BOP Orchid Show

Nice buzz in the hall on both days of the BOP Orchid Show in Te Puke with one of the organisers calling it ‘nice and chatty’ with people of all ages attending to enjoy the several displays of flowering orchids, orchids and other plants and growing gear for sale, and a sensational cafe.

Doing justice to the colour of the flowers with a camera was difficult. An eye-catching intense, dark purple all over, more like the flowers at the bottom than at the top. Photo: Sandra Simpson

The orchid’s roots are about 1m long. Photo: Sandra Simpson

Grand Champion was Vanda Pat Delight x Katsuura, which has also been nominated for an OCNZ award, grown by Ninox Orchids of Whangarei. Owners Hubert Muisers and Tania Langen said it was an absolute mission to get the plant to Te Puke and it was displayed on a piece of reinforcing rod to accommodate its long, trailing roots.

“We almost didn’t bring it,” Tania said, “but it’s at its best so Hubert screwed the rod it’s tied to on to a shelf in the van and we wrapped the flowers with batting to protect them.”

They’ve owned the plant for 10 years-plus and estimate that it’s a 15-year-old plant. They plan to register the cross as Vanda Midnight Blue with the varietal name of ‘Ruru’ – the name of their business is the first part of the scientific name for the morepork, Ninox novaeseelandiae, with ruru being the Maori name for the little owl.

Phalaenopsis ‘White Witch’, cascaded from the top of the BOP Orchid Society stand, and came complete with a preying mantis on top. Photo: Sandra Simpson

Reserve Champion was Phalaenopsis ‘White Witch’ CCC/OCNZ grown by Diane Hintz of the BOP Orchid Society, which topped the club’s display.

She’s owned the plant for a long time and says it’s generally in flower for 6-8 months at a time. This flowering started before Christmas and, believe it or not, is all off one stem. Diane thinks the flowers may have lasted so well because of the unusually cool summer we’ve had.

When it won its OCNZ cultural award she joked that she wanted to call it a word that rhymes with witch because it’s so difficult to transport.

“One flower got bent bringing it here and I was thrilled that that was all the damage. It’s just about impossible to get it in and out of the car.”

The other big excitement at the show was the news from Lee Neale of Leroy Orchids who, in the process of registering a cross with the RHS, was delighted to learn that Rth. Leroy’s Star x Pcv. Key Lime Stars has been honoured with the new hybrid grex of Nealeara (Nlr) and the plant named as Nealeara Seeing Stars. How many people have a grex named after them? The organisers of Orchids & More are thrilled to have two of this elite club attending – Fred Clarke (Fredclarkeara) and Lee and Roy Neale.

A closer look at Nealeara Seeing Stars ‘Triumph’, 2 years from the flask and with 3 flowers on one spike. Lee has already seen a green flower on another Seeing Stars seedling and hopes there will be a pink one too. Photo: Sandra Simpson

NZ Orchid Journal from the Past

The Orchid Council of NZ website has just added pdf copies of the Internet Orchid Review that was published between 2007 and 2003 by editors Nick and Elizabeth Miller, who had made it available to OCNZ.

The free magazine was emailed to anyone who wanted it and contained much good reading in every quarterly issue (24 editions in total).

Elizabeth says, “It is possible that some of the information may be a bit outdated these days, but they were always compiled as a public source of information for anyone interested.” Please note that the editor’s email address contained in the journal is no longer monitored.

See the journals here, and happy reading!

Photo: The cover of the first issue features the 2007 Grand Champion orchid, Dendrobium aurantiroseum, photographed at the Wanganui Orchid Society’s 40th Anniversary show by Nick Miller.

Annual orchid & plant auction

Please spread the news far and wide – our annual Orchid & Plant Auction is back on Tuesday, February 21, from 7pm at Wesley Church Hall in 13th Ave, Tauranga. Terms are cash only so please bring some crisp notes to pay for your purchases, and also some boxes to carry away your new plants.

If you haven’t been to one of our fun auction events before, here’s what to do …
1: Register and get a bid number from the cashier’s desk
2: Bid!
3: When you win a lot, hold your number up so the cashier’s desk can see it and record the amount next to your name/number
4: Bid some more and repeat the process with your number when you win a lot
5: At the end of the auction, go to the cashier and pay for your purchases.

As well as plants of all sorts (mainly orchids), there is usually also some fresh produce, preserves and gardening gear. This event is a good chance to expand your collection for not a huge outlay.

Our auctioneer Conrad keeps things moving along and has a true talent for matching people with plants they didn’t know they wanted!

Flowering now 4

Our member Jean has been weathering the storms and rain in her extensive garden and there’s plenty to see and enjoy even on a grey and drizzly afternoon. Almost all of Jean’s orchids are grown outside, hanging under trees, growing on trees, and in pots.

