Stanhopea deltoidea - very rare beauty!

 Here is one of the rarest Stanhopea species - Stanhopea deltoidea. It flowered early this morning and I am delighted to see this stanhopea in flower. I’ve been waiting for quite a while to see this Stanhopea orchid blooming and this season it decided to reveal it’s beauty.

Stanhopea deltoidea 1

Stanhopea deltoidea 2

Because of it’s extreme rarity not much information available about this specie - we know that it was first named by Lemaire back in 1862 from the plant imported by Riedel from Peru, and that there is a drawing by Pastorelli showing in detail this beautiful orchid.

The plant and the flower is of the medium size and the blooms heavily spotted with burgundy colored blotches with yellow middle. The scent is very interesting - it’s very “fresh” smelling blooms with the background of grassy, herbal undertones. There is a bit of sweetness in the scent, but it's not strong or overpowering. Overall, very “clean” , refreshing, invigorating kind of scent.

It’s a beautiful, very rare special stanhopea for anyone who appreciates these orchids and I am thrilled at  being able to see this remarkable  orchid  in bloom this season.

Our New Stanhopea flowering season

Here are we are right in the middle of our stanhopea’s flowering season now and all of my plants displaying their much awaited flamboyant blooms. The greenhouse filled with unmistaken scent of these special orchids and Nature continue to delight me with beauty of these exclusive blooms.

This summer been very difficult for the whole country with bushfires and so much loss on so many levels that its difficult to comprehend the scale of distraction but here we are witnessing the strong sense of community and the Australian spirit of 'never giving up' in the face of such devastation and adversity.

Stanhopea saccata

Stanhopea inodora alba

 

 

Stanhopea graveolens aurata

Stanhopea devoniensis x Assidensis

 

Stanhopea maculosa

Stanhopea oculata ornatissima

Stanhopea intermedia

Stanhopea intermedia1

I am delighted to see this specie in flower this season. It came to me some time ago and  I’ve been patiently waiting for it to bloom.

It’s one of extra ordinary stanhopea’s that is so difficult to find and even rare to see blooming and it have very colorful history.

 It was first imported in 1885 by orchid collector Wolter from Germany together with other stanhopea species from Mexico. From his collection, one of the stanhopea intermedia plants was given to the orchid collection of the Botanical Garden of St.Petersburg in Russia. The plant took it’s time to flower and finally bloomed in 1896 for the first time. Only in 1898 it was inspected, studied, documented and named as new specie stanhopea intermedia by J C Klinge based in that plant in St.Petersburg. The fate of the remaining plants in Germany is unknown.

Stanhopea intermedia2

Stanhopea intermedia native to Mexico’s slopes of the Pacific side of the Sierra and it’s very rare orchid, not often seen. In my life I have seen a few stanhopea intermedia  plants in some other private collections, but they were yet to flower, so one could not be sure unless one can see it blooming, and this season my own plant sent out flower spike that I have nurtured.

For anyone trying to bloom this specie I can only relate my own personal experience - at the time it bloomed with me, we had very hot and humid summer. It wanted copious amount of water, but really enjoyed when we had days of stormy, raining weather. It’s totally dislikes any form of sunlight, the darker the better seems to be for this specie so it’s been moved around greenhouse a lot in an attempt to shade it even from average light.

The scent of stanhopea intermedia is complex, with many layers - one can smell initial strong herb/spices notes and then very strong sweetness, reminiscent of something like heavy rose oil. Very unusual combination of perfume for stanhopea.

This specie demands attention in cultivation and may or may not be for a casual stanhopea grower, but for someone who exhibit dedication and persistence it will reveal it’s beauty, rarity and special place created by Nature.

