From: francis quesada pallares
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Seed pod aborted.
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 09:00

My Den has decided to abort the pollinated flower
halfway through making a seed pod.

I know that it had ariginally taken the pollen, as the
flower itself whilted, but the stem attaching it to
the spike got bright green and started to swell. Now,
a month after it started, I found the flower on the
floor this morning. The plant is still looking
healthy, and the cane where the pollinated flower was
is fat and big.

Do you know the reasons why a plant might decide to
abort the process of making seed?

Francis.

From: Max Redman
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Seed pod aborted.
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 09:55

Francis,
This can be a very common problem not only with Dendrobiums but with most
other genera.
There are many reasons why it happens and it can be as simple as the fact
that the plant was too young to the fact that perhaps although the seed pod
appeared to be growing it was in fact the equivalence to a false pregnacy.
I do a lot of hybridizing in a number of different genera and it is one of
thos things that just happens.
Better luck next time.
Cheers
Max.

From: hedrick kwan
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Seed pod aborted.
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 13:50

Hi Francis
From my experience there are some plants within the
genus that are not compatable within...I believe it
does not happen with primary hybrids but with complex
hybrids it does happens.
Also it might depend on the polydi level. If the plant
is 2N and 4N, it is fertile but if a 'freak' plant
that has 3N and 5N is produced it is non fertile. A
good example of a non fertile plants are seedless
watermelons, their plodi levels are 3N.
If the pollen or ovale are not fertile, both will show
the symptoms of fertilization but no reporduction
takes place and there is pod abortion. Its just the
plants natural way of saying...no point spending
energy on an empty pod though I have experiences where
I get fat pods but the seeds are totally
non-viable..now thats another issue on its own.
Hope this helps.

From: Ann
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Marks on Leaves
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 06:40

Hi can anyone help with this problem i have a Orchid which has now turned up
with Cream coloured Blotching on the Leaves the stems and roots are normal
this is the only plant that seems to have this problem
Thanks for any assistance given Ann.

From: Geoffrey Hands
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] RE: various
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 09:45

I think of filiforme beiung rather more starry - longer, thinner (
narrower ) petals - but I suspect this is an orchid grown under different
names by different people !
Geoff

Andy Mckeown wrote:

Thanks Geoff. I did wonder if it was cobbianum but thought the flowers
too small. I also thought filiforme?

From: Jon Loose
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Marks on Leaves
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 10:55

Hi Ann
Could it be scorch marks from water on the leaves? What shape are the
blotches?

From: Geoffrey Hands
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: FW: WOC
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 13:45

More , at some length, maybe - at present I have a lot of plants to pot up ,
and another 120 e-mails still to read , etc. etc.

However, the show was (predicably) organised awfully badly - I found I had
paid 250 Euros for myself and wife to enter the show on two days - and that
was in 2003 at the cheapest rate. On the day we could have got in for 25
Euro each.
And I got no registrants pack , no programme, was told I was not allowed to
attend lectures, was denied a lecture programme ( if one existed ! )and had
to enter by the back door, which was almost a 10 minute walk right round
the block , from where buses ( when not on strike) or taxis delivered one -
the general public could get in through the front door....In short I was
ripped off, and for the doubtful pleasure of having subsided the show more
than a year ahead , paid 5 times as much as if I had gone in as a member of
the public.
Nowhere on the programme which I bought, or anywhere else that I could find,
were the opening hours and days advertised - you just turned up and hoped
they would be open....

One trade stand had their orchids seized, searched, rifled through , and
flasks broken ( including the rare Phrag kovacii , at US$ 500 per flask),
before being delivered back by the CITES police after the trader had lost 3
days of sales , with the information "it all seems to be in order"....Of
course this is not (?) to be laid at the door of the organisers.

OSGB won the award for the best small ( below 25 Sq.metres) stand by an
amateur organisation ( they had a little help from a supply of 50 superb
phallys bought from Orchid Answers the day before the show - one of which
won a gold medal...)

Bournemouth OS collected more prizes and ribbons than any other stand with
the exception of The Eric Young Foundation - or so I was told by an OSGB
stand arranger - maybe 23 or 24 in all. Personally I got a first for a
Zygonara and a second in one of the Paph species classes with
P.victoria-mariae.

The show was arranged in about 4 halls including upper floors , but they
were very dark , even black , with just the stands lit . A lot of fountains,
and the usual razz-ma-tazz , and a lot of what we would call Municiple Parks
and Gardens displays ( Ville de Colmar, etc etc ) often with no orchids at
all , or a bed of 100 identical small white phals, and so on.

