something blue?

[charleyismydog]

I love blue orchids, but I have heard they are hard to find. Does anyone have any ideas of any species or hybrids that are easy to find and easy to care for? Something that likes water would be good, since I have a hard time staying away. Thanks everyone!

[fred]

just a link for you so you can see a list of orchids.
http://www.orchidgeeks.com/forum/gen...chid-list.html
you could make yourself a list of the orchids that you may want

[Fabolusus]

Here is a website dedicated to blue phals:

http://www.sapphiredragonorchids.com/SDOhome.htm

[fred]

and another with Blue Vanda,s
http://www.beautifulorchids.com/orch...lue_vanda.html

http://www.ironwoodorchids.com/vanda.htm

[kel80]

Blue Phals are so beautiful!!!!!! I think I might have to find one.

[fred]

A visit to the orchid doctor may be ?

[kel80]

Originally Posted by fred

A visit to the orchid doctor may be ?

Perhaps you are right, Fred.

[charleyismydog]

Thanks everyone! Now I've got the fever. Now I've ended up with a list of 17 kinds of orchids I want!!! However, among them is this nice blue little blue one. What do you think? Found it at www.slogardens.com. Has anyone ever bought from there before? Are they reputable?

[prisana]

That's a species den, or actually ,a primary hybrid ( cross between two species ). I haven't much luck with species den, they are hard for me to flower , but who knows, you might have a better luck in growing them .

[Ak_Orchid]

That looks a lot like my Den. victoriae-reginae. I've seen more than one blue Den like that on http://www.orchids.com

All the plants I've gotten from them have been great. My Den. victoriae-reginae blooms several times a year for me.

[m3phist023]

I purchased my mounted Dendrobium from SLO Gardens at a local orchid show, and it's really wonderful, doing fantastic. Most of the ones they had at the show were mounted, but all of them looked like nice healthy plants. I've never done the online thing from them, though.

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by charleyismydog

I love blue orchids, but I have heard they are hard to find. Does anyone have any ideas of any species or hybrids that are easy to find and easy to care for? Something that likes water would be good, since I have a hard time staying away. Thanks everyone!

There are lots of blue species and hybrids in the Cattleya alliance. I have a lovely Laelia dayana v. coerulia which I bought at a flower and garden show (not even a specialty orchid show). I would wager that most big orchid nuseries would have some blue Cattleya alliance plants.

I found 2 websites with lots of pictures of different crosses and species:
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...1947NycOnJRgai
http://home.att.net/~egranier/

The later has "normal" orchids too.

And finally here is a website filled with articles on blue Cattleyas: http://www.c-we.com/blue.cattleyas/index.htm I have not reviewed all of these articles so I can not vouch for the accuracy or usefulness of their content. It does give a list of Cattleyas that come in blue varieties.

There are some non-Cattleya types that come in blue, like Phal bellina. and the hybrid Dpts. Kenneth Schubert. which is bred using a blue variety of Doritis pulcherrima. There are few blue Dendrobiums too: Den vistoria-regina, and a few hybrids like Den. Blue Twinkle.

There are also some stunning blue Australian native terrestrials, some blue Caladenias, and some blue Thelymitras, but if you're in the US these will be difficult to find and they're difficult to grow in cultiviation as they have pretty specific needs.

I don't think you'll have too much trouble finding some blue orchids. Take some time, do some research to see which species have blue varieties, make a list of blue hybids and start searching around for them.

Happy hunting!

[mayres]

How about this one?
Lc. Loveknot v. coreulea
I got this one at our local orchid society meeting during the raffle!

[fred]

Quote]How about this one?

You showoff lol

that is a very nice pick up Mike

very pretty

lucky you

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by mayres

How about this one?
Lc. Loveknot v. coreulea
I got this one at our local orchid society meeting during the raffle!

It's lovely Mike. Sometimes you can get the nicest stuff off society raffle tables. It's great! And what a tiny charming plant too. Perfect for those who dont' have much space but want a lot of flower for the size of the plant. There's a blue version of Lc. Mini-Purple too, made with blue parents that's a nice one as well.

Just a note on a couple name things: It's Lc. Love Knot (2 words), note spelling of "coerulea," and hybrids do not have varietal names like species do. So there's no Lc Love Knot v. coerulea. Several times on tags I've seen simply the word "coerulea" after a name, sometiems in parenthesis (as on this website) and sometimes not. Occasionally I see a tag with the parents spelled out indicating use of the coerulean varieties of the parents. It's important to note though that only species orchids come in forms (fma.) and varieties.

I too like the blue orchids and have grown 4 or 5 different kinds over the years. Except for my current one, the Laelia, i've found them to be a little particular and not as easy as other Cattleyas. Has anyone had much experience with many of these?

[mayres]

Thanks for the correction Kevin. That is the way it was on the tag on the raffle table - I've yet to get into the naming conventions in detail so that most obvious errors would be obvious - so end up passing along whatever I get - good point for others to remember - even plants with name tags may not be totally correct - even if mostly correct. I will correct! mike

[charleyismydog]

Mayres, that Lc. Love Knot is absolutely beautiful. I ended up with an Slc. Love Castle at a recent society meeting. They would have similar culture, right?

[kmarch]

Yes Charlie, you could grow them together.