More October blooms

A few more plants are flowering now, so I thought I would snap a few pics and post them. The Dendrobium crumenatum is barely open for a day, so I photographed it while watering this morning. The Eulophia guineensis is a first flowering for me and the plants has grown rapidly over the last year. It seems to do better in a deep pot with pseudobulbs well mulched.

The Laelia gouldiana hybrid has an incredible fragrance of roses in the morning. The fragrance is very strong, just like a rose too, but it fades during the afternoon and is barely detectable by late afternoon. The blooms are also spectacular. It is a pity that I purchased this one without its grex name. Oh well.

Dendrobium Candy Cane 23 Oct 21

Dendrobium crumenatum 23 Oct 21

Dendrobium hybrid 23 Oct 21

Eulophia guineensis 23 Oct 21

Laelia gouldiana hybrid 23 Oct 21

Phalaenopsis hybrid 23 Oct 21

Vanilla planifolia and some other Spring blooms

Recently, my Vanilla planifolia flowered for the first time and I have since been hand pollinating the blooms as they open. The flowers actually have a subtle and interestingly spicy fragrance - not quite expected. It grows well here in Queensland and mine is growing on a trellis against a South-facing wall. Length of vine seems to be the thing that is important for flowering, not necessarily age of the plant. My Dendrobium anosmum, D. aphylum and D. lodigesii are all in flower now and look good. The D. lodigesii is due for a good re-pot after flowering and a bit of a tidy up. The Phaius australis recently finished blooming with two tall spikes, the larger reaching almost 2m tall. I have since chopped these up to see if I can develop some growth from the nodes on the stems. I was also pleasantly surprised with my Cymbidium madidum that flowered very well this season. I spent much time watching the native stingless bees pollinating each flower after they had opened. These bees are the native pollinators of this species and systematically pollinated all of the flowers on four long spikes of flowers. The bees are very small and seem to really struggle when the pollinia are attached to their thorax after reversing out of a flower - some try to remove the pollinia with their legs while others simply give up flying between flowers and just crawl to the next one - they seem to have a raw deal. I often wondered what their reward was, since the flowers don't actually produce much nectar inside at all. After watching these bees I noticed that they collect the honeydew, which is high in sugars (and is very sweet), that often accumulates in thick blobs behind the flowers, near the ovary. So, it must be worth it then.

Cymbidium madidum

Cymbidium madidum

Dendrobium anosmum

Dendrobium aphylum

Dendrobium lodigesii

Phaius australis

Phaius australis

Vanilla planifolia bud

Vanilla planifolia

Vanilla planifolia