Her dancing ladies-type Oncidium may only have one spike, but that spike is abundant with flowers. Photo: Sandra Simpson

Sobralia, possibly virginalis, grows in a big clump in the garden. Although the flowers last only a short while, the plants produce a good number of them over an extended period. Jean’s pink-flowered Sobralia, growing nearby, hasn’t bloomed this year. Photo: Sandra Simpson

An unnamed Epiphyllum grows in amongst the bromeliads. Photo: Sandra Simpson

These Stanhaopea nigroviolacea flowers are just coming to their end, but the plant has had multiple stems that have flowered sequentially. Jean says the scent is gorgeous while she’s mowing the lawn. Photo: Sandra Simpson

The native orchid Earina autumnalis (Ruapeka, Easter orchid) has a sweet vanilla scent on a warm day. Photo: Sandra Simpson

Flowering now 3

Inspired by John’s visual record of his summer-flowering orchids, Sandra decided to share some that she’s been enjoying at home.

Stanhopea tigrina is native to Mexico and is a cool- to warm-growing species. Like all Stanhopeas, the flowers are short lived (3-5 days) but the scent is magnificent. Photo: Sandra Simpson

Stanhopea wardii is found in nature in central America, Colombia and Venezuela. A speaker at a club meeting cast some doubt on the species ‘wardii’ being in New Zealand so if anyone has another ID for this plant let us know. Photo: Sandra Simpson

Read more about this genus at the Stanhopea Culture website.

Another beautifully scented orchid is Maxillaria tenuifolia, which exudes a coconut-like perfume. This orchid has been flowering since late December. It is found from Mexico to Costa Rica from sea-level to about 1500m. Photo: Sandra Simpson

It took Sandra a long time to have any Masdevallias in her collection, but all she needed was one ‘easy’ plant to encourage her to try a few more.

That easy plant was Masdevallia Paul Martinod ‘Tom’s Special’, a reliable bloomer, flushing 2 or 3 times a year. Photo: Sandra Simpson

Masdevallia Sugar Baby is a primary hybrid with strong colour. Photo: Sandra Simpson

Masdevallia Firebrand has small flowers, but generally throws two or three stems at once (it’s still a small plant). This is another primary hybrid and was registered by New Plymouth District Council in 1993. Photo: Sandra Simpson

Flowering now 2

John E continues his sharing of orchids he has in bloom. We don’t have events at this time of the year for club members to see these. Thanks John and Winsome for the photos.

Dendrobium Hawaii Stripes was registered by Hawaii-based breeder Roy Tokunaga in 2012 and has in its background Phalaenopsis and Latouria dendrobiums. Some of the offspring are very striped, as this website shows. John finds it likes a lot of water.

Lycaste macrophylla var. alba which, naturally enough, John expected to have a white flower.

Masdevallia trochilus was first described for science in 1873. It is found in the cloud forests of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru and is cool- to cold-growing.

Oncidium sphacelatum is a hot- to warm-growing orchid from Mexico, Central and northern South America.

Paphiopedilum delenatii x Snow Squall. Paph, delenatii, from Vietnam, was for many years considered difficult to grow. But generations of selection of stronger-growing stock have solved that problem. Snow Squall is itself a cross of delenatii and the primary hybrid Paph. Greyii.

Thunia veichtiana is a terrestrial deciduous orchid from the lower mountains (600-1000m) of India and Sri Lanka, through Myanmar (Burma) to China, Thailand and Malaysia. Read an earlier post about this plant.

Flowering now

Our member John E has kindly sent some photos of orchids he has in bloom around about now, with some reflections on one orchid that are timely for those of us with ‘shy’ plants, as we look forward to another year of growing, flowering and happy fellowship – keep trying!

John writes of this plant: The Cirrhopetalum (Bulbophyllum) eberhardtii is a plant I bought from Russell Hutton 9 years ago and this is the first time it has flowered for us. It has 3 spikes. This is the first one to flower. When I got it from Russell, it had no ID, so I had no ideas about culture. I grew it warm for a few years without success so I put it in the orchid house where it has responded to cold/intermediate temperatures, constant moisture and good air movement. It teaches us that a lot of patience is required with some orchids. Since I had no ID, I have identified it from pictures on the internet and I think I have got it right, but I am open to correction. One identifying feature is the fine ‘whiskers’ on the top of each individual flower – I think you can just see these in the photos.

Photos of some of the other plants in flower for John follow.

Bulbophyllum plumatum is found in Malaysia, Sumatra and The Philippines in swamp forests at elevations of about 1000-1500m and is a mini-miniature, cool growing epiphyte. Read more here.

