Dendrobium Illusion #2

This hybrid of Dendrobium cuthbertsonii, a tiny species, and Dendrobium lawesii, a large cane-type species, is much easier to grow than either of the two parents, and is almost always in bloom, though the largest flush of flowers comes in the autumn. One plus is that the flowers last for many months and so the plant is rarely without blooms.

http://orchidsinbloom-ron.blogspot.com/2010/07/dendrobium-illusion.html

Dendrobium violaceum

Dendrobium violaceum is a variable species both in flower color and plant size.  This particular example is very large and has flowers that are also larger than some of the other plants of this species I own.  In this case the plant is 30 cm tall, one of the largest plants I have, and the flowers are 3.5 cm.  The plant comes from Papua New Guinea and the name violaceum refers to the color of the flowers.  These flowers opened not violet but pink and faded to the color seen in the photos.

Trisetella hoeijeri

I've posted a description of this species before (see below), but it is in bloom once again with more flowers than ever, so I thought I'd post a few more pictures.  The plant is tiny, only a few centimeters tall, with bird-like flowers that dwarf the plant.

http://orchidsinbloom-ron.blogspot.com/2011/06/trisetella-hoeijeri.html

Effusiella amparoana

This charming species, one of my favorite orchids, was formerly classified as Pleurothallis amparoana.  By any name its flowers are some of the most curious in the orchid family, looking like little hairy toilet bowls.  I've previously posted pictures and a description of this species, but since it is blooming once again and has more flowers than ever, I thought I'd post it again.

The previous post can be found here: http://orchidsinbloom-ron.blogspot.com/2010/07/effusiella-amparoana.html

My Orchids : Blooming Recently..

Selected blooms of the week..

Kembang pilihan minggu ini..

Acriopsis liliifolia

 Arundina graminifolia (miniature type)

 Cattleya forbesii

 Dendrobium intermediate hybrid

 Dendrobium Enobi Purple 'Splash'

 Eria latibracteata

 Phalaenopsis cornu cervi hybrid.

 Spathoglottis hybrid

 Spathoglottis lobbii

Neobenthamia gracilis

Dendrobium intermediate hybrid 

with 'splash' petals..

Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts. 

- Sigmund Freud

New in collection..

These are  new orchids in my collection..

Ini adalah koleksi terkini orkid di rumah..

 Arundina graminifolia

It is said that this is a new species from Laos..but still not confirmed yet..

At the moment lets just stick to A. graminifolia. 

Flowers are smaller but very brightly coloured..quite a compact grower..

Arundina dari Laos, pokok dan daun agak pendek dan keras..

Penjualnya kata mungkin spesis baru, tapi kena tunggu pengesahan dulu..

buat masa sekarang masih dikira variant A. graminifolia.

 Dendrobium Snow Cream

Old dendrobium hybrid. This ia a good hybrid with fleshy texture, 

round flower, big lip and has a nice arrangement..

Dendrobium hybrid ni pada saya memang cantik, 

susah jugak nak dapat ni..sebab dah tak ada lagi dijual sekarang..

tapi akhirnya dapat la juga.. :)

 Dendrobium Burana Pearl 'Giant'

This is a very large flower for a dendrobium hence the name..

I'm quite surprise when I first saw it..

Nice fresh colours too..

Dendrobium ni memang besar, 

kena tengok live baru boleh nampak..

bagus untuk masuk show..Warnanya pun cantik..

Kirchara Tropical Jewel x Brassavola cordata

I really like the lips, it contrasts well with the pale coloured petal and sepal.

Pada mata saya bunga ni cantik pada 'lip' dia tu, 

kira kalau dah jadi spesimen memang cantik lah..

tapi nak menunggu jadi spesimen tu la..sabar..

A Spathoglottis hybrid. 

This one has a big flower in a nice round clump..

The spike is short too.. means that it is a good quality plants..

Spathoglottis ni cantik sangat sebab 'clump' dan bunga dia besar, 

kontras warna dia pun cantik..lagi best tangkai bunga pendek..

susah nak cari spathoglottis yang bunga besar tangkai pendek..

kalau jumpa.. jangan tunggu !

