wilted, sadly the best course of action is to cut off the flower spike and give the plant a rest. Limp flowers will not reinvigorate... URL : http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/entertainment.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-08-29-0030.html Reagrds, VB ___ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
[OGD] vanilla / Oaxaca (Mexico)
Red Chinantla- Presidium Vainilla ... vainilla... necesita calor, humedad y sombra... Alguna vez fue ampliamente cultivada en México, las mujeres la utilizaban para perfumar el aceite de mamey que conservaba el cabello sedoso. El cultivo de la vainilla cesó en el siglo XIX, pero se reanudó en los 90. Chinantla, Oaxaca, es la única región en el mundo donde se puede encontrar vainilla silvestre (Vanilla planifolia) [true?] y es la zona de mayor diversidad genética de esta planta... El cultivo de la vainilla es un proceso largo y laborioso. Entre los meses de marzo y mayo, en las primeras horas de la mañana, se debe levantar con un palillo la membrana y picarle suavemente con el dedo para polinizar tres o cuatro flores en cada cúmulo. La carnosa fruta madura tiene un color amarillo y mide de 15 a 25 centímetros, en su interior contiene una enorme cantidad [hoe many, more or less ?] de diminutas semillas que deben [the capsules ?] hornearse durante seis a ocho horas, a una temperatura de 65°C, y luego asolearse durante dos meses para hacerlas suaves, flexibles, aromáticas y de color café. El Presidium de la vainilla comenzó... en Rancho Grande, una comunidad de 200 personas en la sierra. El proyecto recibió el Premio de Biodiversidad de Slow Food en 2000. Actualmente trabajan también con las comunidades de Cerro Verde, Flor Batavia, Arroyo Tambor, San Felipe Usila, San Juan Bautista, Valle Nacional, San Andrés Teutila, San Andrés Teotilapan y San Pedro Ixcatlán, en el estado de Oaxaca. En 2004 comenzaron a elaborar un protocolo internacional de producción para conocerlo a fondo, los integrantes del Presidium Vainilla toman cursos de entrenamiento con expertos en la materia y cuentan con el apoyo de la Universidad de California y el Centro para Estudios Tropicales de Veracruz, quienes les enseñan la identificación de las diferentes variedades de vainilla, con el apoyo y asistencia del Instituto Tecnológico Agropecuario Tuxtepec 3. URL : http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estilos/59037.html *** Regards, VB ___ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
[OGD] orchid pollen
Harry at Andy's orchids wants me to correct the impression my posts have given about Andys Orchids, and I agreed. Harry ALWAYS said they'd SEND me some pollen.He NEVER said they'd sell me some. I, ME, YO, MOI, assumed they meant sell, becasue in the real world no one does something for nothing. I WAS WRONG. They do nice things even for people they don't know. So don't anyone think poorly of Andy's Orchids. Think poorly of me. K Barrett N Calif, USA I don't expect a business to do something for free for someone who they don't know from Adam. Again, I'm not opposed to random acts of kindness, but I don't expect it. I expect to pay my way. K Barrett N Calif, USA K Barrett said Andy's Orchids says they'll sell me pollen if ever their aurisasinorum blooms again. SELL you some pollen ??? Are they always so generous ? Peter O'Byrne _ Be the filmmaker you always wanted to be—learn how to burn a DVD with Windows®. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/108588797/direct/01/ ___ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
[OGD] a northern marsh orchid / England (UK)
Studfold Community Nature Project... we have hoped to find an orchid and... we had success at last a northern marsh orchid. URL : http://www.nidderdaleherald.co.uk/nidderdale-news/Upper-Nidd.4437721.jp * Regards, VB ___ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
Re: [OGD] Flasking Success Questions
Barbara, I have been flasking for years as an amateur, but I have seen lots of the problems you are describing. Typically, I try to replate all my protocorms with in three months after they have started swelling. They are growing well at this point in time and continue to do so in the replate flask. The protocorms you described on shrinking and nearly dry media may or may not recover. The problem is that they have dehydrated as well as the media, and if they are under stress, they will slowly start to die, they may be green and appear to be alive, but they are dying. As plant tissue dehydrates the plant, it can start to produce abscisic acid, as a result of the stress and it will start shutting down the cells and they will slowly die. The best way I found to determine if protocorms or seeds were alive or any plant tissue is alive is to use Tetrazolium. It is a dye that is metabolized by living tissue and turns it pink staining the tissue with a bright pink color. Seed biologists have used it for years to test for seed viability. Biology