Bloom Event - Dendrochilum glumaceum (green bract)

I guess I need to start this post with an apology for the lack of new posts over the past couple of weeks. In my defence, I have been rather busy, and I've been on holiday. Also, I have been struck with the 'summer doldrums' by which I mean that there hasn't been much going on, at least orchid-wise, just recently. So sorry and all that, all right?

And now on to business. I am pleased to say that I have persuaded one of my Dendrochilum glumaceum to flower. This doesn't sound like much of an achievement, I know - they flower all the time, don't they? No. They don't. Usually I get a good blooming during the spring and the plants then put out a second flush of new growths during the summer but this is the first time I've got the second flush of growth to bloom. Only one variety of the species seems to have decided to bloom (I have several), but even that is better than nothing. I have two plants and both have put up a flower spike. They are comparatively recently divided so they haven't had much time to bulk up as yet but they are growing nicely. I might even be persuaded to part with one if someone asks me nicely.

The flowers are as lovely and numerous as ever, and the scent is, of course, to die for. Not all the flowers are out yet, so the scent will get stronger over the next week or so.

In the past I had trouble keeping my Dendrochilum 'clean' by which I mean that the foliage would always be covered with black marks, especially on the backs of the leaves and it took me an embarrassingly long time to work out what it was. The culprit was, in fact, the dreaded red spider mite. It then took an infuriatingly long time to put it right which I put down in no small part to both the pests resistance to systemic insecticides and the general watered down nature of modern chemicals. Since the soap spray treatment the plants have stayed clean with no further damage and no marks on the new(er) foliage.

I love Dendrochilums generally, but I will always have a soft spot for D. glumaceum because it was the first one I tried. I didn't do well with it in years gone by, but now I keep them warm and quite wet they do more than tolerably well for me; as you may be able to see, this one needs potting on soon.

As is always the case when one takes a break citing lack of things to post about as an excuse, there is now a lot of stuff to get through in the near future, but it is TTFN for now.