Growing Orchids April

Posted on April 9, 2012 by

Growing Orchids April

So how is everyone going now moving into April? We have had some stunning stable weather in our area however a quick cooler day here and there. Heaps in flower and even more in spike, even got a bench of Speciosums throwing spikes!?

This Phael has been in flower for 5 months now, within a week or two of one spike finishing a new one has grown and is flowering! (sorry I know they are not all native but can’t help it i love species Phael’s and always seem to accumulate cool growing species)

So how are your orchids going as the weather cools down? Should have a bunch of new flowers to post up next week..,.

Re-potting Sarcochilus

Posted on March 19, 2012 by

Re-potting Sarcochilus

Having a great time re-potting all my Sarcochilus at the moment, I prefer to re-pot mine in Autumn as for me my Sarcs grow best through the stable weather of Autumn and into winter. I have tried re-potting in Spring but find in early spring there can be low temp shocks and later in the season there can be some really high temperature days come out of the blue both of which can really shock Sarcs and stop them growing on. At this time of year my Sarcs grow noticeably when potted up into fresh mix, growing rapidly from the day they are re-potted which is the key with this Genus as unlike natives dens they do not have a dormant period if you are growing them right. At the moment am using potting mix for the Australian Orchid Nursery for my 80mm Sarcs, Wayne seems to have this dialed in the plants absolutely love it!

Autumn Flowering Australian Natives

Posted on March 16, 2012 by

A few flowers out this week and a heap of spikes! So exciting at this time of year as there is not much in flower through Summer.

Aquarius Orchids Update

Posted on March 13, 2012 by

Aquarius Orchids Update

Hey just wanted to say thanks to the Australian Orchid Growing community, according to my stats we had just over 400 unique visitors last week and have already built over 50 back links to our site. We have not done any link building so all of these are real genuine back links to our content!

To say thanks we are going to get a bunch of great new content & photos up on the site over the next few weeks so keep an eye on the site and remember if you or someone you know has great unique content they want up on the site please let us know!

Dockrillia cucumerina

Posted on March 12, 2012 by

Dockrillia cucumerina

The only thing flowering for me this week (first week in March) quite a nice clone, i grow all of mine on cork on the benches with the dens (I have noticed mine don’t like to hang vertically).

I have pollinated a couple of flowers, hopefully they take as it would be great to make these available as seedlings.

Mounting Australian Native Orchids

Posted on February 21, 2012 by

Mounting Australian Native Orchids

I spent some time mounting orchids on the weekend and decided to experiment with a new mount, red box limbs. Going back to when i first started growing orchids (16-18 yrs ago) paperbark limbs were all the rage for mounts as many natives grow in paperbark in the wild however it turns out paperbark has a very low lifespan in orchid growing conditions! However i always liked the look and natural style of a small limb as a mount so thought i would try again. Hopefully red box has a longer lifespan. (you can see in the photo i am using a bit of Sphagnum at the moment as i do not have any bush moss (you can get this from florists)

Normally i use black cyathea or virgin cork but i am finding cork a little hard to find at the moment and to be honest if find it a bit dry for most Orchids.

What do you think will it work? Let us know what you are using to mount your Australian Native Orchids!

Happy Birthday!

Posted on February 14, 2012 by

Seeing as no one else was going to buy me any presents I thought I should buy some for myself!

Sarcochilus Melba

Posted on February 5, 2012 by

Sarcochilus Melba

What are your favorite Orchids? This Melba (Melba is hartmannii x falcatus) is one of mine, it flowers every year without fail, has a nice cascading habit and nice crystalline texture from the falcatus parent. Sure i like some of the newer hybrids but not much can beat this for me, i know it would not win any shows as it’s not round enough but i still like it.

To be honest i do know why round sarcs win shows but i don’t really like them, to me round is boring i like a bit of shape, texture and interest in my Sarcochilus.

Let us know what your favorite Sarc is and i will post up some more of mine as I take some photos.

Drymoanthus adversus

Posted on February 5, 2012 by

Drymoanthus adversus

Another rarely cultivated member of the Sarcochilus family this one from “across the ditch” in New Zealand. Who knew hey? (I certainly didn’t until i bought a flask!)

There does not seem to be a heap of material on the internet regarding culture of this species so if anyone has any experience please let me know (comment below) apart from that i intend to harden on Sphagnum moss for a couple of weeks and then mount onto cork, i might put one or two into black tree fern as an experiment and apart from that grow like an Olivaceous as a start (quite dark, wet and humid) and see how i go. I have hiked through the forests this orchid calls home and they are quite similar to the large wet forests of Victoria and Tasmania.

In Situ in New Zealand

PLANT: Epiphytic. Stems to 5cm long, usually much less, erect. Roots very long fibrous rhizomes.

LEAVES: Dark green, often with purple markings. Fleshy. 6 cm long by 1.5cm wide. Arranged in 2 rows either side of the stem.

FLOWERS: Panicle to 4cm long with several flowers 3 – 4mm across. Greenish to white, with purple, red. or maroon flecks. Labellum cup-shaped and deeply channeled, with 2 prominent flattened calli on its upper surface.

Oh and we do have a few spare if you would like to have a try! (just post a comment and i will get back to you)

Saccolabiopsis armittii

Posted on January 29, 2012 by

Saccolabiopsis armittii

Awesome I just won a flask of these on Ebay and before finding them i did not even know they existed!

Seems they are a lesser known orchid from Northern NSW and Southern QLD. If anyone has any growing tips for me please comment below! At this stage I think I will de-flask onto sphagnum moss and mount onto cork after a couple of weeks.

Thanks to Woolf Orchid culture for the flask and for making the effort pollinating and making available for sale lesser known orchids like these!

Oh and if you want one let me know! (comment below and i will get back to you)

Update 12/3/12

Deflasked these onto spag for a couple of weeks before mounting on cork with bush moss, so far they seem to be loving it and actually greened up and grew in the first week out of flask where most plants stall or go backwards in the first week or two out of flask. Hopefully they will keep it up and be quite easy to grow! (ps i hope this is what they are supposed to look like! I was expecting something a bit more “sarcy”)