The trade sales stands ,including a lot of Taiwanese and South American
ones, were quite utterly out-of-this-world fantastic . Phals and cattleyas
to drive the anthusiast mad.Species I had heard of but never dreamt to see
on offer, and so on . And they had small plants of the most expensive ones
marked down at E15 ( say £10)in some cases. I had to go and buy a suitcase
for my purchases - well I have not bought anything for 12 months or
more,that's my excuse, and I did have a few sq.metres of space, although
not any more . In fact I had to go and buy another bag too - when I was
given some rather nice but rather large vandaceous plants from Singapore
Botanics but they did not quite fill it, so back to the trade displays....

I'm not going to tell you about the restaurants or the wine - (Chablis and
Nuits St.George were on my itinerary , since they are off message , and you
might start to drool..) but when we got back this morning , we cancelled our
planned trip to the Spanish pyrenees in September , and started planning one
to Burgundy instead..

geoff

From: Geoffrey Hands
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Seed pod aborted.
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 13:45

The pod had not necessarily "taken" just because of what you saw. What
actually happens when you apply pollen to the viscid surface is that
proteins in the pollen lock on to receptors on the stigma, and new proteins
result ; then a tube starts to grow - obviously needing plant energy and
resources ( it is not created from the pollen, but its growth is initiated
by the pollen). When the tube grows down the ovary to the loci where the
seeds will be, each has to lock on to a respective proto-seed (this may not
be the correct word) and that again calls for a protein/receptor fit. If it
happens, this sends a signal ( not sure how) back up the tube, and the
gamete makes its journey to meet its destiny - down the tube; and if the
gamete and proto-seed are compatible, there is fusion - or maybe there is
fusion anyway but not necessarily a DNA match capable of beginning meiosis
( i.e. a chromosome mis-match). However if all is well, then the seed can
start to develop. I am told that it can be 6-8 weeks after pollination
before that happens , but obviously it depends on the plant and the culture.

So , the whole extremely complex process can easily go wrong at any one of
rather more stages than I have mentioned ( since some of the protein changes
are sequence-steps, where the needful protein is only produced way down the
line.

I think I have most of this correct - it is my recollection of what I have
learnt talking to the real experts or even correspoinding with them before
the days of e-mail - over the years. It leaves me saying "ain't nature
wonderful" and wondering how it ever got to be this like after life was
first invented, even if there have been a few billion years for trial and
error developments .

Geoff

From: dennis READ
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: WOC
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 20:35

Geoff, you were really done. On friday my wife and I arrived at about 11.00am. and the car parks were full. We took a chance and parked half on the pavement like all the French, thus saving a 3Eu parking charge. We then queued for about 5 min. and paid 12.50Eu to get in. As you say 2 ground floor halls -one for Florrissimo and one for orchids if you could find them amongst the hundreds of Phallys. In my opinion it was not an Orchid Show but a Flowering arrangers show.
The best orchid stand ,for my money, was No 76 Christiansen Orchideen with some fantastic specimen orchids -I hope they got some awards. The most original display was 43 -Ville D'Orleans.
The food hall was an eye opener and the plant sales were magnificent.
On the saturday we drove north and ended up in a snow storm down to -1C. totally unexpected and not funny.
The plants I had ordered from Ecuagenera were as good as usual.so in general an acceptable holiday with good food and good wine.
But in future I will go to RHS ,Newbury or the Devon week- end if that is what a WOC is about.
regards Dennis Read

From: Theta Sigma
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Recognize this?
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 00:35

I was hoping someone on the list would recognize this colorful orchid!
It was a gift so I haven't much of a clue as to its name.
Many thanks!

-=mark=-

From: jns tropic
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] WOC
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 04:55

I sent Geoffs note to a friend and this was his reply.

What show is Geoff talking about, and where was
it? Belgium? (Sounds like France from the organization
or lack thereof. What a drag!) Certainly no British
or American show would be so poorly run. In Miami?
Never!!

My reply: It was in Dijon. The complaints have been
active and started two months before the show.

My friends reply: Thanks; evidently Dijon is better
for mustard than for orchid shows!

Miami has a history of having the ability to put on a
great WOC. Come and see what we can do now. Geoff we
really are a safe area. In the last two weeks I have
talked to three English tourists passing my front
yard. The elderly couple (nearly my age) liked
gardens so I showed them my garden and the 20 year old
said that he felt quite safe in South Florida.

Enclosed is a picture of one of my Spathaglottis
clones in mid January.

From: James H
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: mail
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 08:25

i have a militonopsis that i fertilized and it grew a pod, but this
pod stopped growing and is just green and has been like that for
10months, there is even new growth all around the pod, i read that it
should have been done at 6 months.
the pod isnt very fat its only about 1/4" and 4" long.
James

From: Geoffrey Hands
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Fwd: Recognize this?
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 10:20

It's a Miltoniopsis hybrid. Could be any one of maybe severaL hundred.

