Bloom Event - Vanda Princess Mikasa Purple and Giant Blue

Although I do grow many less Vanda than I used to do (they take up far too much room), I still hardly seem to go for any time without at least one of them in flower, and now I have two in bloom.

The first of these is what used to be Ascocenda Princess Mikasa purple, until someone messed around with the names (again), so now its just Vanda which is, admittedly, easier to spell and pronounce. My regular readers will attest to the flower power of this particular hybrid, as it was one of the earlier posts on this blog, the link being back to November 2015. This particular plant also bloomed back in March, and now its at it again. This being the third blog post about this plant, I'm not sure I have anything new to say about it. It sits at the back of the bench, growing and generally minding its own business, and occasionally flowers. It doesn't get watered any more or less than any of the other orchids in the growroom and seems fine with it. You may notice that when I first wrote a post about this plant (link above), I had it listed as having no ID. I have done enough reading and comparing to other plants that I'm confident enough of the ID to change its label.

The Mikasa hybrids are all easy going (for Vandas) and come in a variety of colours. I myself grow four different colours of this hybrid. I should start a national collection.

The flowers are, once again, quite crowded on the spike, but that seems to be the habit of the plant, so I guess I'll just have to put up with it. They are a decent size without being dinner plates, and seem to last well.

I love the lip colour on this hybrid, such a dark velvety purple, like a landing platform (which it basically is).

Every time I post about this I talk about how it is in a pot but I'm not sure how it'll do, but I think its been in its pot for long enough now that I can say this method of culture is a success and just stop worrying about it.

The plant is obviously healthy and happy. You can see how good a bloomer it is by the amount of spent flower spikes on it. Notice that they are mostly from one side of the plant. I've no idea why this should be, but it has always been that way. If anything, the leaf span has increased a little over the few years I've had it, and I would like to think that it is capable of producing more than one spike at a time.

Second up for this post we have the giant blue Vanda (that is not its actual name, purely descriptive. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a proper name. Its probably blue magic or similar but I guess I'll never know). As I've probably said before somewhere, this plant was given to me some time ago. It was quite a size then, but has grown considerably since, and will be getting out of hand before too long.

If you have a decent sized screen or the ability to zoom, you will see on the above photo, about halfway up the plant next to the tie, a couple of leaves shorter than the rest. That is how high the plant was when I got it. No sooner had I installed it than it looked to me as if it got crown rot which would have been bad news indeed, but it continued to grow and now we have a plant that is well over a metre tall. It is growing in that brown pot and has been for some considerable time, now. It lives next to Princess Mikasa discussed above under a 150 watt flourescent tube that is raised higher than the other lights to make room for it. What I'll do as the plant continues to grow I don't know. I can't really take the top off and grow that on because it hasn't produced any roots further up the stem, yet. Time will tell.

At any rate, it is a nice blue (under certain light conditions (no, I don't mean 'in the dark')) and has very nice markings.

The flowers are a good size, as ever, and there are 11 on the spike. This feels a bit mean on a plant this size but is a good amount for a large flowered hybrid Vanda. Plus, this plant has already bloomed this year, and that was only in July, so I should try not to be too greedy.

The next Vanda to bloom will be Princess Mikasa blue, but I expect our paths will cross before then.

Bloom Event - Big Giant Vanda

Its taken me ages to get around to writing about this Vanda. It was given to me a few years ago, along with a few other bits and pieces. Unbelievably, it doesn't have a name. It is quite different from the other big blue Vanda I grow, with flatter flowers, and the V. coerulea trait of lateral petals twisting to the horizontal being almost entirely absent from this plant. It was quite a big plant when it was given to me at a couple of feet tall, but it has almost doubled in size since then. I know exactly how much it has grown since I got it because not long after it entered my care I had a bit of a scare that it had got crown rot. It hadn't, but the leaves that were emerging from the crown at that time were damaged, and they are still present.

The blue colour and the tessellations are both outstanding. This one is much bluer than V. blue magic, although the flowers are marginally smaller. They are more than made up for in quantity, though, with this spike bearing 14 flowers. There would have been more, but the tip blasted, probably because it is quite windy at the top of the room it grows in. Still, its an impressive show, and I think there would have only been one extra flower if it hadn't.

