Trip to Kenya - Part 1 Orchids and Warthogs

Mavis relaxing 

I have been very negligent with this blog - my new years resolution is to resurrect it and actually make some posts !

I feel very inspired due to my most recent trip home to Kenya to visit family and since I got back to England I have been extra nice to all my orchids which have sadly been neglected due to a house move just a few weeks ago. It  has been an extremely busy time with moving and then going away for a few weeks so they have been left to their own ends somewhat. (I think my Chiloschista may have expired)

I made a special effort to photograph all the orchids I came across, I did have a few camera malfunctions but I hope this gives an idea of where and how these orchids grow.

Despite my love of orchids I am afraid I have no idea which these Kenyan orchids are. (I have requested Orchids of Kenya by Joyce Stewart for my birthday!)  I did ask for names but no one knew, they are just "orchids"! They grow like weeds and you know how it is with the weeds in your own garden - you don't really pay much attention to them but might keep the ones with the pretty flowers!
In Kenya, orchids are often given when you visit friends or relatives and have a stroll around the garden. Cuttings are given of various plants you admire, and the orchids are just another plant to break a piece off. Its so easy to grow them out there, you just take it home find a tree with a fork or convenient nook and either just place it if it will stay, or tie it on with a bit of old string and forget about it. In a few months they look as though they have always been there - oh the envy!

These photos were taken in Nairobi in the garden of one of my cousins just before Christmas. It is laid to lawn with indigenous trees. She enjoys her garden but is unable to have flowerbeds as such as the suburb she lives in is adjacent to Nairobi National Park. This means there is a Warthog highway which runs through the area as they are very partial to a nice spot of grazing and rooting in a lushly watered garden or two! Mavis until recently has been the resident Warthog, a somewhat matronly and very tame animal that made her residence underneath the guest house. Visitors were not known to have a good nights sleep when competing with the snores emanating from Mavis's burrow beneath the floor boards! 

My cousin resigned herself to the fact that Mavis had every right to stay so had to garden accordingly. Mavis loved to sunbathe on the lawn with the dogs in relative peace until unwelcome suitors came to court her. She was an old girl and pretty much past it, so my cousin would rush to her aid when they came calling. She made it quite clear that in her retirement she had no interest in Hogs, and merely wanted a quiet life lying about or having a roll in the shade. Poor Mavis went off one day and never re-appeared. We still remember Mavis very fondly and the stories about defending her honour are retold and cause much hilarity, she did after all help shape this garden where most things are out of reach, hence the orchids and air plants.

Our holiday was just at the tail end of the short rains in December and daytime temps were just a little over the mid 20's c. Night  temps were in high teens to low 20's c. The humidity was moderate but not uncomfortable. It can get very cold at certain times of the year down to 8 or so degrees c at night.

Two orchids at the edge of the garden in a tree in shade most of the day. The garden has been cleared from the surrounding bush and woodland and grass planted. There is no fence as you can see behind this tree where the edge of the garden is, immediately the thick bush starts.

 

This orchid had been moved recently and was not very happy, I suggested a cooler more shady spot as it was in a very exposed, hot part of the garden.

 The basket and orchid above came from her mother in laws garden, the name tag is nothing to do with the orchid. As far as I could tell the baskets were filled with a mixture of leaf litter and twigs that had broken down to a loose but dry composty consistency.

An air plant flowering.

Below - this air plant had the tiniest green flowers.

 The only orchid in flower (apart from Ansellia africana in a later post)

Seedlings - sibling rivalry

Lovely as it is to buy a fully grown, flowering sized orchid, don't you wonder where its been all its life? Usually a considerable few years before it comes to you.

Its always satisfying keeping your orchids alive and coaxing them into re-flowering for you. Of course if you buy a fully grown near blooming size plant, the chances are considerably greater and the wait is much much shorter than if you start with a seedling. The reward of growing seedlings into 'grown up' plants is all the sweeter when the work has been all your own. ( Well mostly, apart from the the pollinating and the flasking and then the de-flasking!)

Seedlings can be much more sensitive to a change in culture conditions, and prefer to be slightly warmer and not dry out too much.
Saying that, I don't pander to them too much as I feel if they cant adapt to my growing conditions quickly, then the sooner they turn their toes up the better!
So far they have all accepted their fate and done supprisingly well and proved to be far tougher than I always believed.
I keep my seedlings amongst my other orchids and make sure that I check they don't dry out, or get any direct sunlight on them.

