By the way, do you know what I love even more? That they are so very easy to grow and bloom in Mumbai's tropical climate! I know the days are getting hotter and the sun is blazing something fierce, but when I step out into the garden and see my orchids blooming their heads off, I beam a huge smile at my orchid-alicious days.
Mmmmhmm ... life is good!
Orchids like this Vanda (above) love the high heat, high humidity, bright sunshiny days that we grumble about. Maybe Mumbai was meant to be populated with Vandas. What a thought! Can you imagine seeing blooms like this all over the city?
Dendrobiums are some of my favourite orchids. Well, they all are, but dends (dendrobiums, as they're fondly referred to by orchidistas) are a bit more special, if you know what I mean. Because they will always make that effort to bloom and bloom with minimum care.
This is one of my favourite dends because it is one of the first ones I bought years ago. Free-flowering and with extra-long spikes of blooms (often multiple spikes), it can always be counted on to brighten my day. And to draw a lot of gasps from the unsuspecting stroller in the garden. It fed my orchid fever until I became like one demented, buying orchids wherever I heard of any available and price be damned.
And now the Phals are in full bloom too; those growing in my apartment garden (above) as well as those in my regular garden (below).
Eye-candy all the way to fill my days in clouds of orchid!
(And before you ask... no, my orchids are not a collection of purple shades. I just thought it would be interesting to compare the blooms of the various similar-coloured orchids ).
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Beautiful! I've greatly reduced the size of my own collection but I still cherish the ones that remain when they bloom. And if it weren't for orchids we might not know each other :)
ReplyDeleteAnd that is just one of the reasons I love my orchids so much, Shady C! They led me to some wonderful friends like you. Friendships moulded in the love of orchids are extra-special :)
DeleteYou have an interesting blog here. I've read some of your older posts and there are plenty of new stuff there. I shall visit more often to catch up. These orchids are are lovely.
ReplyDeleteThank you! And yes, do come back to catch up on tyhe posts that you missed as well as the new ones :)
DeleteWhat gorgeous flowers and colors ! Great photos ! Thank you for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteGreetings
Hello Ela! Thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed this post and photos.
DeleteDoes anyone know anyone that does not love orchids ? I love them for their flamboyant colours and the way they bloom with abandon and in-your-face health.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Usha. It's a bit tough to dislike something so obviously gorgeous, isn't it? Lucky us, we can grow them so easily with minimum care in the tropics! :)
DeleteWhat beautiful flowers. We can buy orchids to grow indoors here, but it must be amazing to have them growing out of doors in a more natural environment. I had to laugh when you said that you grumble about hot, bright sunny days!!! We have just had the first two (slightly warm) sunny days of the year. Everyone is in such a good mood, out cutting the grass and tidying up their gardens. It is cloudy again today, but I think we are due some more sunshine later in the week.
ReplyDeleteLOL! I can imagine how ridiculous that must sound to you, Nick. But you must keep in mind that this is no gentle, warming sunshine that we're talking about here. It's more like a blast furnace on steroids! Hot is an understatement, actually. It's more like melting kind of heat that our summers expose us to. Definitely not for the faint-hearted :)
DeleteYour description of a sunny day sounds like our winter days in Mumbai ... seriously! :D
I absolutely love all of your posts and pictures!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Shweta! That is so nice of you to say so :)
DeleteThey are gorgeous.. I thought they were in your garden.. imagine how it would be then :)
ReplyDeleteOh, but they ARE in my garden, Seeta ! I have 2 gardens (double the work, double the fun!). One in an apartment and the other is a regular in-the-ground garden. I grow orchids in both of them.
DeleteAnd, I'm so glad you liked my orchids :)
The orchid is my second favourite flower (after lillies!) You took some really great photos, really beautiful.
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks! So glad you liked the pics :)
DeleteLilies ... absolutely gorgeous! And I love them too. But the one thing that always tilts the scale for me is how long the orchid blooms stick around . More than a month! :)
I love dendrobiums too. They require little care and bloom quite frequently.
ReplyDeleteMe too! In fact, the less you pamper them, the more they love it. At least, in the tropics they do :)
DeleteSunita,loved your blog.What fantastic pics.Can you provide me with some info about how to store lily bubs .The plants have flowered and dried of and small leaves are sprouting now .....Any info would be helpful
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed my blog.
DeleteIf you are living in Mumbai / in the tropics then you can leave your bulb in the ground after they have bloomed. Mine are mostly planted in the ground and I leave them there and stop watering them until the next season. If they are in pots, stop watering until the foliage dies, then either keep the pot away in a shaded spot or lift out the bulb,and store it.
These are beautiful! I'm a novice at growing orchids and they are addicting. Are yours growing in pots? What kind of medium are they growing in and do you feed them?
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog and telling me the kinds of orchids I have.
FlowerLady
Thank you, Lorraine :)
DeleteI totally agree how addicting they are! Some of my orchids are in pots but most are mounted on trees in my garden. I usesmall chunks of terracotta roof-tiles (non-glazed) and charcoal in the pots. When I tie them to my trees, it doesn't need any medium at all because that's how they grow naturally.