Yes, I know it would have made a better photo against a black background as I do for more normal sized orchids, but this one was just too awkward. Still, you get the general idea. I've thought before that a decent photo of this in full bloom would make a nice base for a tattoo design. It is quite rare to see Vanda this sort of size, so I'm quite proud of this plant although I have to say that some of my other Vanda are growing quite quickly, too.  Vanda do have a (not entirely unfounded) reputation of being difficult to grow, and I have had rather mixed experiences with them in the past. I think I have it fairly sussed now, though. The first point to bear in mind is that Vanda like warm temperatures (yes, even hybrids of the cooler growing V. coerulea), and bright light all year round. This is obviously a problem for UK growers in winter, and the plants respond to this by going into semi-dormancy. They stop producing new leaves and the root tips cover over with velamen. This needn't cause too many problems provided watering is reduced accordingly but it is hard to balance plants being kept dry enough to prevent root rot and damp enough to stop them drying out (which they also don't like).

You can see the plant clearly doesn't mind being grown in a pot (which is starting to look decidedly small for the size of the plant). You can also just about see the couple of shorter leaves about halfway up the plant that show how big it was when I got it. Vanda grow quicker than you might imagine. I definitely think the key to getting them performing properly is keeping them growing through the winter, which means growing under lights in the UK. They certainly bloom much more often that way. I have far less Vanda than I used to, but there is nearly always a couple in bloom, summer or winter.

The other thing to not about Vanda is that once they are upset, it takes them ages to settle down again, and many plants are lost during this time. The key is definitely even conditions. Remember they come from areas that don't have seasons as we do, so they don't respond well to variations in temperature and light. I find that they will take quite a lot of water while they are growing, but are very intolerant of wet conditions. Pond pots seem to work well, but I struggle to find them the right shape to grow anything bigger than a modest sized plant.

Bloom Event - Vanda Kanchana 'Lavender Mist'

There always seems to be some Vanda or another in bloom, even though I've drastically reduced the amount of them I grow. They are increasingly turning up without names in garden centres. As I've said before, I have no actual problem with no ID plants, but all Vanda hybrids have a name and it seems pure laziness to me to not include them with the plants. Vandas are stately, beautiful orchids and to me it demeans both them and the people who took the trouble to breed them to not bother to provide their proper names. I know that where Vanda are concerned they can mostly be grown under the same conditions, but still. There are still subtle differences between them and it still helps to know which species are in their background.

Most modern hybrids have at least a proportion of Vanda coerulea in their parentage. This is a good thing because V. coerulea is a good reliable bloomer, easy grower and is tolerant of lower temperatures and lower light levels than many other species. These traits all pass to its children through several generations and have produced a range of colourful, easy to bloom and compact hybrids.

The particular hybrid I'm blogging about today is Vanda Kanchana 'Lavender Mist'. This is a very distinctive hybrid with a nice light colouring and very delicate tesselation on the flowers, courtesy of V. coerulea. The flower shape is very reminiscent of the species, especially with the lateral petals tendency to twist to horizontal (easier to see on the below photo, flower on the right).

This is one of those orchids that I see bloom and I always think 'could do better'. The plant is fully leafed to the base, but always seems a bit floppy. I have it potted in a deep rose pot with coarse bark chips at the moment, but I think I will try and root out a large pond pot to put it in once it is done blooming. It tends to produce five flowers per spike, and this is no exception, but I'm sure its capable of better. Hopefully, it'll settle down once I've re-potted it (again).

Believe it or not, this plant was given to me a couple of years ago, along with quite a few others, including a truly HUGE Vanda (post coming in the next few weeks) that must have cost a fortune. He was adamant he couldn't look after them and that he didn't want anything for them. Still, most of the plants he gave me have done very well. This particular one has bloomed several time since then so it must be fairly happy.

Bloom Event - Vanda Princess Mikasa 'Blue'

Yes, I know, another Vanda. It's getting boring, isn't it ? This particular plant has been languishing for ages with general malaise. Nothing ostensibly wrong with it, just not happy. And more importantly, not really growing or flowering. The leaves sort of folded up as if it was short of water, but I knew it couldn't be as it has been getting the same amount and frequency of water as all the other Vanda which are doing fine. I can only conclude that I did something a year or more ago that upset it and it has, in its own way, sent me to a kind of horticultural purgatory as a result. Now it has decided in its own inimitable way that I've suffered enough and has dutifully sprung back to life. The leaves have filled out again, it has started to grow and more importantly, it has produced some flowers.

I had quite forgotten what a handsome hybrid this is. I know I have it in a variety of colours which are all lovely in their way, but the blue is my favourite. Just like the other Mikasa hybrids I have, it is growing in a deep rose pot with coarse bark chips and seems to be thriving. Rather than just looking at the roots I can see at the surface, I like to look underneath at the bottom of the pot and if I can see roots at the bottom of the pot, I know my plant is happy. So it is with this one. Hence I cannot understand its sulking for so long. The flowers are, if anything, marginally larger than either Mikasa pink or white. The blue also shows off the tesselations better than the other colours, and that is what I find so attractive in many Vanda that have V. coerulea in their parentage. The blooms are nicely spaced on the stem, too. There aren't so many blooms this time and I know the plant is capable of better (I think there are five or six), but it still looks impressive.

