OSSEA March 2009

The March OSSEA Meeting was held on 1st March at Botanical Gardens Auditorium.

The meeting is held on every 1st sunday of the month. During the monthly meeting, there will be a table display of members orchids. The display are broken into different groups. From each group the best plant is selected to be judged in the overall placing.

At every meeting there will be a talk on orchid related subject.

There is also a sales section from some of the orchid vendors. Sales of plants starts at 9 am and ends at about 5 pm.

Paph godefroyae var leucochilum MK436-1 came in 3rd in the overall placing. The judges were impressed with the size and markings on the flower. The NS of the flower is 87 mm. Typically any flower that is >75 mm is considered large.

I was given another award for the "Best Presented Plant".

Paph leucochilums

These are the five photos of the leucochilums that were posted in a group photo of "Paph leucochilums from 2009 season".

Paph leucochilums - start of 2009 flowering season.

This is the start of the flowering season for brachys. The picture shows several Paph leucochilums that have flowered to date. Several are still in buds. Typically the flower can last between 6 to 10 weeks.
The two back row flowers NS are between 84 to 87 mm whereas the 4 plants from the front row are slightly smaller (NS between 65 to 72 mm). However these 4 colours are much darker and spotting is more compact.

Doi Tung Garden - Part 2

The 2nd part of the pictures was taken at Doi Tung Garden.

A normal form of Paph callosum.

Another form of Paph callosum var viniferum. This form has very dark maroon colour on its sepal and petals. This clone was an award winning clone.

An alba form of Paph venustum.

The good old big top of Paph charleswaorthii.

Doi TungPaph Garden - Part 1

During my recent trip (Feb 2009) to NE Thailand I revisited the Doi Tung Garden again. My last visit to the garden was in 2006.

Over the few years, the paph collection has improved tremendously. Many of the species as well as hybrids are being tissue cultured in the Garden's Lab.

Several plants from their collection were awarded FCC. The Paph armeniacum (picture above) was one such plant.

Flask as well as seedling of paph can be bought at the Garden's Shop.

Paph from bud to full bloom

When you see the plant (top left), you must be very excited. Yes it is and began to wonder how the flower is going to turn out. Will it have the features/characteristics of the parents? Keep your finger crossed and wait.
The pictures show the various stages from bud to full bloom of Paph leucochilum.
Typically it takes about a month for the full bloom to develop. This will greatly depend on the growing conditions (water, light etc).
Once the bloom is fully developed, the flower can easily last between 6 to 10 weeks.

My Paph concolors

Paph concolor is one of the easiest paphs to grow and do not require much care. It's a beginner's paph. Just need to keep them on the dry side and fertilise them weakly (1/4 strength).

Here are 3 of my concolors that I have selected.

My first Paph concolor - this plant was bought when I started to grow paphs. It was purchased in 2004. It has never failed to flower year after year. The record that this plant had bloomed for a single stalk was 4 flowers.

My darkest Paph concolor - this plant produces the darkest yellow of all my concolors. It is not very clear from this photo. This clone is from NE Thailand.

My largest Paph concolor - look at the size of the leaves. The leaf shown measures 2 inches across and 6 inches long. Very showy plant.