Spathoglottis lobii

What I love about this species is the bright canary yellow flowers and 

this particular plants has a prominent stripes on the lower sepals which I like.

Ada yang kata jenis spathoglottis ni berbunga di tanah tinggi saja, 

tapi yang ni berbunga di nurseri di tanah rendah ni..bila rujuk internet memang ada juga dari tanah rendah (harap-harap pokok ni macam tu lah..) jadi saya pun  try juga lah walaupun bunganya kecil dan tak 'semeriah' hybrid, tapi bagi saya tetap special..

The fairest thing in nature, a flower, still has its roots in earth and manure. 

- David Herbert Lawrance
 

Lepanthes nycteris

Lepanthes nycteris is from Bolivia and Peru and belongs to a group of orchids whose flowers are mostly small but very unusual, very complex and often very colorful.  A previous blog post shows a large number of these flowers (see below).  In this case the rather strange flowers are named after a family of bats, the Slit-faced Bats, or Nycteridae.

The plant is 6-7 cm and the flowers a little over 2 cm tall.  The plant has oval leaves on thin, wiry stems and the flowers come in succession on thin dangling spikes.  For this reason the plant is better grown mounted, and mine is on a thin piece of cork bark.  Since it comes from high altitude cloud forest, it should be grown cool and moist and prefers quite low light.

For more information on the genus Lepanthes see this post:
http://orchidsinbloom-ron.blogspot.com/2011/08/lepanthes-jewels-of-orchid-world.html

Orchids and Pollinators...together

         One of the reason why plants and flowers evolved in terms of their shape, form, colours and fragrance, is because of their need to reproduce, to make sure that their offspring spread and exists as long as they could..Plants can reproduce in many ways such as through cuttings, rhizomes, plantlets and seeds..

         Pollinators plays an important part to achieve this important task...Orchidacea family is one of the most unique in terms of their relationship with their pollinators..In orchids, insects plays an important part in pollination..Some uses the usual method such as bright colours and sweet or foul smell, but the most unique is the one that mimicking the insects itself, in shape and even in their scents. In other words insects are deceived by their looks thinking that the flower is their mate!

        All of the pictures in this post showing the portrait of orchids with their pollinators together, which I feel that we seldom see this kind of interaction being captured by lens.. 

         Salah satu sebab kenapa tumbuhan dan bunga berubah dari segi rupa dan bentuk, warna dan juga bau ialah untuk berkembang biak..bagi memastikan generasi yang seterusnya terus kekal..Tumbuhan membiak dengan berbagai cara antaranya melalui keratan batang, rizom, ubi, anak pokok dan biji benih..

         Proses pendebungaan perlu berlaku untuk memastikan terjadinya biji benih..Keluarga Orchidacea adalah antara yang paling unik apabila dikaitkan dengan hubungannya dengan serangga iaitu agen pendebungaan utama.. Melalui bunganya orkid menggunakan bermacam-macam kaedah untuk menarik minat serangga sama ada dengan menggunakan warna terang, berbau wangi atau busuk, manakala yang paling unik ialah menggunakan kaedah penyamaran mengikut rupa dan bau serangga tertentu..dengan kata lain serangga itu tertipu dengan menganggap orkid itu ialah pasangannya!

        Semua gambar di bawah menunjukkan rakaman lensa orkid bersama dengan agen pendebungaannya..Saya membuat pos ini ialah disebabkan kita jarang melihat interaksi fauna dan orkid yang seganding serta saling bergantung antara satu sama lain di pentas alam..

 A bee inside a 'pouch' of a phragmipedium flower.

 A wasp thinking that the orchid is their mate..

 Butterfly feasting on Epidendrum flowers.

 A group of fly species on Masdevallia flower.

 A bee being deceived by the Ophrys flowers.

 A group of wasps swarming towards this Australian orchid species.

 A pair of euglossine bees hovering towards a Gongora.

 Hummingbird with Elleanthus species.

 A hawkmoth searching nectar on European Orchis species..

 A moth pollinating this terrestrials orchids.

 A butterfly on Disa uniflora..

 Again. this wasp is being tricked into thinking that the orchid is their female companion.

 A bee visiting this Stanhopea flowers..

You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry, don't worry. 

