Wednesday 28 March 2012

Recent orchid blooms

In the last few weeks, some of the orchids have been blooming again. Not all, mind you, but just some of them. The two pictures below show the ones that have been flowering quite regularly, and they both come with a deep fragrance:

(Above) The flowers are quite small, hardly half an inch across, and last four days at most but they exude a distinct chocolaty fragrance in the mornings. (Below) The flowers are most lasting and can usually last several weeks. And each day, the air would be filled with the fragrance of vanilla.

I always break into a smile when I see this cirrhopetalum spiking. It doesn't occur often, though, maybe twice or thrice in a year but every time it does, I'll just go out to the plant and wonder at the creamy white flowers. As can be seen in the picture below, I was rewarded with two spikes recently.


But the best present in recent weeks were these three orchid plants below. This first one had not flowered for a very long time. I would suspect that it was because of my wanton efforts in trimming them. So much so that it affected the plant's growth. It used to flower rather often previously but had been barren for at least the past year. Barren, that is, until now.


The other two were a different story altogether. Due to some carelessness on my part, these two plants had almost died. Fortunately, I was able to keep a small part of these plants alive. And after looking after them for almost three years, they suddenly rewarded me with these flowers.

(Above) This is another cirrhopetalum orchid. The flowers are arranged semi-circularly at the end of the spike. It lasted only about a week but I enjoyed every day of its blossom. (Below) A bit strange that this orchid no longer produces any fragrance. Before, there was also a hint of fragrance in the air whenever I came close to it. The flowers should last a few more weeks.




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