Orchidarium 3

The new intermediate orchidarium continues to come together slowly. Below is a photo of the current state. The grapewood burls have been fastened together and put in their permanent location and a few additional plants added. Gradually I will be mounting plants directly on the grapewood and hanging others from it, with pots sitting on the tray at the bottom. The purpose is to have something that looks reasonably natural but with some of the plants easily removable for display and photography. I plan to be cautious mounting directly on the grapewood because it will be harder to reverse and I want to be sure they have the right light exposure. Grapewood is reputed to be very rot resistant, but of course eventually the whole thing will have to be replaced, which will be a big pain in the neck.

Currently in the case are:

Amesiella monticola
Bulbophyllum pecten-veneris var. tingabarinum
Dendrobium laevifolium
Dracula lotax
Haraella retrocalla
Macodes petola 
Masdevalia rolfeana
Masdevalia sernae
Mediocalcar decoratum 
Restrepia brachypus
Restrepia elegans
Scaphosepalum brevi
Specklinia grobyi
Specklinia picta (possibly misidentified)
plus three species of minute epiphytic ferns

Plants I plan to add include:
Diodonopsis erinacea 
Lepanthes calodictyon 
Masdevallia hirtzii (a showy one!)
Stelis pilosa
Tristella hojieri 

[It won't surprise me if some of the plants were misidentified by the retailers as this seems to be a common problem, but the foliage for all but one of them looks right and the three that have bloomed so far appear correct. The Specklinia picta is confusing - the flower looks exactly right but the leaves are narrowly linear, which I can't find reported anywhere.]

All have been chosen to be small to very small, and tolerant of intermediate temperatures and modest light exposure. I have also avoided anything reputed to be really hard to grow, or at least I think I have. Most are not particularly "showy" because for this Wardian case I am more focused on diversity and peculiarity than beauty (by most human standards). I have lots of other orchids on windowsills that have big bright flowers, so I get my fill of showy stuff. Despite my mediocre photo postings thus far, I have good camera equipment and reasonable skills and I will post macro shots of plants and flowers as things come along. In the meantime get your fill of gorgeous photos of gorgeous flowers at the blogs "Orchids in Bloom" and "OrchidKarma".

Orchidarium 6/3/2017