And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.. 

- Walter Hagen

Neocogniauxia monophylla

 I've posted this species before, but this year it is blooming on three new growths and I thought I'd post it once again.  It is quite slow growing, but blooms faithfully in the autumn on each new growth.  The species is from Jamaica and is grown mounted on a piece of branch, now covered with moss.  It is kept with my cool-growing orchids and watered every day, sometimes twice a day, with a very weak fertilizer solution, though that is occasionally interchanged with plain water.

http://orchidsinbloom-ron.blogspot.com/2010/08/neocogniauxia-monophylla.html

Rainbow Vanda

      Vanda and its hybrids comes in many shades. You can find they are in almost every colour imaginable..They are among the most colourful orchids available..This is just me playing around with photoshop..just to show just how colourful vanda and its hybrids in rainbow colour arrangement.

      This genus is one of the five most horticulturally important orchid genera, because it has some of the most magnificent flowers to be found in the entire orchid family. This has contributed much to the work of hybridists producing flowers for the cut flower market. Vanda coerulea is one of the few botanical orchids with blue flowers (actually a very bluish purple), a property much appreciated for producing interspecific and intergeneric hybrids. Vanda dearei is one of the chief sources of yellow color in Vanda hybrids. In between there are complex hybrids within their tribes such as Ascocentrum, Renanthera, Papilioanthe, Phalaenopsis, Paraphalaenopsis, Trichoglottis and many others of their relatives.

       Vanda dan kacukannya terdapat dalam berbagai warna..Hampir kesemua warna yang terdapat di kalangan bunga orkid ada pada orkid ini..Vanda dan kacukannya adalah antara yang paling berwarna warni dari yang berwarna lembut, hinggalah yang berwarna merah menyala..Pos kali ini sekadar nak menunjukkan kombinasi menarik orkid-orkid vanda ini mengikut susunan warna pelangi..

        Genus ini adalah merupakan antara lima genera orkid yang penting dalam bidang hortikultur kerana bunganya yang besar dan cantik..Ini telah menyumbang kepada terhasilnya baka-baka kacukan untuk industri bunga keratan. Vanda coerulea adalah salah satu orkid vanda yang mempunyai bunga yang berwarna biru (tetapi sebenarnya lebih kepada ungu kebiruan)..kelebihan yang penting untuk kacukan antara genera. Selain itu diantaranya terdapat juga hasil kacukan yang lebih kompleks diantara Vanda dengan 'saudara-saudaranya' seperti Ascocentrum, Renanthera, Papilioanthe, Phalaenopsis, Paraphalaenopsis, Trichoglottis dan banyak lagi.

 Qui pingit florem, floris non pingit odorem. 
Who paints the flower does not paint the flower's fragrance.

Orkid dan Lagu

         Kali ini kita rehat-rehatkan minda sambil mendengar lagu 'Setangkai Anggrek Bulan' lagu duet nyanyian penyanyi tersohor Indonesia Broery Marantika dan Emillia Contessa..Lagu ini ciptaan A. Riyanto yang juga seorang komposer lagu terkenal dari seberang..

        Anggrek bulan ialah nama tempatan untuk Phalaenopsis amabilis yang merupakan spesis orkid tempatan Indonesia..Ia juga adalah bunga kebangsaan negara Indonesia. Dikatakan ia dipanggil anggrek bulan sebab bunganya yang tahan selama lebih kurang sebulan.

        Lagu romantik ini menceritakan tentang sepasang kekasih menyatakan perasaan mereka di antara satu sama lain. Dengan menggunakan Anggrek bulan sebagai metafora dan interpretasi perlambangan perasaan cinta mereka berdua.

        Lets hear another orchid related song..This song entitled 'Setangkai Anggrek Bulan' translated as 'a spray of Moon orchid.' This is a duet song recorded by famous Indonesian singer Broery Marantika and Emillia Contessa..The song was composed by A. Riyanto one of the most celebrated Indonesian composer.

       'Anggrek bulan' or Moon orchids is the other names for Phalenopsis amabilis, native orchid of Indonesia. It is also their national flower. It is said that the orchid got its local name because of the flower last for about a month.