and Botany classes have used it as a way to demonstrate cellular metabolism. I have used a 100 mg/l solution in a pH 7.4 phosphate buffer to test for seed viability. I place what ever I am testing in a container with the Tetrazolium solution and leave it in the dark for 24 hours. I then examine it under a microscope and see it the seeds or protocorms or roots are pink. I started using it years ago to test for seed viability as I was finding lots of seeds that I was germinating were giving me poor to no germination. I found a direct relationship between the number of seeds that stained pink and the number that germinated, if I had 5% of the seed stained I got about 5% germinations, etc. If I had no seed stained pink, I got a random sporadic germination, and I might get two or three plants out of a seed pod. It helped me realize it was not my media or methods, but the seeds quality that were the cause of the poor germination. You could use Tetrazolium to test if the protocorms in flasks like the one you described were worth your time to the replate. It will save you time and your clients money, unless they are really desparate to see the progeny of the cross and want what ever they can get out of the flask. Tom /-- | Tom Hillson Orchid Grower Specializing In | [EMAIL PROTECTED]Paphs, Pleurothallids, Epi's | http://www.orchids.iastate.edu --- |There is always room for one more Orchid!! On Aug 29, 2008, at 8:02 AM, Barbara wrote: Dear OGD Readers, I have recently (in the last 7 months) begun to live my dream of being a full time orchid flasker. Having dallied in the past with home-brew equipment, I have built my own lab and with professional grade equipment and am pleased with my success thus far. My best success story is saving a batch of besseae flavum from sure death in flasks I received from another lab in the hopes of bringing them back for my customer who has been waiting for flasks of this species to offer his customers for nearly a decade. I took a chance and transferred them to some media from the UK. Within just 3 weeks, I could see a difference. Instead of the yellowing and browning they were in the process of doing, they greened up and even started to grow. Some began proliferating (a good thing in my book) and others started producing beautiful white-tipped, fuzzy roots. They have since been replated onto more of this magic formula and are on their way towards becoming beautiful, healthy, individual plants. I have also received mother flasks needing work that are (were) full of loose protocorms. The media underneath (which only the bottom layer had any contact with) was shrinking and nearly dry. The protocorms were still green but have not jumped to life after replating as other protocorms have done. Conversely, I have replated freshly germinated protocorms that literally did just that, jump to life. I later replated protocorms from the same mother flask and have not seen the same vigor. They are still growing, but just not as fast. I am beginning to wonder if there isn't a magic sweet spot in the life cycle of a protocorm when it is perfect for replating for total optimum growth and that to let them go beyond that means slower growth later on. An analogy I suppose would be similar to the timing of orchid repotting. You would refrain from general repotting in the winter, opting instead for the accelerated growth in the spring to jumpstart the plants into establishing themselves in new media all summer before decelerated growth in the fall and winter. I know some of you who are more enlightened than I can shed some of that light on this
[OGD] Protocorm stuff
Barbara [EMAIL PROTECTED] queried thusly: An analogy I suppose would be similar to the timing of orchid repotting. You would refrain from general repotting in the winter, opting instead for the accelerated growth in the spring to jumpstart the plants into establishing themselves in new media all summer before decelerated growth in the fall and winter. Perhaps a more correct analogy would be the difference between taking a plant in prime growth and throwing it in a new pot, versus one that is down to a leaf (and a half), two dead roots with no growing tips, the cut remains of a bloom spike, and a newbie grower who says, I got this at Home Depot six months ago. Can you save it? Yes, indeed. The fate of the ignominious windowsill refugee, lately of big-box store fame. Will repotting it help? There is a reason why every step of industrial production of plants starts with vegetative material in its prime of growth, and ends in vegetative material in its prime of growth. Any missteps or stumbles that lead to stalling growth increases the chances that the plants will not thrive. In this regard, it is similar to the manner in which bacteria are grown in liquid culture: the time to subculture the solution is when the material is in its log growth phase. -AJHicks Chandler, AZ ___ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
