Nobile dens blooming now...

[dtje2000]

A couple of nobiles in bloom right now...hubby laughed when I brought them home and asked me just what I thought "those potted sticks" were gonna do...

Showed him, didn't I?

[vcuchick]

awesomeness! I have Den. envy! mine just finished their blooming...*sigh*

[Jirel]

And that is why I bought two bare root nobile dens at the last orchid show. They are beautiful! It'll be a long time before I have anything that good but I have something to look forward too.

[CharliesAngel51]

Now Hubby knows why you bought those potted sticks . Beautiful.

[kmarch]

dt your dendrobiums are GORGEOUS!!!! Very well grown and flowered. Congratulations!!!

They are not however nobiles or even nobile types. It looks like you have Den. anosum (or parishii) and Den. amethystoglossum? These are both species orchids. Nobile-types are hybrids made using Den nobile and its varieties.

The pics...and more importantly the plants are beautiful. Thanks for posting them!!!

[dtje2000]

I'm glowing... partly with glee at everyone's delight and partly from embarrassment over my orchid ignorance ...

Kevin, if I live to be triple digits I'll still not have absorbed a tiny percentage of your orchid knowledge. I (mistakely) thought that THE biggest characteristic of nobiles were the dropping of the leaves (or most) prior to blooming. Plus, I am a slave to the tags, so more times than not I'll add 2 + 2 and get any number OTHER than 4!

Den. amethystoglossom is on the tag of the fluffy white one with the touch of purple... The all-purple has Nestor on the tag but nothing else. I sure didn't do any research...just tossed the names out as tagged. I did remember, however, that you mentioned when the second word (epithet?) is lowercase that means it's a species orchid...yes? Honestly, I read my orchid books all of the time, but stuff just doesn't stick the way it once did...

I've got a third den that's blessed me with a nice single spike...will photo and send along when she's opened up for all to see.

[dtje2000]

And this little conversation about the whole Nestor thing is hilarious... (Fred, I apologize if it's an inappropriate link and you need to delete the post...no problem!)

The discussion is about the appropriate name along with a photo, and they mention both anosum and parishii, which are the two species names Sir Kevin offered up as possibles.

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by dtje2000

I'm glowing... partly with glee at everyone's delight and partly from embarrassment over my orchid ignorance ...Kevin, if I live to be triple digits I'll still not have absorbed a tiny percentage of your orchid knowledge.

Always be happy about beautiful orchids successfully grown and flowered, especially if they're your own. Never be embarrassed about what you don't know, unless maybe you're a surgeon and don't know what a scalpel is. Everyone is at a different place in their learning about orchids. There are others here on the forum who can run circles around me with their knowledge (for example, Andrew with his knowledge of Disa, Mayres with his cultural knowledge of Phals - I still struggle with them, Brookn's knowledge of species culture just to name a few). I've been studying orchids, especially their identification and breeding, in the context of my being a judge (or preparing to be a judge) for about 10 years now and I've never been embarrassed by what I didn't know (which continues to be a LOT). Just keep forging ahead. And hang out with orchid people a lot.

Originally Posted by dtje2000

I (mistakely) thought that THE biggest characteristic of nobiles were the dropping of the leaves (or most) prior to blooming.

The defining characteristic of nobile-types is that they contain the species Den nobile (or one of its forms or varieties) somewhere in their breeding. Also when we refer to "nobile-types" we're always talking about hybrids.

Originally Posted by dtje2000

Plus, I am a slave to the tags, so more times than not I'll add 2 + 2 and get any number OTHER than 4!

Nothing to worry about here. We all rely on tags to be correct (though as we see, sometimes they're not). Even I assume tags to be correct unless I see something compelling that suggests they're not. One of the things I try to do here on the forum is to teach some of the basics, with names for example, so that they can recognize for themselves when something is amiss.

Originally Posted by dtje2000

I did remember, however, that you mentioned when the second word (epithet?) is lowercase that means it's a species orchid...yes?

The word "epithet" means "name." Each species orchid has at least 2 names or epithets. You are correct that the second name, the species name or specific epithet is always expressed in lower case.

Sometimes you will find lazy tag writers that write everything in either upper case or lower case. Don't let this confuse you. If you saw DEN AMETHYSTOGLOSSUM written on a tag that doesn't mean it's a hybrid. It's still a species. People get tripped up with unclear tags like this all the time.

Originally Posted by dtje2000

The all-purple has Nestor on the tag but nothing else.

I didn't recognize the name Nestor so I looked it up. There's a reason the hybrid Den Nestor looks like parisii and anosum, because it's a hybrid with parisii and anosum as the 2 parents!

[solay]

I have a Den. Nestor too. I don't know what it is for sure and I remember there was a question on the name when I last posted about it.

All I know is that it's beautiful and smells like lilacs.

[jay]

Very nice blooms. I love them.

[lmartiny]

Very nice dt.

[Bolero]

Lovely plants, really well grown. Thanks for sharing.

[Azure]

Very pretty! Sticks...hehe! That's something the males of my family would say.

[dtje2000]

And number three has just blessed me with a few lovely yellow blooms. Have I mentioned I love yellow orchids yet. This one is tagged Den. Golden Aya (aphrodite x capillipes)... my new favorite!

As a side note, I've also included a photo of the cane from which the inflorescence grew. The black areas...is this fungus?

[kmarch]

Yeah it looks like a bit of fungal spotting.