       This is a romantic song of a lovers singing about their feelings to each other..by using Moon orchids as a metaphor and interpretation of their love..


       But before that, Here is a little info about Moon orchid..


       Phalaenopsis amabilis ialah antara spesis 'kampung' yang cantik. Di Malaysia ia hanya terdapat di Sabah dan Sarawak yang terletak di kepulauan Borneo.
Salah satu spesis utama dalam pembiakbakaan  hibrid
Phalaenopsis berwarna putih secara komersial.

       Apa yang  saya paling suka dengan spesis ini ialah tangkai bunganya yang elegan dan warnanya yang 'simple' tetapi cukup menyerlah..

       Phalaenopsis amabilis is among the most beautiful local species. Here in Malaysia they are native in Sarawak and Sabah both states are situated in Borneo.

One of the most important species in hybridizing white Phalaenopsis commercially..

       What I love the most about this beauties are their elegant flower spray and purity of their 'simple' colour but at the same time has a very striking appearance.

More detailed info about Phalaenopsis Amabilis you can visit here and here.

And here is the song..

Lagu ini juga telah dinyanyikan semula oleh penyanyi Indonesia yang lain seperti 

Rano Karno dengan Ria Irawan juga 

Chrisye dengan Sophia Latjuba.

"As a plant produces its flower, so the psyche creates its symbols."
-  Carl G. Yung

Nature's call

        Orchid imagery comes in many shapes and forms..they give such an inspiration to many people, in history,  human culture and imagination.

While browsing the internet, I've just stumbled upon this..Urinals in shape of orchids.! Untill then, I've  never imagined that this thing exist..or somebody would do this kind of stuff..very interesting really..So creative and ironically unique, a 'flower' for us to pee inside..it is also in fact a sculpture, a work of art..

       Clark Sorensen is an artist from San Francisco that made this urinals such a creation. An artwork for your peeing pleasure..! Kinda funny don't you think ? Depicting orchids such as Paphs and Cattleya, these are one of a kind thing that one is likely to ever see..

       Imej-imej orkid terdapat di mana.mana dalam berbagai rupa dan bentuk..Orkid memberi inspirasi kepada ramai orang dalam sejarah kebudayaan manusia dan imaginasi..

       Ketika sedang 'surf' internet, terserempak pula dengan benda ini, Mangkuk buang air kecil (saya tak pasti istilahnya dalam bahasa Melayu) berbentuk bunga orkid.! Tak terfikir pula saya yang benda sebegini wujud atau ada orang yang hendak membuatnya..tetapi sungguh menarik, kreatif dan unik. Sekuntum bunga untuk kita buang air kecil di dalamnya !..Ia juga sebenarnya ialah sejenis arca, hasil karya seni yang berbentuk 3 dimensi..lebih tepat lagi ianya sebuah arca berfungsi..

      Clark Sorensen, seorang pengarca dari San Francisco merupakan perekanya. Beliau menjadikan mangkuk ini satu ciptaan yang tersendiri..Sebuah arca untuk anda buang air kecil..! rasa nak ketawa pun ada..Orkid yang dijadikan sumber ilham ialah Cattleya dan Paphiopedilum..Salah satu hasil seni yang julung-julung kali dapat kita lihat..

 Certainly Clark Sorensen has created some of the most unique urinals..! 

This one was based on cattleya blossom..

Each urinals was hand crafted using the same porcelain material as the normal ones..

Also based on cattleya.

 They are fully functional ! This is Paphiopedilum micranthum shaped urinal..

 Clark has been perfecting his technique to produce this kind of functional sculpture..

I think this is Paphiopedilum barbatum or callosum..

 You couldn't get this at the nearest hardware or bathroom equipment store..

Another cattleya shaped one.

 He's using brilliant colour just like the orchids itself..Well.. you can pee while looking at pretty flower..This is Paphiopedilum armeniacum..

I don't know if I want to pee on this..kind of funny and amazed at the same time..
I think they are the most beautiful urinals ever..! 

This one must be Paphiopedilum Maudiae Alba

       Mr. Sorenson don't just made orchid shaped urinals but other flowers shape too..You can visit his website..and here's another one.

"Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers and never succeeding."
-  Marc Chagall