I have had great success this year with my Phalaenopsis, although my wife comments that I have far too many white ones! I am actually not sure how I ended up with mainly white ones, but they may have been gifts along the way. They grow like weeds here in Townsville. The images below are of three standard show sizes from largest to miniature, with the flower span of the large one about 13 cm across. There are 28 open blooms, and 6 remaining buds to open on 3 spikes on the single large plant. The flowers are so heavy that I have had to place its pot inside a larger pot with an additional kilogram of stones in it to prevent it from falling over. This one will be entered into a future show, likely 2020.
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| Very large white Phalaenopsis (13 cm blooms) |
The others include a nice standard large (9-10 cm blooms), with great shape, and the miniature that just went crazy this year (3-4 cm blooms). I have two of these miniatures. The other one has about as many blooms on it, but they are not as tightly spaced.
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| Large standard white Phalaenopsis |
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| Miniature white Phalaenopsis |
Today I also had my first blooms open on my little
Dendrobium aphyllum. I was surprised that this is actually a native species to northern Queensland, and it certainly is growing well outside just hanging under the pergola. The flower is faintly scented, similarly to that of
D. tortile. The rest of my dendrobiums are all waking up nicely now, and I have already begun flooding them, especially my
D. fimbriatum and
D. lindleyi, both of which have multiple nodes shooting flower buds. My
D. anosmum has finished flowering now but is growing new growth rapidly. On Friday this week I will pop round to a friend who is almost ready to split up his
D. canaliculatum. I don't have this Queensland native yet, and the flowers look amazing (
see here).
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| Dendrobium aphyllum |
