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

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 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

 

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

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 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