Sunset Valley Orchids (SVO). Lovely blooms by the way.

What is the winter treatment like for the Australian dendrobiums. Are they all treated like Den kingies over winter?

I was expecting some exotic Australian bon mot, Sunset Valley Orchids!! Fred Clark is getting around.

Nick

This orchid demonstrates the problem with using Dendrobium speciosum as a parent. It is dominant, so the quarter influence of Den. bigibbum and tetragonum does not appear in the bloom. The half speciosum dominates.

I cannot recall ever seeing Den. Hilda's Heart at a society meeting or show.

The local orchid society "winter" show held in August is dominated by Cymbidiums and Australian Native Dendrobium species and hybrids.

Move forward to the "spring" show in October and the genera shown are Cattleyas, Cymbidiums with Australian Cymbidiums in the breeding, Sarcochilus and Nobile type Dendrobiums.

Hi Greencurls, your question highlights the problem of different climates. The treatment here consists of growing them in a 30 x 15 (feet) shade-house exposed to the weather. An extra layer of shade-cloth is put on in the warmer months and removed for the cooler months. The climate here is east coast erratic. 300 sunny days evenly distributed. Heavy rain can fall at any time of year. Apart from removing some shade-cloth there are reduced waterings during winter and none unless the day promises to be sunny.

I have bumped things off with this bone dry stuff (in a glass-house).

Fred Clarke is getting heavily into the Australian dendrobium hybrids these days. I believe he even has several AOS awarded ones. I ordered a couple of interesting hybrids from him but they are probably a couple of years away.

Arthur - Thanks for the response. I wish it would be that simple for the midwest growers. With sub zero Fahrenheit temperatures outside, moving the shade clothe on and off simply won't do it it :) Right now I have most of my hybrids in the grow room sitting against a south facing glass door with supplemental light. The temps in that area are about 65 in the day and 50 at night. I have backed off watering to every 10-14 days, which is about what I do for my nobile types. All of them have continued to grow during the winter and are showing a reddish cast to the leaves. Since they are not really blooming size, I was not too too worried about their winter care this year.

Next winter I am thinking about placing my Dendrobium kingie and the Aussie dendrodiums with speciosum in a cool pantry area for the winter (I seem to do just find with the tetragonum type hybrids). The pantry in unheated and on an exterior hall of the house. So it is pretty cool - between 55-40 degrees. Of course, I would have to grow them under lights for the winter. Any thoughts?

Im wondering the same thing. Fred's australian dendrobium crosses have been getting more and more interesting. I would love it if he would remake Avril's Gold. I got a few really small rootless almost leafless divisions from Down Under Native Orchids in 2011, the last year he attended the Santa Barbara Orchid Show which are now just getting big enough to bloom. They are currently in a 10x20 growit greenhouse in Pacifica CA but I have moved to Boston and am wondering if my dendrobiums would do well under Metal Halides in a light mover in the basement during winter.

All my phals spoke regularly under lights, but Ive never really checked the temps. I brought back a bunch of divisions late december and have them pretty much in the dark on a heat mat until I can pot them up and kludge up a light once I see some root growth. It was a terrible time to divide but the mix I used in Pacifica, coconut husk, was pretty wet and breaking down, although the plants in clay pots had healthy roots, those in 10 gallon tubs only had roots at the surface and sides, the centers were devoid of live roots. Those were all outside getting winter rain and heavy doses of miracle grow.

I do not know how the international trade in orchids goes but perhaps there is a lot of swapping of commercial flasks.

The only trouble with remaking of Den. Avril's Gold is time....ages from pollination to first flowering. Sorry no idea how long but Den. Avril's gold is never cheap and i suspect the time aspect is the main reason.

There is some good news in that the aussie peso has dropped to its usual level of about 70 cents to the US Dollar, so more Australian bred orchids may become available.