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molie_gw

ID help needed, please!

molie
12 years ago

This is an orchid I bought at Whole Foods. The person in charge of flowers knew little about orchids but did tell me that it came from a company in New York state. There was no label on the plant.

{{gwi:198481}}From October 6, 2011

Here is another view of the flowers. The color is more of a dark royal purple than a red purple.

{{gwi:198482}}From October 6, 2011

When I was watering it, I found a new flower stem and buds coming up!

{{gwi:198483}}From October 6, 2011

All of our orchids are still out on a covered deck. The temp. last night here in S. CT was in the 40s. Here's a closer view of the flower stem.{{gwi:198484}}From October 6, 2011

I can see the swelling of the buds and would appreciate any suggestions as to the name, even a close guess, and care of this plant.

Thanks so much,

Molie

Comments (5)

  • arthurm
    12 years ago

    You will be very lucky to get the exact name of the plant....Google Beallara and have a look the associated images.
    It is an "Oncidium Intergeneric" which is a man man hybrid made up of various orchids related to Oncidium, i only mentioned Beallara because there are lots of images that resemble your orchid, could be a Wilsonara,could be one of thousand of hybrids and there is the variation within each crossing.
    Anyway, here is a closely related orchid, so if you can find some complete culture notes on the net relating to Oncidium Intergenerics for your climate that should help.
    Beallara Marfitch 'Howards Dream'
    {{gwi:198485}}

  • molie
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanks, arthurum, for your response. After checking out your suggestions, mine looks more like Beallara than like Wilsonara.

    Do you have any tips for keeping this orchid healthy and ensuring that the flower stalk produces? What kind of care do yours get? Do you keep them in a greenhouse or outside?

    As I said earlier, we keep these on a covered deck during the summer. I live along a river so there is plenty of moisture in the air. But when they come in for the fall and winter, it becomes harder to keep our orchids moist and cool. We keep them on trays above all of our cabinets and mist them regularly.

    Here's another Intergeneric orchid that is named. I'm assuming the care for my new one will be the same as the older one?
    {{gwi:198486}}From A

    Molie

  • mrbreeze
    12 years ago

    The last one looks like a Zygopetalum rather than an intergeneric hybrid. They're easy. Just keep them well watered.

  • arthurm
    12 years ago

    Here is a pic. of Miltassia Sadie Loo x Miltonidium Christmas Eve. Those interesting little coloured circles are coming from one of ancestors common to three orchids pictured in this thread.
    No name tag or a generic description is a pain especially if you want to to exhibit the orchid or gain fine tuning information for culture.
    {{gwi:198487}}
    Any culture advice i can give is pretty useless because the climate here is so different to eastern USA. No snow, no frost, but sometimes very low
    humidity.

  • molie
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanks for the comments. I realize that our climates are so different. We in New England have to battle long, cold winters and indoor heating, which is so drying to plants. My orchids love the change of season and being outside in the warmer months� their leaf growth and flower production is fantastic. I always apologize to them when I bring them back inside.

    Molie