Sunita dear,
ReplyDeleteI think we must be sisters.
Love, and love the orchids so much.
Sharon
But of course, Sharon! We knew that from Day One, didn't we?
DeleteDefinitely sisters :)
Hi Sunita,
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that we live in the same city and you manage to grow such awesome beauties!!
I have two phals and one dendrobium in my window sill in the apartment and apart from when I bought them, they didn't bloom for me again
:(
Do you use some special fertilizers available here? Also do you use regular tap water? I have them in pots in coconut husk.
Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth, good to hear that you're an orchid fan too :)
DeleteAll plants, including orchids, have a season when they find everything going right for them, and will bloom like crazy. My guess is that the vendor that you bought your orchids from must have been pumping them full of bloom-booster fertilizers to get them ready for sale. Don't worry that your plants have not bloomed after that. Most likely they are putting their energy into growing instead. Which is a good thing too. Better health, more flowers!
One thing that you need to look into is whether your dendrobium is getting enough sunlight. They love a LOT of light (except in the hot hours of the day). Phals though do need bright light (not direct sunlight, though). Most often it is the lack of light which is the cause of non-flowering.
You don't need chemical fertilisers for your plants. Compost teas are more than good enough! And yes, I do use regular tap water (don't go by all that you read on the Net! most of it is meant for growers living in totally different conditions). Coconut husk is a good medium for orchids but make sure that you don't overwater, okay?
Happy growing! :)
Hi Sunita,
DeleteThank you for your encouraging words, I will try and be more patient for the blooms to arrive :).
Is compost tea easily available in India? Is there a particular brand I need to hunt for?
I have all my windows facing the north and I try and keep the dendrobium in the brightest spot. The phal I have just placed on the windowsill , as you mentioned the light may not really be enough for them then.
The fact that I can use regular tap water is an eye opener, I used to carry water from my mum's as she has an RO system installed!
You can easily make your own compost tea, Elizabeth. Do an online search, there are more than enough sites detailing how you can make it.
Delete(smiling at the thought of you carrying water for your orchids) Don't worry, I've done crazier things. It happens to all of us plant-mad folk ;D
P.S. Sorry to bother you with my questions, I just realised that the miniature anthuriums and white lilies do very well in my window, so do you think that kind of light is sufficient for the phals as well?
ReplyDeleteIf you've got your anthuriums to bloom with that much light then your phal will be happy too. Not your dendrobium, though. It needs much more light.
DeleteHi Sunita,
ReplyDeleteThank you for that. Have you tried your hand at growing Thunbergia Mysorensis here in Mumbai? I had brought a cutting about two years ago and though it has grown crazily all over, I have not managed to get it to bloom!!
Yes, I do have the Thunbergia mysorensis . It's a bit temperamental at times so dont worry too much about it. It's such a beautiful vine though :)
DeleteI am beaming with joy , having read that you are actually growing this exotic beauty here! I have been patient with this one all the while , when everyone around me has been saying that it will never bloom in the lowlands. Please do share some tips on fertilizing the thunbergia and also how to get it to bloom. If you could post some pictures of this beauty it would be really amazing!! My email address is elizabetdsa@gmail.com just incase you do not wish to elaborate on the blog. Thanks
DeleteSure, I'll post about it some day soon :)
DeleteHello Sunita. Very interesting blog post you have here. My mother and I are avid lovers of orchids. Ever since I was young, my mother and grandmother would be out in the garden planting and pruning their beloved orchids. I have gotten to love the orchids ever since. Both my mother and grandmother grows their orchids in pots and also uses charcoals as a medium. They will hang the orchids by the branches of a rambutan and longan tree in my backyard. The prices of orchids at the flower shop these days are very expensive. Luckily, my mother was given orchids by the cuttings and rootings from her friends who also grows orchids. Lately, the weather in Malaysia is very humid and dry. This has taken a toll on the orchids but I have tried my best at watering them diligently but the water rationing in Malaysia is limiting the use of water. Hopefully, the water rationing will end soon. Anyways, you have one of the most beautiful orchids tha I have ever seen. Great pictures! (:
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jasmine! :)
DeleteLearning from your mother and grandmother ... that must've been such a beautiful experience! What orchids do you grow, Jasmine? Orchids grow so well in Malaysia! The humidity is perfect for orchids (at least, the tropical ones). I'm sure you have a great collection of them. Lucky you!
Simply beautiful. What fantastic colour.
ReplyDeleteI know! I just love tropical orchids for their very vivid colours! :)
DeleteSunita - I am floored by your blog. Beautifully articulated and put across. Though I visited earlier but seeing it on a mobile and now on laptop is also a world of a difference.
ReplyDeleteI see you interested in nature and I too can connect with you. However I am into birdwatching seriously. I had just finished a blog post on birdwatching. I am sure you would be interested. Do have a look.
http://cheemablog.blogspot.in/2015/07/get-life-start-with-bird-watching.html
Thank you so much! Birdwatching is something that I enjoy too. I'll definitely take a look at your blog. Thanks for stopping by.
DeleteHi Sunita.I am from Mumbai.I have got thunbergia mysorensis since more then a year.Can you please tell me a way to get it bloom.
ReplyDelete