Stanhopea oculata x self (Brazil)

Stanhopea oculata x self (Brazil)

This specie is one of the largest in the whole stanhopea tribe with so many variations and probably in the future should be split into many sub-groups.
The native growing area encompasses from Mexico through Central America to Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil. Due to such a vast area of native growing oculata orchids can differ immensely in colors, size, fragrance,  even pollinators. If one adds to it natural hybrids, native back-crosses etc - oculata specie as it stands now always showing very high degree of variability.

This stanhopea oculata plant came to me some years ago labeled oculata x self ( Brazil )  and I’ve been very interested seeing it’s flowers. This season it bloomed and I love the coloring and the structure of the flowers.  The scent is very sweet with a lot of cinnamon in the background and the plant itself is of the medium size.

Brazilian oculata is rather rare and it gives me great pleasure to see this beauty in blooms this season.

New 2019 Stanhopea flowering season

Our new stanhopea flowering season here fully started now and once again I am surrounded by beautiful stanhopea’s with their flamboyant and mysterious flowers and textures and colors and heavenly scents.

 Every flowering season is different and I am hopping to see many of my plants in flower, to great and old favorites as well as welcome new for me species, varieties and crosses. My personal collection of stanhopea’s steadily increasing and there is always hope to see new for me flowering stanhopea and to share it’s beauty here in this blog with all friends of stanhopea orchids around the world.

Stanhioea impressa

Stanhopea Mem Paul Allen

Stanhopea shuttleworthii - Libano clone

Pictures of the beautiful stanhopea orchids

Our flowering stanhopea season now is over, now I have to wait until next year to see these majestic blooms again. I still have a lot of pictures to feature in this blog for all the Friends of Stanhopea orchids.

Stanhopea posadarum1

 

Stanhopea posadarum2

Stanhopea inodora alba1

Stanhopea inodora alba2

Stanhopea hernandezii 1

Stanhopea hernandexii2

Stanhopea impressa

Stanhopea impressa1

Stanhopea impressa2

Stanhopea impressa3

 

Not long ago one of my stanhopea impressa plants decided to bloom, I’ve been waiting for a while to see it’s beautiful flowers.
It’s first was described and documented in 1898 by Rolfe, It’s native to a few selective areas of western slopes of the Andes of Ecuador and in a small area of southern Colombia and grows in a very wet forests.

Flowers are large and full , white/yellow color with many red spots on the petals and the scent is strong herbal/ spicy with smell of basil and rosemary and many other strong herbs. Piercing kind of smell, without any sweetness to it.

The plant is strong and robust and grows quite quickly providing it’s watering requirements met, otherwise it refusing to flower - it likes copious amount of water during it’s growing season.

Another beautiful stanhopea for anyone who appreciates these special orchids.

Beautiful stanhopea’s blooms

Incredible flowers, complex intricate structure, heady strong complicated scents - may only flower for a few days but they more interesting in that short time than many other orchids that last for weeks. Nature’s special creations…

Stanhopea tigrina var nigro var "Eddon" 1

Stanhopea embreei1

 

Stanhopea Wetley Secret1

Stanhopea Wetley Secret2

Stanhopea embreei 2

 

 

Stanhopea tigrina var nigro var "Eddon" 2

 

 

 

 

Embreea rodigasiana

Huge flowers, mysterious heavy scent reminiscent of cinnamon, nutmeg and clove, dramatic color and structure of the blooms and a very close relative of stanhopea’s - this is embreea rodigasiana.

Until 1980’s it was part of stanhopea’s range and then been re-classified in the specie of it’s own.

This one is not an easy orchid to bring to flower - it demands huge amount of water during it’s growing cycle and strongly dislike change of temperature, making it really difficult during our winter time to look after it properly. If it’s growing requirements not met completely  it just refusing to flower - a lot to do with it’s natural habitat of hot, misty, clouded forests of  Colombia and Ecuador.

I am forever learning with this one, trying to find the best conditions for it’s growing and blooming cycle, don’t mind the challenge because the rewards are huge - seeing this dramatic looking orchid in bloom and smelling it’s mysterious scent I can more appreciate Nature for creating such beauty.

