Philippines Orchid Show 2016

Garden Shows in the Philippines are usually held at the Quezon Memorial Circle, Quezon City. As i am living in the vicinity and my office is just around the corner, i normally do not miss the big garden shows. There are many garden shows per year; horticulture garden show, orchid show, cactus and succulents, bonsai shows, arids and aroids. Every show has both the exhibit and commercial areas.  Exhibits showcase the predominant species or varieties famous or blooming at that period. The commercial areas, on the other hand, not only carry the theme plants but also other saleable plants like fruit trees, vegetables, other ornamentals, fertilizers, garden needs and more.

The Philippine Orchid Society show was held at the end of August to the 1st week of September, but i failed to post it at once. I went there only for a lunch meeting and was not able to take more and better photos. But somehow, these will give some ideas on what we have.

Waling-waling or Vanda sanderiana is our pride, as it is native to the Philippines and served as parent to most of the commercial vanda hybrids in commerce. I do not think anybody will say it is not beautiful, rather everyone is awed by its beauty. The time for the orchid show is always set when waling-waling is blooming. It is always the highlight of the show. Other orchids and plants used for the landscape exhibits and competitions are only secondary.

 This landscape design did not use many orchids as centerpiece, the terete vanda are just on the sides. Those hanging greens at the arbor however are also endemic to the Philippines, Dendrobium anosmum or what we call "sanggumay". It produces cascades of sweet scented viole or white blooms.

 A landscape design with mostly Phalaenopsis hybrids, or commonly called butterfly orchids, is showcased here. Phals, as it is also called is also native to the country. Beautiful foliage plants embelish and add beauty to the total structure.

By the way, these designs are also in competition, but i will not tell you the winners. I purposely cropped the awards and ribbons to hide that. However, winning plants can be seen in the exhibit, as shown by the blue, red and white ribbons.

Above is a composite of many orchid genera, but of course they are also native here. The top portion is occupied by the waling-waling, with lower portions with Phalaenopsis, Rhenanthera, Oncidium, and other lesser known species. You can see lots of blue ribbons and plaques there, i can't seem to crop them without destroying the photo.

 This is a showcase mostly of different Vanda cultivars, Mokara, Dendrobium, Phalaenopsis and others.

 big clumps of waling-waling 

Waling-waling, Vanda sanderiana, at its best

The  following varieties and hybrids just will show us the endless possibilities of the offsprings and grand offsprings of Vanda sanderiana. There are interspecific hybrids, intergeneric hybrids and more. All of us will be enthralled with their beauty, awed, mesmerized and wish we have a few of them in our gardens. 

I hope this will inspire you to go into orchid growing. I have been caught in it once, many years before. But time and space did not allow me to do it full time, so eventually they failed. I only have a few self-supporting ones at home, at the mercy of the elements. Whenever they produce a few blooms, they are the star of the garden. They surely know how to catch every attention!

 

 

Nature Notes
Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Outdoor Wednesday

Rainy Season Blessings

Our rainy season started early due to the changes in our world and maybe in our universe. Last year, many fruit trees died, soil cracked and many emotions were affected by the long hot dry months, we now embraced its arrival. Plants and animals welcome it, but plants' reactions seem to be more obvious.

The orchid below, which i posted last year due to the death of most plants in its clump, still was able to produce long spikes from the resistant remains.

Cymbidium

 a clump of Amaryllis volunteered in a corner

 squash shoots elongated luxuriantly 

 the first Caladium leaf

 taro (Colocasia esculenta) and Caladium clumps

our cat family enjoying the first grasses

 the stones look happy with their new clothes

 our hedges in full bloom

   tree seedlings, vines, weeds luxuriantly growing amicably not yet showing survival of the fittest

Boston ferns in splendor on a vertical wall amidst duranta and grasses

                                         ...and there's a lot more to come!

The Cymbidium Sad Story

This is the profuse growth of my native Cymbidium orchids. It started as a few plants clasping a lanzones tree, which through the years have grown to this size. We can see that a hen cannot resist the temptation of using its center as a nest, maybe it looks so cozy for her to lay her eggs on.

It has been producing lots of cascading inflorescences through the years. The flowers are slightly fragrant, which open in succession in one spike. Each spike lasted for ~1 week, when other spikes begin to grow , so the whole series of flower show lasts for about 2 months.