I have found with a lot of these 'blue' hybrids that they look quite purple in certain lights (i.e. under my growlights) but this one looks blue even there. The difference is quite noticeable when one of my Blue Magic is blooming too and it looks quite purple under the lights. I've probably said it before, but I'll say it again. These Mikasa hybrids are nice compact plants that flower several times a year under my conditions. Even though I only have one in each colour now (except for two pink), there is still almost always at least one of them in flower, and I get way more flower spikes from them than I do from any of my Phalaenopsis (apart maybe from cornu-cervi which keeps blooming from the same spikes).

If only I could work out why it spent so long sulking. I should hate to inadvertently upset it again and have to put up with another year long sulk. All appears well now, though, as you can see.

Bloom Event - Vanda Princess Mikasa white

I have posted not too long ago about the Vanda Princess Mikasa hybrids blooming and there's another one at it now. I don't grow anywhere near as many Vanda as I used to, but there's still nearly always one in bloom. They do have an annoying habit of all blooming together, but I guess I shouldn't begrudge them that. There are others in spike as I type ready to take over when the three in bloom now are done.

I have never quite been able to decide whether the white Mikasa hybrid is elegant in a cool pristine kind of way or if its a bit dowdy. Today, I like it. I think the problem is that it isn't really white enough. It is more ivory and pale green, at least when stood next to flowers that really are white. At any rate, it blooms frequently....better value for money than most Phalaenopsis by far. Having counted the remains of the old flower spikes, I can confirm that these flowers adorn its tenth flower spike. That is the mark of a happy plant.

It seems the flower count and size do not increase with age, but I'm not really complain given that many growers can't get Vanda to do anything at all. Just like most of my other Vanda I have it in a Cymbidium pot with coarse bark chips. As pointed out elsewhere, I am experimenting with other ways of growing Vanda but I can't see the logic in disturbing this one when it seems perfectly happy as it is. There are roots at the bottom of the pot, and roots coming out of the top. There isn't bare stem at the base of the plant either, so the plant still looks nice and neat and tidy. I got all of those Princess Mikasa hybrids at the same time, probably in 2012. They seem to be the most forgiving of the Vanda hybrids, highly recommended by me. The only problem is that they tend to turn up in garden centres unlabelled and, usually, pre-killed (to save you the bother of abusing them). Much better to find a specialist nursery that sells them (I've sold all my spare plants, unfortunately, except for a pink one that I have two of).

Many Vanda hybrids get large and ungainly, with quite large leaf spans. One of the things I like so much about these Mikasa hybrids is that they stay nice and compact and fit easily on a windowsill. I'm pretty sure they would be more popular if only there weren't so many stories going round about how tricky Vanda are to grow.

Bloom Event - Vanda Princess Mikasa Pink and Purple.

I can but live in hope that I am keeping up with the nomenclature of these plants. God forbid I should get it wrong! As I understand it, all of Ascocentrum has now been subsumed into Vanda (again), so these two hybrids that I have always known as Ascocenda are now correctly labelled as Vanda. Whether I agree that they should be in the same genus or not is not relevant here (I do!), but I do find the name changes stupendously tedious. Especially since the names will probably change again during the next round of name changes. As a rule, I tend not to change labels at all if I can help it. If I decide to sell a plant (it is not unheard of), I'll write a currently correct label then.

At any rate, here I present not one but two lovely Vanda hybrids. First off, we have Vanda Princess Mikasa 'purple'.

Unfortuately, the flowers seem to have opened at all angles on this one. This is, in fact, my only complaint about this hybrid. Its flowers are rather crowded on the spike, so they rarely open at the right angle. The colour in real life is much more purple than this photo which makes them look rather blue (which is ironic, since the photos of the proper blue Vanda I have always come out looking purple).

The plant is strong and healthy. I grow my Vanda in pots, as it is not practical for me to have them bare root as most growers do. There is a trend now for growing Vanda in glass vases (which I started myself several years ago) which works fine if you don't have too many plants. For me, it is much easier nowadays to grow Vanda in deep rose pots with coarse bark. Some take to this method of culture (such as this one), some hybrids don't. I have started an experinent with some other Vanda which needed something doing with them anyway using large pond pots filled with coarse bark, the idea being that the air can move around the roots more freely than it can in a pot. We will see how the plants do.

