Hello Tony,
I'm not knowledgeable about the orchids but I'm here in central Victoria where it's springtime. I have growing in my garden some pterostylis which have been consistently popping up and flowering when the slugs don't get to them. I have a few glossodia majors in pots and a couple of sun orchids (thelymitras). I have a diuris (solitary little golden moth orchid) and some leek orchids. Where I'm living, the environment has been changed so much by agriculture that there seem to be no native orchid species around. I think they've died out from around here.

Tony: What do you want to talk about? My Thelymitra carneas flowered while I was in WA (thanks for the info guys - Stirlings were brilliant) and now have big fat pods. I've got several leeks flowering at the moment, and another bunch of thelys about to flower.

Anyone ever gotten seed of their helmut orchids? mine flower but never produce pods. Considering they are local to my area I would have thought the pollenators were around.

Saw lots of nice spiders in WA, and C. flava everywhere (we called them 'flava flows').

I've got a whole pile of flasked diuris ready to come out.

Pick a topic and we can talk :)

Tony
Have been growing native orchids ,since last century my interest is Dens. Have a large collection of den.speciosium
King orchid as well as many others, at the moment getting seeds propagated of greenhoods which set seed ( at last ) due to drought conditions in our area.If you need to discuss growing conditons or after some plants keep in touch, have attached orchids to various trees in my garden and with the growing conditions of Seattle you would have no issues growing them there.

Cheers mate
Sye.

I am not very knowledgeable about growing these plants but am very familiar with both Cymbidium suave and C. canaliculatum in their native habitat. They are generally found in the Dry Sclerophyll Forests of the Central Queensland where they grow in the hollow limbs and forks of trees such as Ironbarks. Their roots are massive, often completely filling the dead tree for several metres and for the full diameter of the pipe. The leaves are stiff and strappy and of a light olive green colour. C.canaliculatum is also called the black orchid on account of the browny/black flower. C. suave has a more delicate leaf, more "grassy" in appearance and the flower is smaller and more of a yellow/green colour. C. suave has a very strong and pleasant scent which is quite obvious when you come across one, in the bush. They are both easy to transplant and will survive well in the garden, but do not like much water. In their native habitat they enjoy, probably, less than 30 inches of rainfall per year and that in a short wet season from January to March. The rest of the year can be very dry. It is not unusual to see C. suave plants growing in every third or fourth tree in areas where they are common.
Grant

Tony seems very chatty doesn't he? I thought they had good coffee in Seattle!

cheers, mudlark

Are there any cold hardy terestrial orchids in australia? Down to -10 degress Fahrenheit I don't know what that is in celsius probably -4 degress celsius. -10 degrees fahrenheit is the same number of degrees below freezing that room temperature is above freezing.

klavier,
quite a few of the australian terrestrials grow in alpine areas, particularly Th. ixiodes, Cal. alpina and numerous Leeks (Prasophyllum). They grow in areas with snow for more than 3 months quite happily. I've seen Dendrobium kingianum grown in rural victoria with hard frosts (in the ground, what's more!), and only some leaf damage. However, -10F = -23C, which sounds too cold for anywhere on the mainland, tassie or macquarrie island, and there are no orchids in the AAT. The coldest temp in australia is probably only -10C for a few days at most.

Oh darn, Thanks anyway. We tend to get pretty good snow cover and with straw and leaf mulch I have been able to over winter plants that are more sensitive. Plants that are only supposed to be hardy down to 10 degrees fahrenheit.

Hello Tony,
I live in the top end of the Northern Territory, tropical with two seasons, wet and dry. Not much like yours but some of our orchids should grow for you. My mother lives in Gig Harbour, I've never been there but I understand your winters are cool and wet but not freezing?? C. canaliculatum and C. suave grow in a variety of different habitats over here. I have seen them in Far North Queensland and N.T. and I have also seen them as far south as Sydney. I know they grow in sheltered gardens as far south as Melbourne. Both have highly variable flower colours, leaf sizes and growth habits. I have one miniature form of C. canaliculatum with flowers so deep purple you would swear they were black. I also have one which is light tan almost yellow.