January 2005 Show Table

  First Place:

     Dendrobium spectabile grown by Virginia Spackman 

Best in Show Orchid January 2005

 Dendrobium spectabile (Blume) Miq. 

The genus Dendrobium was created in1799 by Olaf Swartz. It is a very large genus containing more than 1200 species distributed from India and Sri Lanka in the west to Tahiti in the east, from Japan and Korea in the north and Australia in the south (an area recently in the news because of the devastating tsunami). They grow in a wide range of habitats extending from the moist coastal mangrove swamps to the cool mountain ridges, even invading the hot and dry savannas. Because of the large number of species in the genus, the latter is usually subdivided into what are called Asections@ to facilitate the description and discussion of the vast variety of ADendrobiums@. Dendrobium spectabile is classified into the Section Latouria which includes about 50 species which are found from the Philippines to Samoa but the center of occurrence is clearly Papua, New Guinea where some 45 species occur. 

The species Dendrobium spectabile was recognized and the name created in 1859. Its common name is The Grand Dendrobium. It is useful to realize that you may encounter Dendrobium spectabile bearing the names Dendrobium tigrinum, or, Callista spectabilis, or, Latouria spectabilis, or, Latourorchis spectabile, or, Sayeria spectabilis. These are all invalid synonyms and can be disregarded for all practical purposes. 

             The flowers of Dendrobium spectabile have been variously described as spectacular, exotic, incredible, twisted, ugly, beautiful, grotesque, fascinating, but always intriguing. The plant which was exhibited displayed twenty four cream colored flowers with rich maroon markings on two 10" racemes (stems with lateral branches bearing the flowers). In addition to bearing the flowering branches, the slender, elongate (10" to 12") pseudobulbs produce four oval leathery leaves. The blooming season is typically late winter to early spring although some growers describe the species as free flowering throughout the year. 

Growing and flowering this plant in North Carolina is not difficult. Our plant is kept on the upper shelf in our little greenhouse where it receives direct sunlight in the mornings and early afternoon (the light intensity is reduced to 70 percent by the polycarbonate walls of the greenhouse). The greenhouse has a Amisting system@ and the area is misted for one minute, three times each day in order to maintain the required humidity. In addition, all Dendrobium plants are subjected to a passing spray of water on a daily basis. During the winter the temperature ranges from a maximum of 85 degrees during the day to a minimum of 65 degrees at night. During the summer the temperature is the same as that of the surrounding area. Since last October our Dendrobiums have been fertilized using pellets of ADynamite@ a slow release fertilizer. 

Virginia and Bill Spackman

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