Here we have Vanda Princess Mikasa 'Pink'.

In real life, this is real bright smack-you-in-the-face bright pink, the phto has come out rather dull. This is another easy grower, just like the purple discussed earlier.

The pink variety has smaller flowers than the purple but they do tend to be better spaced on the spike. I All varieties (I have a blue and a white, too) seem to flower several times a year, giving a better turnaround than most of my Phalaenopsis. Even now that I've sold most of my Vanda, there always seems to be at least one in flower. The white one is in spike as I type this. Again.

Vanda do have something of a fearsome reputation for being 'difficult', and this is not entirely unfounded. This is mostly because they dislike the cold and dark winters we have (and summers, some years) this far north. Where they come from, there aren't such defined seasons as ours. In winter under natural light, Vanda deal with this by entering a semi-dormant phase where they stop growing and the root tips cover over with velamen until conditions improve. It can take several weeks of these improved conditions to wake the plants up again, by which time quite a lot of valuable growing season has passed. Not only this, the plants will not tolerate being too wet during this period, which causes problems if plants are grown potted. Most plants are sold bare-root and are hung up to allow air to the roots. In a nice humid warm greenhouse, this is fine, but the plants cannot survive like that in a heated living room as the humidity and light levels will be too low. The solution to this is to place the plant in the neck of a glass vase so the roots dangle down inside where some extra humidity is trapped. The green portion of the plant should remain in the open air, as the leaves are not so humidity dependant as the roots, and extra water round the leaf axils can result in rot. Growing them in vases has its drawbacks too, of course. Vases full of water during watering time are heavy and cumbersome. The filling and emptying of vases can result in the delicate root tips in the vase getting damaged which results in them stopping growth. Anyone with several Vanda will tell you that they take up a lot of space when grown in vases. However, good results can be achieved this way if one is careful.

For me, in pots under lights works well, so that is the method I shall stick to. I will post again regarding my pond pot experiment, either in jubilation or floods of tears, depending on the outcome.

Bloom Event - Vanda 'Blue Magic',

Anyone who knows me fairly well will tell you that they're fed up of pictures of blue Vandas, because I post them on twitter/facebook/instagram all the time. I'm not trying to show off, it's just that they bloom really regularly for me. Have to say, the Vandas have been looking a bit sorry for themselves recently, party through lack of watering on my behalf. I grow them potted, and they do fairly well. It seems to depend on the hybrid. Some take to it, some don't. However, Vanda 'blue magic' seems a good performer, and will put up with a surprising amount of abuse. So here's a picture to prove it.

Another quality photo, as you can see. In case you were wondering, I had just sprayed all the plants in the growroom, hence the wet flowers. The usual advice is to not spray flowers or leaf axils, but that very much depends on your growing conditions. My growroom never gets cold, and I spray while there is still a few hours of light left. There is also a fan running, so most water has evaporated before the night.

Bloom event - Vanda princess mikasa white

You have to hand it to this Vanda, its a toughie. Very vigorous grower (for a Vanda), pot full of roots right to the bottom. It blooms at least twice a year (more often than most of my Phalaenopsis). It's just a shame that the white isn't, well, whiter. 

Bloom event - Vanda no ID

It's a pity I don't have a name for this Vanda hybrid. I assume it is one of the Princess Mikasa hybrids, but I couldn't say for sure. This is one of the best performing Vanda I have, growing well and blooming regularly. I particularly like the colour (not quite so blue in real life as in the photo). The plant is not too big (Vanda can be rather bulky). I grow my Vanda in deep pots these days, though when I started growing Vanda quite a few years ago I grew them in glass vases. I had a lot of success growing them that way, but as my collection grew I found that it was very hard work keeping them watered as glass vases full of water are rather heavy and flowers are easily damaged. I now use deep pots with coarse bark chips. Results are mixed. It seems some plants adapt to it and some don't, these smaller hybrids (probably Ascocenda in fact, though the taxonomists have been buggering about with Vandaceous orchids and I don't always keep up with the latest names) adapting the best of all with roots right down to the bottom of the pot. I'm not giving up, though. I firmly believe that growing them bare root is not the right way to do it. Next experiment with them will be to use large aquatic net pots to allow even more air to the roots while still keeping them contained. I have two small plants (like real babies) that are growing away very nicely in 13cm aquatic pots. Time will tell, but they have exploded with new roots God knows how I'll get them out of these pots as the roots grow straight through, I'll have to just pot on pot and all ! 

P.S. I apologise for this post being centered, for some reason I can't alter it.