It is a native species,  C. finlaysonianum, and you can see the elongated internodes of the spikes, reaching more than one meter in length. Another native species of the country is the reddish colored C. atropurpureum. These species, unlike the hybrids, can tolerate neglect and lengthy dry season. However, dry season last year maybe overly long that killed most of the plants.

  Above shows the newly growing spike of this plant from the remnant of the long dry season last year.

You can see the extent of drying in this photo. Most plants died, leaving only a few green at the back. Despite that,  some spikes are still produced by the survivors. The hens cannot nest on it anymore, as the eggs will be vulnerable and  will easily slide down. My mother removed this large chunk of dead remains, leaving only the few green ones.

I forgot to say, the lanzones tree also died leaving the orchid unshaded. I hope it tolerates the coming dry season, which hopefully will not be as long as last year.
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The above 2 photos, at the left shows the dead plants with a few remaining greens, and at the right with only the remaining green plants. It would probably be years before inflourescences will come out again consecutively. More vegetative growth is needed first before regaining the old clump size. No more sweet fragrance from it for the next few years. Definitely, we will miss it.

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Wordless Wednesday: Elegantly Pure Catleya

For other Wordless Wednesday posts please click: http://www.wordlesswednesday.com/newhome

It's Time for Orchids Again, Cattleya species

Continuation of the previous post:

You are all very familiar with these orchid type. Even if the main color is the same they usually differ in the color and shape of their lips.

If you will enlarge the above white, there is a caterpillar happily enjoying itself at the pollen cap

They are also used in flower arrangements, which make a leaf bundle look so special (above)!

...and the bamboo pieces (above) look so elegant!

This post is entered to The Hot, the Loud, and the Proud in Noel's site: www.aplantfanatic.blogspot.com

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Hot, Loud and Proud for July '10

Our normal inclination to participate in this meme by Noel Morata is to display colors and shapes. I have done that in the past months. And entrees from everyone are all beautiful, wonderful and awesome. I tried my best to make an entry everytime, no matter how busy things are like.

This time i will try to post those with characteristics in terms of scent and fragrance, as in that case they are all Hot, Loud and Proud. Those who are familiar with their scents, please tell me how they affected you.

Do you notice the graduation of color from white, diminishing at the last and proclaiming the vivid vibrant hue. I would like to believe that the scent is also correlated in that progression.

Kamya, garden lily or Hedychium coronarium

Grand Crinum Lily or Crinum asiaticum (found in Batanes, Philippines)

Crinum lily

Rhynchostyllis gigantea

P.S.: My sincerest gratitude to Bernie of Bernie's Garden for identifying the 2nd photo as Crinum asiaticum. Thank you Bernie.

Beautiful find in Banaue mountains

Have you observed that plants produce flowers and fruits if threatened to die?

Somehow plants have the tendency to be like that. Maybe that is nature's defense to propagate the species. Try to observe some dying trees, either diseased or blown by winds or bark bruised severely. They will try to flower and fruit profusely to save its line. That's why "survival of the fittest" is suited to them perfectly.

In our recent backpack trekking photography sessions to the boondocks, i found flowers without leaves at all. The plant is anchored to a dried trunk of tree fern for support, intentionally placed there by the owner. It has wonderful flowers, which i've seen for the first time. Even if Dendrobium orchids are very common in the Philippines, i haven't seen this species. Dendrobiums flower all year round even if the plants seem like dying, but of course they would be more prolific if cared for. Maybe this variety or species thrive only in lower temperatures, so found only in the highlands of the Cordilleras. But to tell you the truth, i have not consulted any orchid books of the Philippines yet, because i want to be in time with Noel's site, The Hot, Loud theme. And because this orchid badly needs nutrients to grow some leaves, it needs fertilization. So i will aptly join this to Tootsie's Fertilizer Friday. And because i don't have much time to post these days, i also just linked it to Today's Flowers.

I did not intend to get a sample plant because it might die in the lowlands. I will research about it first or ask some authorities before intending to have one. Does any one of you know this, please help me identify it. Thank you.

You can also open Noel's site at

http://www.aplantfanatic.blogspot.com/

Of course Tootsie's site is at

http://www.tootsietime.com

Lastly, because i don't have much time posting now, i linked this also to Todays Flowers at

http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/