New Plants - Dendrobium trade

I love plant trades. I get new plants for the price of a stamp. My reader may remember me mentioning in passing that I had a spare plant of Dendrobium ise 'yayoi' up for trade. No longer. A nice chap from 'Down South' contacted me to say he was interested, and offered me a few species in return so I have ended up with the pink form of Dendrobium anosmum (to go with the white form (var. dearei) I got in another trade), Dendrobium pierardii (I used to grow this species a couple of years ago, but for logic which must have made sense at the time, I sold them all and didn't keep one), and Dendrobium aphyllum which I have wanted for some time. I read somewhere that D. pierardii and D. aphyllum are synonymous. The plants don't look the same to me, so I guess I'll find out eventually. Here are some pictures of my lovely new plants.

Dendrobium aphyllum 'Laos'. I can't find any reference to that cultivar on my (half hearted) google searches, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. A nice healthy plant. Interestingly, 'aphyllum' means 'without leaves'....a bit of a misnomer as it clearly does have leaves. I assume it is a reference to the plant blooming in early spring while it is still (theoretically) leafless. How that is different to several other species of Dendrobium that do the same I have no idea, but the world of plant names is filled with such silliness. This is a warm grower that needs a dry winter rest to induce blooming, so hopefully it should do just fine for me provided I remember to keep it dry when it isn't growing.

Dendrobium anosmum. As I mentioned above, I already have a couple of keikis of the white form which are growing away nicely (already - I only got them in mid February). This is the straight pink form and I'm looking forward to seeing it bloom. It looks like I won't have to wait long as the nodes on the leafed cane are swelling. There is also the starts of a new cane at the base. Interestingly, after our discussion about the last species, 'anosmum' means 'without scent' in mystical plant language. Another misnomer since D. anosmum is very well scented apparently of raspberry sherbert - I very much look forward to sampling it for myself.

Dendrobium pierardii. As I mentioned above, I have grown this species before  but sold all my plants, so I'm pleased to get hold of it again without having to part with money. I know this will bloom on quite young plants but I think it will be next year before I see blooms on this one. There appears to be some purple spotting on the leaves which I distinctly remember one of my customers complaining about (any excuse). I had assumed at the time that it was part of the habit of the species as all the plants were the same but didn't have any pests, and this is what I told my customer. Not only that but the leaves are at least semi deciduous so its pointless to worry about it too much.

I have re-potted all three of them into my own bark chips. They had been potted in a coir based mix, but I have never been able to get on with it. There are a lot of growers out there who swear by it and won't use anything else, but I'm not one of them. Still, the new plants will root out fine once they start this years growth. In fact, the D. anosmum var. dearei keikis I got back in February are producing roots already. One is in growth, too although the roots were growing even before that.... no messing!