New Plants Update and Bloom Update - Dendrochilum abbreviatum

I'm such an airhead sometimes. I missed a plant out when I did my New Plants post earlier. To be fair, the plant is tiny so I think I can be excused. There has been a notable lack of Angraecoids in my collection which I am working towards putting right. Angrecoids are a small group of orchids that are native to Madagascar and grow nowhere else. Most species enjoy intermediate to warm or even hot conditions. They mostly have white or green flowers with good fragrance in many cases. Unfortunately, they seem to have picked up an unfortunate reputation for being difficult plants to grow and flower well and for not adapting well to pot culture. I have two members of genus Angraecum. The first, A. sesquipedale, is growing away very nicely indeed in a pot although I can't call it a fast grower by any means and I think it is still a good couple of years away from blooming. The second species I have is A. eburneum. This one is smaller (though will grow to gargantuan proportions in the future) and is in recovery mode at the moment as it didn't have a good root system when I got it. I looked at it today and I can see signs of root growth so it is definitely going in the right direction.

My new plant which I forgot about is from another genus of Angraecoid, Aerangis. in complete contrast to Angraecum, Aerangis species mostly resemble small Phalaenopsis though they are generally grown mounted onto cork bark so the flowers can hang in a natural looking way. I have got Aerangis fastuosa.

This is a dwarf species which produces night fragrant flowers which are very large compared to the size of the plant (in fact they pretty much are the size of the plant. I think my plant still has some growing to do before it reaches blooming size. Understandably, I will be very excited indeed when it decides to bloom. Assuming I can keep it going that long, of course. It was very cheap so at least I won't be losing a great deal if it doesn't thrive.

And now a bloom update on Dendrochilum abbreviatum. When I first posted about this species coming into bloom, only one spike of flowers was open, so I was a bit premature, really. I was very excited because it was a first blooming for me. Now, a week or so later, all five spikes are open and I thought my dedicated readers deserved to see what it looked like in full bloom, so here it is.

Impressive, huh? I guess some might say I'm easily pleased but I think that's lovely. It has a strong scent now almost all the flowers are open, and it really carries, too. There are still more Dendrochilum to look forward to, with D. latifolium next up (assuming those new growths produce flower spikes).