Embreea rodigasiana 1

Emreea rodigasiana 2

Embreea rodigasiana 3

Stanhopea ruckeri x nigroviolacea

Stanhopea ruckeri x nigroviolacea1

Stanhopea ruckeri x nigroviolacea

Some time ago a dear friend of ours crossed these two stanhopea orchids - (ruckeri x nigroviolacea) and gave us a few small seedlings. They been growing and maturing, getting stronger and bigger last number of years and finally they flowered this season.

It’s a beautiful cross with large showy flowers, very strong, robust plant that produced number of flower spikes with three blooms on each spike. The background colour is creamy/white with many many dark burgundy spots and marks with darker middle. The scent is very complicated with initial vanilla and then strong perfume of herbs and spices takes over.

Because of our hot and humid weather at the time of flowering, most of my pictures were taken very early in the morning, as the flowers were unfolding.

We are very grateful to him for creating such beautiful cross that will be welcomed in any stanhopea collection by many stanhopea growers and anyone who appreciate these magical orchids.

Stanhopea gibbosa

Stanhopea gibbosa 1

Stanhopea gibbosa 2

Stanhopea gibbosa 3

Stanhopea gibbosa 4

Stanhopea gibbosa 5

My stanhopea gibbosa finished it’s seasonal flowering not long ago and it’s a delight to see this beauty in bloom.

It’s one of the oldest stanhopea species, first described in Gardener’s Chronicle in 1869 by Reichenbach from plant collector Veitch from Chelsea who imported many plants and orchids into Europe at that time. Stanhopea gibbosa is a beautiful stanhopea , very distinct in it’s colouring and deserves it’s place in any stanhopea collection.

The flowers are of creamy colour with many purple dots all over the blooms and it have darker colour eyes, the scent is very strong herbal/spicy and stays around for a long time, there is no sweetness to the scent - just sharp, bold, strong combination of many spices and herbs, complicating and overpowering.

The plant is of medium size yet the flowers are large and full. Because of our hot and humid weather I had to take pictures of gibbosa very early in the morning, just as the flowers started opening up.

The cultivation of this stanhopea can be a bit tricky, because it have it’s own requirements - it’s native to Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama and can be found mostly in very wet forests, often close or straight above open water and require copious amount of moisture during it’s growing season.

I am delighted to see this beautiful stanhopea in bloom and as usual marvel at the Nature creating this special orchid.

Flowering stanhopea’s this week

So many flowers, so little time to enjoy them all...

Stanhopea Hidden Agenda 1

Stanhopea tigrina1

Stanhopea tigrina 2

Stanhopea tigrina Glory of Mexico 1

Stanhopea tigrina Glory of Mexico 2

 

Stanhopea posada - new

Stanhopea posada 1

Stanhopea posada 2

Stanhopea posada 3

Stanhopea posada 4

Quite a number of years ago I’ve acquired few very small stanhopea seedlings labelled as “stanhopea posada - new species from Colombia” . Not much details were given and to this day I have no idea if this actually a new specie or natural hybrid. There is no stanhopea specie registered under this name, so I still don’t know any information about this plant, only that it came from Colombia. The plants were happily growing and maturing and finally this season decided to flower. 

New stanhopea flowering season started.

Here we are right in the middle of new stanhopea flowering season now. Many of my orchids have flower spikes bringing anticipation of seeing beautiful and majestic flowers soon. Every flowering season is different and brings a lot of surprises - colours, scents, textures. Some of the early flowering stanhopea’s already in bloom and it’s so nice seeing them again in all their glory. 

Here are the plants that flowered first this season - 

Stanhopea Mem Paul Allen1

Stanhopea Mem Paul Allen 2

Stanhopea Great Expectations 1

Stanhopea Great Expectations 2

Syanhopea Bellarensis x Inodora 1

Stanhopea Bellarensis x Inodora 2