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Tanwen's
Orchids
Orchid Flask
On February 18th 2005, I bought an Orchid flask from
McBean's Orchids. What is
an orchid flask I hear you say ? Well unlike other plants, orchids can
only be grown from seed in a laboratory, and the young plants are then
sold in sealed flasks, which can then be grown.
Since getting more interested in orchids, I've been
keen to give this a try. So I purchased a flask with three orchid hybrids.
I will be opening the flask during this weekend (5/6th March) and planting
them out into peat pots.
I will be using a compost of fine grade bark, mixed
with peat and perlite, which I bought from Burnham
Nurseries.
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The contents of the flask are as follows:
'John Banks' = Zygopetalum Blackii x Zygopetalum
crinitum
'Skippy Ku' = Zygopetalum graminifolium x Zygopetalum intermedium
A Zygo. Blackii is a cross of Zygopetalum
crinitum x Zygopetalum Perrenoudii
There is also a Vanda Yolanda present in
the flask. I will be confirming whether there are 3 hybrids present,
or whether these have been crossed in some fashion to produce a
single hybrid.
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Zygopetalums are native to South America,
while the Vanda is native to Asia.
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I have only been able to track down a photograph of
a Zygopetalum crinitum, but it should give you some idea
what these baby orchids should look like when they grow up.
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Zygopetalum crinitum
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Update - 6 March 2005
As you can see below, I have managed to plant out
my orchids, all 40+ of them ! I know, I was shocked too. So now
its fingers crossed time. They need a lot of looking after at this
stage (watering every 4-7 days). They get their first feed in about
3 weeks time, and remain in those pots for 6 months. After that,
they can be repotted into their own pots with grown up compost and
food.
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Gallery