Orchids

Lax flowered orchid starting to fade

The Anacamptis laxiflora which was so splendid last week has now started to fade. The flowers have died off, and leaves are starting to yellow. I will continue watering and feeding with weak seaweed fertiliser, and gradually reduce and allow to dry out later on:

New orchids

Last Sunday I finally managed to get to the Hardy Orchid Society AGM and plant show at Kidlington in Oxfordshire after five years of prevarication, procrastination, being too busy and being in the wrong country.

As I expected it was generally interesting, fun and informative interspersed by some bits which were less interesting to me at least - but the HOS is a broad church (in some respects) and covers quite a range of opinions and passions, at least those relating to orchids!

While I was there I also managed to acquire a few additions:

From Richard Manuel (who supplied the first orchids I purchased about six or seven years ago, and which perished rather quickly in the depths of my meadow...) I bought:
Anacamptis morio (Green winged orchid) - flowering size perhaps?
Epipactis palustris (Marsh Helleborine) - 2 small seedlings.

From Laneside I bought:
1 Dactylorhiza maculata (Heath spotted orchid) quite robust
1 mystery Dactylorhiza (purperella or praetermissa?)

From John Haggar
1 Gymnadenia conopsis (Fragrant orchid) hopefully flowering size
1 Dactylorhiza praetermissa (Southern Marsh orchid) flowering size
1 Dactylorhiza umbrosa - an unusual east Anatolian species so breaking my natives only rule, this way looms trouble...

Lax Flowered Orchid Time Lapse

 

My second attempt at recording the flowering of an Anacamptis laxiflora, not really very successful the early part of the video really did not work since the flower stalk grew at such a rate that I had to move the camera to keep it in the frame. The choice of the grey sheet as a background is not ideal but the biggest problem is the variation in light levels - clearly the only way to do this is in a studio where you can control the light levels. I'll wait until I have more orchids to spare, more time to play with and a room I can sacrifice. I guess that'll be when I retire at the age of 85...

Some Lost Pictures Refound

My Anacamptis laxiflora is now starting to fade. It has been wonderful having such a gorgeous (nearly) native orchid not just surviving but  thriving in my care. I thought that I had lost all my pictures due to a careless bit of disk copying but have just found this little beauty:

Makes it all worthwhile... 

I also found a picture showing the weird budding of the Ophrys sphegodes plant which is currently drying out and getting ready for being put to bed for summer. In fact, i think the flower is starting to flower already here.

It did not preceed any further than this. One suggestion from the immensely helpful Terrorchid forum is that I should try planting it more deeply next year, indicated by this year's tuber being significantly lower than the previous one - I will certainly give this a go, but I also think I got the balance of watering wrong, and erred too far on the side of caution in my fear of losing another Ophrys to rot. So tricky...

Ophrys sphegodes preparing to become dormant

Unfortunately the pictures I took of the single remaining Ophrys sphegodes flowering on a very short flower stalk (so that it did not appear to be flowering at all) were accidentally deleted. I also deleted the decent pictures of the A. laxifolia plant I have, but this is still in bloom - must remember to take some more soon.

The Ophrys has dried up nicely so I uprooted it gently:

It appears to have a good looking tuber, and I will seal it up with the pot in a ziplock bag. I am not sure whether the leaves and stem should be seperated, I assume not, and I am not certain about whether to add water to the pot before sealing it - I will seek some advice before I continue.