My life with Orchids
Orchids are the largest family of flowering plants and found inevery region of the world from the Tundra to the Equator. In The Uk we have a variety ranging from the Tway blades, so small and green that people can walk on them without even noticing them, to the beautiful, showy and highly endangered Lady Slipper, Cypredium calceolus and the lovely Lady Orchid amongst many others.
The more flamboyant tropical orchids, those that are to be found in most orchid growers collections derive from such diverse habitats as the Himalayas and China, the steamy jungles of Thailand and S. America to the cooler climes of the Andes. They are so varied in habitat that no matter what the environment that can be provided there are orchids that will thrive in it.
My interest in Orchids started with the Gardening Club a colleague and I were running in the Comprehensive School at which I was Head of Biology. We took the members to an Orchid Show held by the Bristol and West of England Orchid Society where one of the local members invited us to vist his greenhouse. He was a shipping tycoon with a country house, conservatory and a greenhouse large enough to hold our gardening club and his large collection of orchids. He arranged with an Orchid Nursery to provide us with some plants to grow.Like the pupils it was my introduction to Orchids and proved to be a lifelong hobby for me.
Since that modest start I have acquired more plants and considerably more knowledge. After Serving as delegate and Minute Secretary I was elected Vice Chairman/Chairman Elect of the British Orchid Council and Convenor of the Orchid Species Study Group.
I became an international judge, the highlight of my judging being officiating as a member of the international panel of judges at the World Orchid Congress in Glasgow.
Unfortunately the attack of Meniere's Syndrome, which left me with impaired hearing and tinnitus, not only eventually lead to my early retirement from lecturing but also from judging orchids as I could no longer hear the lectures necessary to keep me up to date with the new orchid discoveries and the multitude of new hybrids being continually introduced.
However I can still enjoy the flowers in my collection of orchid plants, they do not care whether I can hear or not.
Photos Explained
Phalaenopsis:
Moth Orchids those featured are all Hybrids, they make an excellent house plant provided they can be kept warm in winter and kept on some gravel to give them a moist atmosphere.
Nowadays they can be purchased cheaply at most supermarkets and other stores such as B&Q.
The flowers are long lasting often making them a better buy than cut flowers.
PHALAENOPSIS PINK WHITE
PHALAENOPSIS WHITE
PHALAENOPSIS STRIPED
Pleione:
Are found in the mountainous regions of China and are almost hardy in Southern England.
PLEIONE TANGIRO
The Classical Florist:
Orchid for corsages is the Cymbidium which comes from the foothills of the Himalayas and is thus cool growing. early growers failed to flower them because, thinking them to be tropical, they kept them too warm.
They are best grown like geraniums, watered and fed throughout the summer and then kept drier in a frost free green house for the winter.
Cymbidiums will thrive in a centrally heated house but will usually fail to flower and, with strap shaped leaves the are not an really an attractive foliage plant!
CYMBIDIUM
Calanthe Vestita:
Most orchids are epiphytes but Calanthes are terrestrial and deciduous flowering from a bare "bulb" prior to restarting into the new growth of leaves the swollen base of which will then form another bulb to flower next Spring.
Like the phalaenopsis they are found widely throughout the Far East.
The Cattleyas:
Are found in South America. Like the Phalaenopsis a great deal of hybridising has been done with this genus. Cattleyas Dormaniana and Bowringiana are South American species whereas Autumn and Whitespark are hybrids made in China.
CATTLEYA AUTUMN
CATTLEYA WHITESPARK
CATTLEYA BOWRINGIANA
CATTLEYA DORMANIANA
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