Angraecum didieri is native to Madagascar and, so a website says, is as tough as nails! Flowers are fragrant at dusk.

Enanthleya Wiz Kid is a cross of Cattleya Lucky Chance x Guaricyclia Kyoguchi, and was registered by Leroy Orchids in 2017.

Oncidium longipes is native to Peru, southern Brazil and Paraguay, found in cool montane forests, as well as the lowlands along river banks. It is a small sized, cool- to hot-growing epiphyte.

John sent this as Promenaea unknown, but it’s likely to be Promenaea Crawshayana, a hybrid of the two most well-known species, P. xanthina (yellow) and P. stapelioides (spotted and barred wine-red), registered in 1905. For comparison sake, P. Crawshayana can be found in a few collections in our area. The species are found in the lowlands of Brazil, are intermediate to warm-growing and should never be allowed to dry out.

Paphiopedilum hirsutissimum var. esquirolei is native to northern Thailand, northern Vietnam and southern China, growing from 800-1800m.

Thanks so much for this tour of your flowering orchids John!

Citizen science for summer

Massey University student Hayden Jones and Te Papa Botany Curator Carlos Lehnebach are launching a citizen science project aimed at solving the identity crisis that surrounds one of our most common terrestrial orchids.

Maikuku – the white sun orchid (Thelymitra longifolia) – might be one of the most common species of orchid in Aotearoa New Zealand and is widespread throughout most of the country, often found in open sunny areas amongst scrub.

Plants produce a single leaf and between one and 20+ white flowers, which tend to only open on hot and still days in summer.

Over the last 250 years, botanists have noticed differences between populations of the white sun orchid found around the country. This orchid can show a wide range in the colour and shapes of the floral parts like the sepals and petals, and the column (a structure in the middle of the flower which contains the reproductive parts).

These differences have led to the question, is it all the same species? As a result of this variation, there have been many attempts to split up this species into multiple and several names have been created to reflect this variation. So far none of these attempts have lasted, with all of them ending up being lumped back under T. longifolia.

Left: Thelymitra longifolia. Photo: Wikipedia

As part of a research project funded by the Australia & Pacific Science Foundation (APSF 19047), Hayden and Carlos are interested in solving this taxonomic mystery by measuring and categorising the variability shown by this orchid. Previous attempts to do this have been hindered by issues with measuring dried specimens, which don’t retain their original forms, and a relatively small sample size.

“Our project aims to overcome these hurdles by making a call for help to all citizen scientists in Aotearoa New Zealand to help us measure key features of these plants. Your observations will help us to gain a true and representative view of what’s out there. It will also improve our chances of identifying any rare forms if they exist, helping to focus conservation efforts on populations that need it the most.”

If you would like to help solve this taxonomic mystery, register via the Thelymitra longifolia survey form or scan the QR code on the Te Papa blog page where there is lots more information about what to look for. The QR code will give you access to more information on the project, as well as resources to help you gather data.

Snails and slugs

If it’s spring, then it’s time to be assiduous about checking orchids for damage caused by snails and slugs. These pests can inflict a great deal of damage to virtually every part of an orchid, waiting for the cover of night. Left unchecked, snails and slugs can infest a collection and kill your orchids fairly quickly.

They are hermaphroditic, so every individual has both male and female organs and is capable of laying eggs. Adults lay up to 300 eggs in batches of 10 to 50 each. These eggs hatch in the spring in as little as 10 days during warmer weather, or up to 100 days in cooler temperatures. The average maturation period is about one month.

Telltale signs of their presence include translucent shiny slime trails; holes with uneven brown edges eaten through flower tissue; nibbled roots (thicker roots may have only small pock-mark-like holes eaten into them, while smaller, finer roots may be eaten clean through; tender new root tips are especially vulnerable); and new growths may be damaged or chewed to a nub.

How to control them? A favourite of some humans as well as molluscs, beer attracts snails and slugs. In the growing area place a small container (clean cat-food or tuna tins are ideal) filled with enough beer to drown a snail or slug – use as many containers as necessary. Empty the stale beer and deceased pests every few days and replace with fresh beer. Or dampen dry dog or cat food and place an inverted foil pie tin over it, propping up the tin just enough on one side so the critters can get underneath. Check the tin every morning, removing and destroying accumulated snails and slugs.

Although time consuming, hand-picking is still an effective (and satisfying) method of control. Go out after dark with a torch, pick off and destroy any slugs and snails found. Do not use salt directly on the critters; although this does kill them, it may also get into your plants and growing environment, causing unwanted damage. Better to drop the pests into a saltwater solution.

This is an abbreviated version of an American Orchid Society article by Susan Jones. Read the full article here.