White Cymbidium Orchids

My white cymbidium orchids have bloomed recently and even though they are already only a faded memory by now, I wanted to blog about them because they have been so pretty.

Here I have cut only two flower stalks for the house, but what an impact they have. White perfection!

I really can't get over, how beautiful and blemish free the blooms are.

Two years ago I bought this white flowering unlabeled cymbidium orchid for a very reasonable price at Traeder Joe's.

The blooms were almost spent when I got it, but I couldn't resist the white beautiful flowers.

 Last year it was just sitting in my garden doing nothing, but this year, with no care except one dose of fish fertilizer prior to the winter time, it decided to produce four lovely flower stalks.

The individual blooms are marvelous. 

The cymbidium (two stalks were cut for the vase already) was still growing in its original ugly plastic container...

...and it was more than time to pot it up into a much nicer terracotta container. I think it also needed a little bit more space to grow, even though I remember vaguely that I have heard that orchids bloom better when they are pot bound.

Usually cymbidium orchids last a long time on the plant and in the vase, but this variety is an exception. Its blooms were spend much faster than my other two varieties. Still, it is well worth growing, don't you think?

After enjoying the vase from the opening photo of this post for a few days in front of the fire place in our family living room, I was ready for a change and placed it into a niche located in our formal living room.

I really like the still life effect with the orchid blooms in front of the vintage mirror, that I bought in Albuquerque, New Mexico a few years ago. The large candle stick was a lovely birthday gift from a dear friend and the handmade clay vase, that looks like a cow horn, lying to the feet of the orchids, was a souvenir that we brought back from our last trip to England. So many lovely memories...

If you got into the orchid mood and want to read a previous post that I had written about a different variety of cymbidium orchids earlier on the blog please click here.

See you in the garden!

Christina

Cymbidium Orchids

February is the time when my cymbidium orchids are starting to bloom and each year I am looking very much forward to this event. They are native to Southeast Asia, but San Diego seems to provide an ideal climate for them to grow and bloom as long as they are watered. Cymbidiums can take temperatures down to 28 degrees  F/-2 degrees C for a brief periode of time and that is exactly as cold as it ever has gotten here, since we bought our property four years ago. So far I only have two varieties (unfortunately I do not know the names of neither one), but I would love to grow more of them in the future.

(you can click on the photos to enlarge)
 

Cymbidiums are available with white, green, pink, yellow, or bronze/brown blooms. Standard cymbidiums can produce 12 or more flowers per flower spike and the individual blooms are 3 to 5 inch tall. They have a light, sweet, exotic fragrance, but nothing to get too excited about.

Flowers of my red variety are emerging on the stems.

Here you can see the developing flower buds on my light green variety. This one seems to want to bloom much later than the red one so no more photos of it for now. It also produces year after year reliably more flower stems per plant in comparison to the red variety.

I grow my cymbidium orchids in terracotta containers outside in a shady location at the North side of the house. Only for the photo shooting my husband carried this pot into the sun. For the soil I use a mixture of orchid bark and simple organic potting soil, since cymbidiums are terrestrial orchids. Usually it is recommended to get special fertilizers formulated for orchids to feed these plants, but the ones that I found in local nurseries were only very high dose chemical fertilizers, which I do not buy because I garden organically. Instead I give my cymbidium orchids organic rose fertilizer in the beginning of the winter to encourage blooms and they seem to do just fine. The rest of the year they get a sip of organic fish and seaweed fertilizer every once in a while. By the way, I counted six flower stems on the one shown in the photo above.

Close-up of a single flower. I am by no means an orchid expert, but what I do think is unusual in terms of this variety is the very dark burgundy inner part of the bloom in comparison to the much lighter pink outer petals. I got this orchid many years ago from a friend, who is totally into orchids. I think, she choose a particular beautiful cultivator for me as a birthday present. It is so nice to get plants from friends, since they always remind me of them. Thanks Petia!

The blooms last a long time on the plant. They are very good as cut flowers, too, and have there a long vase life as well. Since we had four days of rain in the forecast I cut three flower stems for indoors to save the blooms.

The flowers opened nicely up all the way to the end of the flower stems after I cut them and brought them into the warmth of the house. They are now adorning a vintage desk close to our dining room table. It is an interesting visual effect that you get by placing cut flowers in front of a mirror. The reflection of the cymbidium flower stems makes them even look more sumptuous.

At the end another close-up. I just couldn't stop taking pictures of these beauties...

See you in the garden!

Christina