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Orchid Flasking Medium
While the wide variety of the Oncidium orchid makes it difficult to be recognized, it surely gives one a great deal of satisfaction knowing and growing them; here with only one family you can have the whole repertoire of plants from small to large in all colors possible.
For best results, ensure that the orchid arrangement is completed one day before the event.
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The Art of Making a Silk Orchid Flower
Silk was first developed in China, where silkworms and mulberry trees lived naturally. To produce silk fabric, weavers must collect silkworm larvae, and first spin it, as almost any other natural fiber, then weave the fine threads.
Hand-Made Silk Flowers
This fine fabric, perhaps first woven 8,000 years ago, was originally reserved for the Chinese Imperial family. Just as they developed the first silk garments, they developed the first silk flowers. A ladys elegant costume might include a silk orchid flower, or some other type of bloom, tucked into her hair.
As knowledge of silk cultivation spread west, so did the art of making artificial flowers. By the 1100s, Italians were making these flowers, and they probably produced a silk orchid flower, among many other varieties.
Machine-Made Silk Flowers
Until this point, artificial flowers, like almost everything else, had been hand-made. But as Europe experienced the industrial revolution, they invented machines to help make more life-like silk plants.
The Powerhouse Museum of Sydney, Australia displays an excellent late-Victorian machine used to make artificial flowers. This little machine looks something like a small die press, but in fact, it was the culmination of Victorian flower-making technology.
A flower-maker would use dies in this press to cut flower petals out of silk or other fabric. He would have had many sets of dies to produce different species of flowers. Though a silk orchid flower may have only five or six petals, the next step, shaping the blossom, would take some patience.
Silk flower petals were then joined together using glue and wires. Then each petal was shaped with a warm soldiering iron and molds that fit the curvature of various flowers. The final step was dyeing and painting, which on some species of silk orchid flower, must have taken hours on each petal.
Today, artificial flowers usually do not contain any actual silk, unless they are very fine pieces of art. Other materials, like polyester, muslin, and satin are much easier and cheaper to work with. However, in a nod to the old art of artificial flower making, most blossoms are still referred to as silk flowers.
What was once exclusive, available only to the richest members of society, is now every where. Not only in arrangements, but also a silk orchid flower might make a nice, everlasting Mothers Day corsage or a decoration on a wedding dress.
"You can do the same process at home."
"Often, the groups meet to discuss a certain species of orchid and share details on how best to make the species bloom."
Orchids News
Laelia caulescens (lonely Christmas Star)
Tenebrosas had gone, purpuratas had gone, Stanhopeas are in spike yet....Christmas without orchids? NO!!! Laelia caulescens (just one single flower!) is there!! A little rupiculous (lithophytic) star for Christmas! Attached Thumbnails
Keiki su stelo fiorale di Paphiopedilum bellatulum
Raro fenomeno di filiazione su stelo fiorale di Paphiopedilum bellatulum La filiazione delle orchidee un fenomeno abbastanza frequente, la possiamo considerare una delle loro tre forme riproduttive naturali; fecondazione - semina, divisione e filiazione appunto. In altra parte del blog si gi illustrato questo fenomeno. La rarit dellevento, almeno per me, sta nel fatto che il keiki si formato su di uno stelo di Phapiopedilum. Per la verit, come si pu notare nella foto sopra,
A Place of Beauty
Wanted to share some pictures my daughter snapped during our visit to Gallup & Stribling's Orchid farm. G&S is one of my favorite places - the orchids are breathtaking. The farm occupies 48 acres along the central California coast just south of Santa Barbara. If you get the chance to visit, be prepared to walk away with a beauty or two (G&S warehouse prices make them irresistible - my house and yard enclosure are a testimony to that fact).
Cattleya guttata
Well-known species, this clone is heavily spotted and intensely perfumed. Attached Thumbnails
Gongora bufonia: orchidea rospo
Stava passando quasi inosservata la prima fioritura di una nuova orchidea giunta qualche mese fa nella mia serra, ma un attenta osservazione dei suoi fiori mi ha consigliato qualche approfondimento e le sorprese non sono mancate. Lorchidea fiorita una specie appartenente al genere Gongora e precisamente Gongora bufonia Collezione Guido De Vidi - foto 26.12.07 Gongora bufonia Lindl., Edwardss Bot. Reg. 27: t. 2 (1841). Sinonimi:Gongora maculata var. bufonia (Lindl.) C.Schweinf., Bot.
Anticipation Time
For us who grow Stanhopea orchids in Australia, Christmas time is the most exiting period with a lot of anticipation the earlier varieties starting sending flower spikes through the sides and bottom of the planters. This will continue until about March April when later flowering varieties start growing their flowers. Even though the flowers short-lived, its possible to surround yourself with flowering Stanhopeas for a few months each year.
Rossioglossum grande
This once belonged to the Odontoglossum genus. Rossioglossum grande is a giant Oncidium-like flower. I've seen here plants with twelve to fifteen of these huge flowers per stem! Attached Thumbnails
Many of those having a palate for vanilla, perhaps, know that natural vanilla comes from the seedpods of one species of orchids, the Vanilla planifolia.
Examples include the Hawaii Orchid Growers Association, the Delaware Orchid Society, the Florida West Coast Orchid Society and the Kentucky Orchid Society.
Other Orchids Article Excerpts:
Miniature Blue Orchid
"If so, repot the orchid plant and decrease the frequency of watering."
Calvin Klein Purple Orchid
"Proper and adequate fertilizer should be provided on a regular basis to these plants, and the mature White Dendrobiums require a 15 to 20F difference between night and day."
Orchid Mall
"What was once exclusive, available only to the richest members of society, is now every where."
Wild Orchid Songs
"This is why an orchid corsage is such a popular Mother’s Day gift."
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