Essence of Stanhopea: Stanhopea Wardii Aurea

Friday, January 4, 2008

Stanhopea Wardii Aurea

Another variety of my Stanhopea opened its flowers today – Stanhopea Wardii Aurea. This Stanhopea native to Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela. This orchid is nicely sized with very pleasing strong vanilla scent.

The flowers are showy deep yellow with small purple spots. Flowers are large and nicely fragrant. This season it’s developed 5 flower spikes and the one in the picture the first one opened. Other flower spikes are still very small at this stage so I will be enjoying long flowering period from this variety.

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If you’ve tried growing everything from Aspidistras to Zinnias and you haven’t tried Stanhopea Orchids, you don’t know what you’re missing. They are easier to grow than African Violets and far more majestic than any other plant. The variety available boggles the mind …

Be warn, though, ever since their discovery by English explorers to Europe in the 18th Century they have caused a “ Stanhopea mania” that continues to this day.

My own first Stanhopea orchid was Stanhopea Tigrina though I didn’t know it. Friend gave it to me as a birthday present – a trip to the library for some orchid’s books was quickly followed by the purchase of some more of these exotic, majestic, beautiful orchids and as they say – the fever had struck.

My fascination with orchids led to great friendships, lots and lots of reading, trips to exotic places (sometimes only through books) and the joy and frustration of growing the world’s most fabulous plants.