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.

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 orchids in the wild

Many stanhopea growers and collectors love to see images of stanhopea orchids growing in the wild.

Unfortunately, not many of these pictures available for obvious reasons - the flowering season is short and a chance to encounter flowering stanhopea in the wild is still just that - a chance.

Also, it seems rather difficult to find large specimens of stanhopeas in nature that we in the cultivated situations are familiar with - insects, animals, bad weather and other elements in stanhopeas habitats contribute to this. Here just a few images that I was able to find of flowering stanhopeas in their natural surroundings.

 Thank you to Eduard Faria, Philip Davison, Luc Rubrecht and all others who was able to share these stunning images with all friends of stanhopea orchids around the world.

Stanhopea wardii

Stanhopea panamensis

Stanhopea cirrhata

Stanhopea insignis

Stanhopea hernandezii

Stanhopea orchids end of season flowering

Our stanhopea’s flowering  season nearly over and here pictures of some of my late flowering blooming plants.
I still have a few stanhopea’s in spike, but mostly our stanhopea blooming time is finished. Our weather is very mild at the moment and most of my plants still actively growing developing new leaves and bulbs, getting ready for the next year spectacular flowering.

Stanhopea inodora x wardii aurea

 

Stanhopea inodora

Stanhopea insignis

Stanhopea tricornis orchid

This beautiful and rare stanhopea orchid just finished it’s flowering season with me and it’s stanhopea tricornis - rare and unusual form. It’s one of the oldest documented species - the first description of it appeared in 1849 by Lindley from the plant discovered in Peru by famous orchid collector Joseph Warscewicz who worked for Skinner in England at that time.

There appears to be a few color variations of this specie and I’ve seen pristine white blooms of stanhopea tricornis as well as creamy color and some like mine with yellow markings on the end of the petals. It’s native to the Western slopes of the Andes in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia in very warm and very humid forests which probably gives a clue to it’s successful flowering.

The plant itself is of medium size with slender leaves and elongated bulbs and the scent is very forceful strong with many herbal tones. With me in our climate it seems to flower every other season, showing off it’s unusual and rare flowers and a glimpse of this beauty created by Nature.

Stanhopea tricornis

Stanhopea oculata x jenischiana

Stanhopea oculata x jenischiana1

Stanhopea oculata x jenischiana 2

Stanhopea oculata x jenischiana 3

Here is an introduction to a beautiful new stanhopea cross of oculata x  jenischiana. It have very colorful blooms of deep rich yellow with many many dark burgundy colored spots all over the flowers.

I’ve had this stanhopea’s seedling for a while, patiently waiting for it to mature and to finally show it’s beauty - because of an outstanding parentage it promised to be a spectacular cross, but of course one does know until it flowers and this one did not disappoint.

The plant is of medium size, yet the flowers are large and showy, it sends out a number of flower spikes during it’s growing season and the blooms have very sweet, fruity scent that resembles cherry/ black currants/apricots - an absolute delight!
Another beautiful stanhopea orchid for my ever growing collection.

Stanhopea oculata var ruckeri

Stanhopea oculata var ruckeri1

 

 Stanhopea oculata var ruckeri2

Stanhopea oculata var ruckeri3

This special and very rare stanhopea oculata var ruckeri finished it’s flowering season - it’s a beautiful oculata variety with many interesting features.
 It’s a medium size plant with smallish size flowers and nice coloring, distinct eyes and many purple dots all over the blooms. The flowers themselves look like little birds of prey. The scent is very  herbal/spicy strong and penetrating. Another beautiful stanhopea variety that not often seen in cultivation for my collection.

Stanhopea jenischiana Carlyle

Stanhopea jenischiana Carlyle1

Stanhopea jenischiana Carlyle2

Here is very special stanhopea  jenischiana variety Carlyle from my collection that just finished it’s flowering season. It’s very beautiful jenischiana with colorful, striking appearance, it came to me as small, unflowered seedling and I’ve been waiting for a while to see it’s blooms.

For some reason, jenischiana’s have have this “difficult to bloom” reputation and over the years I’ve heard so many stories from many fellow stanhopea growers about keeping it almost bone-dry to induce flowering, not giving it fertilizer or positioning it in full sun  - none of them sat well with me for a simple reason that this specie mostly native to Cauca valley in Colombia and one small isolated population in southern Equador near Pinas where it grows in a very wet mountain forests so my plants get plenty of feed, plenty of water and shady, filtered light.

The flowers of jenischiana Carlyle have rich, striking colouring of deep, buttery orange with many many dark burgundy spots and the scent is very sweet with many herbal and spicy undertones  - one can smell clove, nutmeg, cinnamon wrapped in sweetness and it lingers around for a long time.
 It’s very special stanhopea to love and to admire and to reflect on the Nature producing this beautiful orchid.

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