Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Video Of Orchids Blooming On Tree In Southern California




Description...

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Every tree should have at least one orchid growing on it!  Here in Southern California there are 1000s of different species of orchids that we can easily grow on our trees.  But unfortunately... for some reason the word still hasn't gotten out.  :(    So I figure that sharing a terrible video is better than not sharing any video!

A couple days ago I shot this video of some orchids and other epiphytes blooming on my Cedar tree here in Southern California.  I have enough orchids growing on my tree so that there's always at least one orchid in bloom.

Here's a listing of some of the epiphytes sorted by their appearance in the video...

Vanda tricolor/suavis about to bloom.  Can't recommend this orchid enough!  Hanging out with a Tillandsia ionontha in bloom.

Laelia anceps... not in bloom... and to the far right a Jumellea (arachnantha x comorensis) that wants to visit my neighbor.

A Dendrobium speciosum just finishing blooming.  Another must have orchid for SoCal.  A Tillandsia aeranthos is blooming next to it.  Also in that frame is a Dendrobium bigibbum with a seed pod on it.

Higher up... on the other side of a tree is a cute little Tolumnia in bloom with cheery yellow flowers.  Near the ladder is an Encyclia cordigera var rosea in spike.  It's going to have striking and long lasting flowers.

Next is a NOID Tillandsia surrounded by a NOID Crassula.

In the next frames ... towards the left is a sad Dendrobium speciosum.  I made a mistake of throwing too many succulents on top of it... now the new growths stays moist too long and rot.  It has put out a keiki on the drier side though so I think it will escape just fine.

Above and to the right of the D. speciosum is another Vanda tricolor/suavis.  The spike kind of went the wrong way but you can still appreciate the flowers.  Now we can scratch our heads together and wonder why we don't see these growing on every tree here in SoCal!

Higher up there's a couple seed pods on Brassavola Jiminy Cricket  (Rhyncholaelia (Brassavola) digbyana x Brassavola nodosa).

Next there's a Dendobium nobile type finishing blooming.  To the left of it is Dendrobium 'Easter Parade' (kingianum x (bigibbum x canaliculatum)) also finishing blooming.

Moving up the tree you see more Tillandsias and then a more showy type of D. nobile in bloom.  There's a happy Tillandsia heteromorpha keeping it company.

My neighbor's roof... some shaky footage... and then the delightful and wonderfully charming Kalanchoe uniflora.  Not an orchid but it is an epiphyte!  From Madagascar no less.

A terrible shot of Oncidium maculatum.  I was holding my phone above my head!  O. maculatum is nicely fragrant and I really should have attached it lower on the tree so other people wouldn't have to risk their necks to smell it.

Another Tillandsia aeranthos in bloom... followed by a not so great shot of a seed pod on Potinara Hoku Gem.

All these orchids are available locally (more or less) at the two very best orchid nurseries in the world...

http://www.sborchid.com/
http://www.andysorchids.com/

For a general overview of growing plants epiphytically...

http://epiecon.blogspot.com/2013/11/growing-plants-epiphytically-general.html

If you have any questions I'll be happy to try and answer them.  You can post them here or on facebook or flickr...

https://www.facebook.com/orchidssc
https://www.facebook.com/EpiphyteSociety
https://www.flickr.com/groups/orchidlandscape/discuss/

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If you haven't seen it already... here's the first video of my tree... Extreme Gardening.

For some big picture thinking... Carrying Model