My smallest seedlings are in two inch community pots of Dendrobium primulinum and Dendrobium anosmum. I have had them since Feburary and they are doing well. There are about four or five seedlings in each pot with seedling bark. To prevent the tiny peices of bark from either being tipped out or flushed out whenever I move or water them, I cut up an old pair of winter tights into small circles - snipped a tiny hole which I then stretch and secure over the top of the pot.
The seedlings are so tiny and with not enough root system to secure them into their pots, they uproot easily if they are disturbed in any way. And being such teeny lightweight pots they have a tendancy to tip over or move with the slightest touch, the fabric makes them much  more secure and easier to handle.

They have begun to produce tiny new growths but I have noticed that some of them seem to be growing on top of their neighbours! Not only on top of but abut half way up too. I can only presume when they were crowded in the flask that they took root and began to develop as and where they were. When they were de-flasked they were obviously potted in their little clumps to disturb them as little as possible.
My dilemma at the moment is whether I try to separate them now before they get too attached to each other or leave them for a while...

Update;

Above and below are recent photos after almost exactly a year - I wrote the draft for this post and quite a while ago. 

I have separated some of the seedlings as the ones not growing directly in the bark started to die off as their hosts got taller and their little roots got further away from the bark. I potted them into little clay pots with slightly larger bark and they are now about double in size. A few of the smaller seedlings died off but I still have more than enough to experiment with.

Gastrochilus japonicus - The Yellow Pine Orchid

Gastrochilus japonicus are a miniature, warm to cool growing epiphyte found in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan in mountainous regions on pine trees, other broad leaf trees, branches and trunks.
They do best mounted in semi shade and enjoy generous watering year round.


This little plant is one that I ordered when I joined the 2011 Spring Project on The Orchid Board forum. 
The idea is that everyone who wishes to take part, purchases the plant that various polls determine. The orchid is usually an intermediate grower, so as not to pose too much difficulty for most people to provide its temperature requirements.
Everyone buys the plant at around the same time, and then updates and shares everything about it. What condition and size it is when it arrives, your growing conditions and how you plan to care for it. 
The updates continue as it flourishes or declines in your care.
The best thing about it is that it is usually a plant that you might not consider growing and is a great way of introducing you to plants outside your 'comfort zone.'


The plant grew well and it flowered last December.  It spiked of the main plant and from its keiki's on either side. The mama plants spike started to open first then followed by the left keiki, then on the right. And the scent was lovely, quite citrussy. I think it had about 70 blooms if my memory serves me correct.


I keep it in my Bathroom hanging off my Ascocenda Suksamran Sunshine in front of a south facing window. It gets showered every morning with quite hard tap water and sprayed with a hand pump at about midday if its warm and sunny, and then again at about 3pm if its hot and sunny.
It gets fed once a week with organic liquid seaweed when it soaks in the bath for about an hour or longer if I get distracted.
I have started adding a very dilute amount of growth orchid fertiliser to the spray bottle that I spray the Ascocenda  with as it has started new growth, hence the Gastrochilus also is now getting this treatment.
It is growing lots of new roots and a lot of the old ones are branching with new tips. It has new leaves and little nubs I'm hoping are spikes. 

Temperature wise it gets up to the top end of the twenties in the summer or low thirties.
At the moment its 19 to 25c on a sunny day.
In the winter top temps are about 19 to 22c when the heating is on and lowest at night of 13c but usually about 15c.
I have put up sheets of opaque paper along two thirds of the window to diffuse the sun now it is that time of year it is getting stronger. 
The last third is where a couple of Ansellia africana and two Myrmecophila get lots of sun.

It did have a touch of frost bite in the winter when I stupidly put it too close to the window. The newest two leaves that had started to develop on the main plant died and have shrivelled but still are firmly attached to the plant. The leaves also became slightly dehydrated as I was giving it a slight rest to see how it reacted. It didn't appreciate this treatment at all so I began to water it generously again everyday and it recovered almost immediately.


I would recommend anyone to try this miniature as easy to grow and will flower several times a year.