At one time I had a lot of these - approaching a hundred different hybrids -
which means a hundred different labels. But I could sort them out into
identical flowers under different names, and then I had maybe a dozen
different ones.

This is not to say that orchid dealers are crooks . Its just that anyone can
make a new hybrid, and register it under a new name, but these are all
shuffling the genes around from only 2 or 3 different species in the
background, and naturally they keep coming up with the same result.Ever so
occasionally, they do find a new one - more by mutation than anything else .
But these are hnot long-lived orchids, and its notable the way they appear
on the shelves and then disappear again.
Who sees a waterfall type on offer nowadays ? And only a few years ago they
were the latest thing.Yet the original breeding ( e.g. M.venus )- goes back
to the 1920s . A pity really !.

If any member wants to get into hybridising , this is a good place - they do
get up to flowering size very quickly if you have the right conditions. (
Like 2 years from flask).But you will have to work hard to find poarents -
unless you back to South America and star again with species.

Geoff

From: Geoffrey Hands
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Re: WOC
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 10:30

Those sphathoglottis really are lovely ; I have admired the large colour
range of them in the markets in Thailand - but alas no one seems to offer
them in UK. Yours is a super plant.

As to Miami in 2011 (if WOC is there) my wife and I will have a combined age
of 164 years by that time- if we are both still here - and I doubt if we
shall be into long flights by then - I am having a lot of difficulty
dragging her to Sikkim and Bhutan next year even with a promise ( fingers
crossed behind my back) that we certainly shall see tigers ( the animals,
not tiger-lilies).
And its certainly time we stopped raising century plants - which take 100
years to flower -from seed ( joke ).

Geoff

From: aeranthes
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: photo
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 12:05

Wonderful photos today thanks for sharing - a colourful start to my day. Mark, some years ago, I had an orchid which looked exactly like the one in your photos. I know it's a Miltoniopsis but can't remember the exact name - not much help I'm sorry but I have a strong feeling that someone on our list will have it or know the correct name. - Jean

From: Ron Newstead
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Re: WOC
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 14:35

Speaking as another one who was "done" by the (presumably) French
organisers of the WOC, I enjoyed the Boca Raton Show which I visited
with you, Jordan, and at much less cost!
Cheers
Ron

From: jns tropic
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Re: Another Spathoglottis for Geoff
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 03:45

Geoff liked my first Spath. so I'm posting another one. This plant is less vigorous, but it is still small. The other one had been in the yard for nine months when that picture was taken. I was given to me with three spikes and two mature bulbs. It has been in bloom the entire time. It was just repotted into four large pots. Around here Spathoglottis plicata is a beding plant and it's very popular.

From: Roger Grier
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Spath.
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:50

Hi 'JNS Tropic',

How to spoil someone's day..........show them the photo of your Spathoglottis, and tell them it is a bedding plant. Oh well, we can dream!!

It certainly is a very good flower, and the lovely clean leaves.

Thanks for showing us the photo.

Regards, Rocky.

From: Geoffrey Hands
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Another Spathoglottis for Geoff
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 15:15

That is a stunner - I have not seen anything like that in Thailand (
althouhgh I have seen a wide range of colours there ).
Of course it is grown as a bedding plant in the tropics , at least I have
seen it in Barbados and other WI is;lands, and in Columbia etc. Not surte
where it originated ?

Thanks for the pic.

Geoff

jns tropic wrote:

Geoff liked my first Spath. so I'm posting another one.

From: aeranthes2
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: spath
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 10:55

A truly wonderful orchid jns and I'm green with envy! How wonderful to be
able to grow it in a border like that! - Jean

From: L de Leon
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Re: Oncidium Question
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 11:05

Folks,

I purchased a couple of oncidium and intend to repot it off the current
plastic pots after flowering. I was thinking of using terra cotta with
plenty of holes until I saw a specimen in wooden slat basket and it looked
great.

Can I repot my oncidium into this or should I grow one from a smaller plant
which will grow into the basket? It probably sounds like a silly question:
Can you teach old orchids new tricks?

Regards,
Luis

From: suzy
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Oncidium Question
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 18:55

Dear Leon,

I think an oncidium should grow ok in a basket, or on a bark raft. they are
epiphytes so should adapt readily i would have thought. I have a miniature
specimin that i am growing up a bit of old tree root.

hope that heps

suzy

From: Roger Grier
To: Orchid Talk List
Subject: Potting/Basketing of Oncidiums.
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 19:45

Hi Luis,

If your E-mail address tells me the truth and you live in Australia, then do by all means have a go at doing whatever you think best for your Oncidiums. I see no wrong in either of your two choices.

Exactly what type on Oncidiums do you have there?

I have had one of the small yellow flowered varieties growing on a piece of cork bark for many years.

Regards, Rocky.

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