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.

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

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

Late flowering stanhopea orchids

Beautiful blooms later in the season

Stanhopea embreei x wardii

Stanhopea Gary Baker

Stanhopea tigrina

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 insignis

Stanhopea insignis1

 

Stanhopea insignis2

 

This beautiful stanhopea just finished it's flowering and I always love to see this beauty in bloom. Stanhopea insignis is one of the first stanhopea orchids been discovered in 1818 and as usual it have very colorful and interesting history. In 1829 it ended in Kew Botanical Gardens  and from there on been appearing in various private collections.

To trace appearance of stanhopea insignis is like immersing oneself in stanhopea orchids history and archives - it's been described and mentioned in various publications by orchid collectors such as John Frost, William Jackson Hooker, Jenisch/Kramer of Hamburg,  Demidoff of Italy,  Hoffmannsegge of Dresden, Linden of Ghent, Loddiges of Hackney, and Sir Phillip Henry Earl of Stanhope the president of medical-botanical society in London - all of them made tremendous contribution to bringing stanhopea species to the world. Stanhopea insignis was the first stanhopea specie named.

The plant native to states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Santa Caterina and Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and it's habitat rather dry which gives clue to it's successful flowering.

This specie extremely variable in  colors, there are quite a few different clones about, some a pure pristine white and my plant showing white background with many purple dots all over the flower. The scent to me smells like pure cinnamon - strong, piercing, penetrating.

Stanhopea insignis ( from Latin - remarkable) beautiful stanhopea orchid to love and to admire and to reflect on it's interesting history.

Stanhopea embreei x graveolens

Stanhopea embreei x graveolens1

Stanhopea embreei x graveolens 2

Our new stanhopea flowering season already started here and I am looking forward again being surrounded by beautiful and exotic creations of Nature. Hopefully, I will be able to feature and share some of my flowering beauties again in this blog.

The first one to flower in my collection this handsome cross  of stanhopea embreei x stanhopea graveolens. It came to me as small unflowered seedling couple of years ago and I've been waiting for a while to see it's blooms.

It's a strong, robust plant, strong grower that develops many leaves and bulbs during it's growing season, establishing quickly and the flowers are very nice and perfectly sculptured.
From graveolens parent it inherited deep yellow tones and from embreei many purple dots on the petals, distinct eyes and really strong fruity and spicy scent - really nice combination.

It's always great to welcome new variety of stanhopea to own collection and to love and admire and to reflect on the beauty of these orchids.

Some of my flowering stanhopea's

Stanhopea Wetley Secret

 

Stanhopea Wardii Clear

Stanhopea Spindleriana

My stanhopea flowering season continues with many of my orchids putting up spectacular show.
Our weather is hot and humid at the moment and it's a race for me to take as many pictures as I can of my beloved stanhopea's while the flowers are fresh at their opening stage. Watering and misting of plants during this time is of paramount importance and after that - just enjoyment of beautiful scented blooms.

Stanhopea Hidden Agenda

Stanhopea Hidden Agenda1

 

Stanhopea Hidden Agenda2

 

 

This beautiful orchid just finished it's flowering season and it's stanhopea Hidden Agenda - rather special and interesting cross of stanhopea insignis and stanhopea posadae. it was registered in 2004 by D Pulley of California and it's extraordinary, unusual looking stanhopea.

I've been patiently waiting to see it bloom for a while and this season it decided to flower, it did not disappoint - bold, mysterious, unique, dramatic - hybrid created with huge respect to both parents by one of the leading orchid's experts. One can see an intelligently planned design in this cross with tremendous affection for stanhopea's.

 The plant is of medium size and the blooms of bright yellow with many burgundy color markings. The scent is just as mysterious as the flowers -   strong, heady with many layers of spices and herbs - sharp and penetrating. 

Hidden Agenda is a special stanhopea that will be much welcomed by any collector and grower of these beautiful orchids.

Stanhopea shuttleworthii - light clone Libano area

Stanhopea shuttleworthii - Libano 1 light clone

Stanhopea shuttleworthii - Libano light clone 2

Our stanhopea flowering season here already started and at the moment I have many blooming plants which I hope to feature in this blog soon.

One of the first ones to flower was stanhopea shuttleworthii, unusual and interesting light colored clone native only to a small area of Libano in Colombia - the whole blooms of the lighter pastel colors with very nice strong herbal and spicy scent. I purchased this orchid a few years ago and been waiting patiently for it to bloom and this season it's first flowering time - it did not disappointed - large, perfectly sculptured blooms with heavenly scent - another great addition to my stanhopea range. 

Stanhopea Great Expectations

Here is an interesting stanhopea cross from my collection - it's a hybrid between stanhopea nigroviolacea and stanhopea hernandezii, registered under the name Great Expectations by D Hartley of England in 2007.

It flowers with beautifu, flamboyant blooms and one can see both parents in the structure of flowers. It always producing flower spike with two flowers, just like hernandezii and it's always showing very clearly hernandezii lip structure, but the petals of the flowers inherited nigraviolacea coloring. The scent isvery sweet vanilla with herbal undertones, very strong and penetrating.

Stanhopea Great Expectations is another attractive addition to any stanhopea collection.                                                                                                                                                                  

  

Stanhopea panamensis

This beautiful stanhopea bloomed right at the end ouf flowering season and it's stanhopea panamensis. Its native to Panama and it appears to be only growing in the area of the Cerro Campana, approx 50 km southwest of Panama City in high altitude of wet rainforests.

It was first mentioned in one of the orchids publications in 1988 and to date number of colored plants been discovered from pure white to heavy spotted varieties however all of them have stretched hypochil, flat and long.

My panamensis orchid have light coloring with a few spots on the petals, very interesting combination and it flowered with the most magical scent, layered with many tones to it. One can smell top floral tones followed by musk followed by herbal mixture - pure delight!

This specie well worth growing for any stanhopea collector, it's unusual and sometimes temperamental in cultivation - some years it appears to be just resting and then suddenly decides to reward patient stanhopea grower with beautiful blooms.

Stanhopea anfracta

This beautiful stanhopea bloomed right at the end of our flowering season and it's stanhopea anfracta, special orchid from Peru, from the eastern side of the Andes.

It was first discovered in late 1890,s and susequently ended up in Shuttleworth's collection in Heaton, England who first documented this specie.

My stanhopea anfracta is a pale form of this specie and there are many vartations to this stanhopea - it very variable in color from pristine white to darker, almost orange hues.

It;s beautiful stanhopea with heavenly scent that have many layers to it - initial strong sweet/herbal mixture that follows by strong scent of murrh - an absolute delight! Beautiful creation of Nature and another special stanhopea for any collector of these unique orchids.

Stanhopea's end of season flowering

Our flowering season is finishing now and here are some pictures of my late flowering stanhopea's.
Because our weather is still relatively mild, a lot of my plants started growing new shoots and bulbs, preparing themselves for next blooming season.

Stanhopea Devoniensis x Assidensis

Stanhopea Ronsard

Stanhopea Jack Quigley