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

More pictures of beautiful stanhopea’s

Some of the delightful stanhopea’s orchids blooming this week - strong, dreamy heady scents, kaleidoscope of colours,  healthy robust plants  - paradise for any stanhopea collector!

Stanhopea posadarum

Stanhopea tigrina var nigroviolacea (yellow form)

 

Stanhopea Bellarensis x Inodora

 

 

Stanhopea Spindleriana

 

Stanhopea Great Expectations

Fabulous stanhopea's blooming this week

Here are some more pictures of my flowering stanhopea's that bloomed this week in the middle of our hot and humid weather. The greenhouse started to smell like an old-fashioned perfumery, every imaginable scent and fragrance is reperesented - vanilla, chocolate, spices, herbs, floral bouquets, various fruits and heavier aromas like myrrh and sandalwood. I love spending time with my flowering stanhopea's and marvel at the Nature's unique creation.

Stanhopea Posadarum

Stanhopea Bellarensis x Inodora

Stanhopea oculata var pallida

Stanhopea Posadarum

This beautiful stanhopea orchid is a newcomer into stanhopea world – it’s only recently been discovered in Colombia and as far as I know two clones of stanhopea Posadarum currently in existence. I have both of them and this one the first one that flowered in my collection.

I am not new to stanhopea cultivation and seen many rare stanhopea plants, but even then was surprised by Posadarum’s sheer bold beauty, primeval energy , spectacular and fascinating appearance and magical scented flowers. There is nothing modest about Posadarum – this is the stanhopea with “an attitude”!

Its started sending four flower spikes about 3 weeks ago and gradually, as they were maturing I could see that each spike had 8 (eight !) flowers. As the flowers were growing on the spike, they started changing their color – from dark to pale green to light then dark yellow. When flowers started opening up early this week, Posadarum revealed its beauty – rich dark orange with lighter orange and dark velvety burgundy spots. The flowers appear delicate, but actually quite fleshy and waxy. The scent - lemon sherbet – very strong, citrusy with slight butter undertones and lingers around for a long time.

I am absolutely delighted having privilege of witnessing this new, rare and unusual stanhopea, looking forward seeing more flowers as they maturing and learning more about this new variety.