Home | Home | Gardening
It is harder to select orchids for your beginning collection than it is to grow them. While growing orchids is a feat of memory aided by experience and common sense, selection requires long association with orchids and long evenings spent studying orchid catalogues. Here are some which you can begin with. Fragrant Orchids Few people have made a hobby of fragrant plants. Most of us accept pleasing odors in plants as a matter of course. As a hobby this field is wide open - and extensive. Its only drawback where fragrant orchids are concerned would be finding your home or greenhouse overpoweringly perfumed - which is exactly what would happen, for many orchids have the most powerful and lasting fragrances in the plant world. Their perfumes are heavy, unusual, or exotic. They seem to fill the air of your rooms with the mysteries of the Far East or the enchantments of sundrenched tropical lands. Most of the scent comparisons listed here are accurate, but some are necessarily approximate. Certain fragrances are tantalizing in their ability to escape identification, and are subject to as many interpretations as there are individuals who have encountered them. Type of Fragrance Name of Orchid Species Allspice Gongora atropurpurea Angelica Epidendrum umbellatum Citron Rodriguezia Candida Coconut milk Bulbophylum comosum Hawthorn Odontoglossum constrictum Honey Cycnoches loddigesii Newmown hay Oncidium ornithorynchum Platyclinis glumacea Wallflower Gongora galeata Acropera loddigesii Orchids Fragrant Only at Night Epidendrum nocturnum Brassavola grandiflora Orchids That Change Their Fragrance Primrose (morning) Honey (noon) Grass (evening) Dendrobium nobile Pleasant by day Unpleasant by night Orchis mascula Decorative Foliage In any garden a background of foliage is needed to give color between blooming seasons. Unfortunately, lovely foliage is not often produced by orchids. There are few which can serve as background plants when out of bloom. Fewer still whose foliage is in itself attractive. Other than some cypripediums and phalaenopsis, good foliage orchids have very poor flowers. Description of Foliage Name of Species Silver and gold veining on Anoectochilus in variety green and purple leaves Leaves marbled, grey above, Warm Asiatic cypripediums purplish beneath, or vari- in variety ously tesselated Green leaves veined with Goodyera in variety white Bronze-colored foliage Microstylis josephiana Metallic purple and rose Microstylis metallica foliage Leaves marbled and Phalaenopsis schilleriana blotched with grey above, Phalaenopsis stuartiana purplish-red beneath Mimicry in Orchids There is not always a close similarity between a common orchid name and the insect or object the flower is supposed to resemble. However, without stretching your imagination too far the basic resemblance often exists. In only a few cases is the name purely fanciful. Common Name Name of Species Bee Ophrys apifera Bird's Nest Neottia nidus-avis Butterfly Oncidium papilio Habenaria conopsea Epidendrum venosum Cranefly Tipularia discolor Dove Peristeria elata Fly Ophrys muscifera Frog Oncidium raniferum Peristylis viridis Letter Plant Grammatophyllum speciosum Lizard Orchis hircina Looking Glass Ophrys speculum Moth Phalaenopsis amabalis Rattlesnake Goodyera pubescens Spider Ophrys aranifera Swan Cycnoches ventricosum Miniature Orchids Some people go in for collecting minute curios. Why not miniature plants? There are orchids which when full grown barely reach the stature of an inch, others that do not exceed five inches. Their cost is little compared to that of miniature furniture. Smallness in stature should not be confused with smallness in flowers, although this is frequently true. Laelia majalis may reach only five inches in height, but usually puts out a six-inch flower. Name of Species Size in Inches Angraecum articulatum 3-5 Angraecum distichum 1-2 Comparettia (in variety) 5-6 Cypripedium (in variety) 4-10 Dendrobium bellatulum 2-3 Dendrobium loddigesii Laelia majalis (Syn. grandiaora) 6-7 3-6 Lycaste aromatica 3-5 Restrepia pandurata 3-5 Rodriguezia (in variety) 4-6 Saccolabium bellinum 3-6 Saccolabium calceolare 2-6 Sophronitis (in variety) 2-5 Trichocentrum (in variety) 3-6 There are many more orchids which can be selected, but these are a few which may tempt you.
Article Source: http://www.search4allinfo.com
How to Grow Breathtaking Orchids - Even If You've Never Raised One Before! Click Here For Free Online Ebook www.growingorchids.net/
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
RSS Latest News Find summer camp jobs on MySummerCamps.com
