Dendrobium Dawn Maree

The Dawn Maree flowers has been around since 26-May though a couple of the bunch has faded. Good news is that I have seen more buds on 2 more canes.


According to the RHS database, this hybrid is registered in 1983 by Burrows and it’s parents are Den. formosum & Den. cruentum. Both parents belong to the Formosae section of the Dendrobium family. There are some 30 species in this section distributed from India through SEA to Sumatra, Philippines and Borneo. This family is characterized by small little hairs a found on sheaths on the canes. Flowers of this section are predominating white and are long lasting.

Depending on the species, orchid flowers will last from 1 day to several months. However, all flowers will wilt if the pollens were dislodged either by rough handling or by an insect. Flowers are the reproductive organs of the plant and their main function is not for humans to admire but to attract pollinators that will help to transmit the genes of the flowers they visit. Hopefully, there are genes exchanges with different plants so as to increase the gene pool and have better chance to exchange and replace defective genes and produce new plants that have more vitality. So whenever the pollens are dislodged, the flower sensed that it has done its job in giving out its genes and the plant shuts it down perhaps to conserve energy so as not to spend energy maintaining a spent flower. In fact the urge to propagate is so strong that the plant will “force” flower if it becomes stressed or it sensed that it’s survival is threatened in the hope to have it’s genes transmitted.

The Renanthera flowers bloomed but they were quite badly affected by thrips. I always had been struggling with thrips which ravage most of the flowers causing the buds to drop prematurely. Been trying to reduce the use of chemicals…..

Other “new” blooms are:
• Mokara Saraya Red (says label at Orchidville when I bought them but couldn’t find it’s listing in RHS database)
• Cycmode Wine Delight
• Den. Hybrid (minature type)
• Onc. Golden Anniversary

New spikes seen:
• Den. secundum alba.
• Rhyncovanda Colmarie (same plant listed before but additional spike :))
• Another Mokara Saraya Red

BTW, it’s NOG guided tour times again this coming Saturday 19-Aug. Do come by. Volunteer guides will be there at 4 time slots - 9am, 10am, 11am and 4pm providing tours for visitors. Regular entrance fees to the NOG apply but the guiding is free. Each tour is about 1 to 1.5 hours.

I'm back

It’s being a while since the last entry. Had spent the last week of April in TTSH followed by surgery in mid-June to fix the problem. I’m glad I can finally put the unpleasant episode away for good.

Back to my orchids; as many one of my orchid buddy would say, orchids thrive on a little neglect and people sometimes kill them with TLC. Most of the plants seems to be doing well during the period I was not well. Some of the monopodials in the “dry” spot of the automatic watering system seems dehydrated but others seemed the do pretty well and even started spiking.

These are the plants in bloom today in my garden:
• Den. Dawn Maree (since March)
• Cym. finlaysonium (first time since a buddy gave me the plant)
• V. lamelatta (2 plants)
• Equitant Oncidium Hybrids (4 plants with multiple spikes each)
• Onc. Goldiana
• Hawkesara Lavoe Barst Puanami (since end April)

As most of the plants in bloom are past their prime, I’ll post their pictures the next time they bloom again.

The following are spiking:
• Onc. Golden Anniversary
• Ren. Ikwas (2 plants)
• Ren. Hybrid
• Mokara Saraya Red
• Mokara Zaleha Alsogoff
• Mokara Chark Kuan (3 spikes)
• Rhyncovanda Colmarie
• Den. hybrid (4 plants)
• Cycnodes Wine Delight (3 plants)

I’m really happy to see the Mokaras and Renanthera flowering again. These plants stopped flowering since I re-potted them one and half years ago and some had starting flowering in May and I am beginning to see more now. What a relief.

I have added a link to The Singapore Garden Festival on the right. This will be held in December from 16th to the 25th at Suntec City. NParks and OSSEA jointly organize the show. It’ll occupy both 4th and 6th floor. This is the inaugural show and the Organizers planned to do this every 2 years. Garden and Landscape designs by Top renown designers from UK, Australia, US and Japan will be on display on the 6th floor. 4th floor will be occupied by OSSEA who is holding their Orchid Show. Tickets will be on sale at all SISTIC outlets and at SBG Visitor center. I was told that tickets from SBG would not have the admin fee that SISTIC charges. Click on the link for more information on the garden festival.