Rolling the Dice

At this point, most of the orchids I created from seed have bloomed. I previously commented on how some of the flowers were subtly different from each other. Well, two of the plants are very different from their siblings. One has very short distances between the flowers on its spike - so much so that the flowers are very crowded and they have opened at odd angles. Also, the color is quite different in that the red spots are almost nonexistent and the yellow background color is much more intense. Here are two pictures of that plant.





The other odd-ball has a branched spike. None of the other plants have this characteristic. Also, the flowers are much more spotted than on any other plant, and the yellow background color is less permanent - as the flowers have aged, the yellow has almost faded completely. It is striking how different these two plants are. I guess it is just a genetic roll of the dice; perhaps these plants are similar to the original parents somewhere back in the breeding history of this hybrid.



A few years back, I bought a Neofinetia falcata, and while it bloomed shortly after I bought it, I had not had any success in getting it to rebloom. It added several new fans of leaves, but no flowers. This year I decided to give it pretty much full sun, out on the deck in my back yard (Northern New Jersey). That turned the trick. I now have flowers from it. They are quite fragrant, but the fragrance is only evident at night. During the day the flowers have virtually no fragrance. This plant must be pollinated by some night-active insect. And judging from the long tubes on the flowers, that insect must have a rather long tongue.



Lastly, my Phalaenopsis amboinensis is in bloom as well. This one has a lovely citrus fragrance, which is produced during the day. It is definitely one of my favorites owing to that fragrance.