Rather than touring my garden this Saturday morning, I have been installing and watering orchids in trees. A friend, who is a longtime orchid enthusiast brought me a selection of plants when we met for Thai food and plant shopping earlier this week. To join the SOS gang or see what’s going on in gardens around the world, follow the link to Jim’s Blog.
The selection:
This bucket contains Dancing Lady orchids. These are an Oncidium orchid, native to Southeast Asia, a tropical and a water lover. They can produce sprays of flowers 10 feet long. These are yellow.
This bucket contains Dendrobiums and a no name orchid that looks dead and then flowers! The no name has buds.
My tree of choice to install the orchids. This is a Sabal Palm (Palmetto sabal) that has never had the bases of its old fronds cleared off. I like the look of these palms and haven’t had them cleaned. This is called a booted Palm. The boots provide planting pockets and many people install orchids or bromeliads in them. The Asian Sword Ferns have grown up the tree by themselves – I decided to clear some off before installing the orchids.
The Dancing Ladies installed. I placed coconut coir, soaked in water, in the boots, then wedged the orchids in and secured them with jute twine. After reading how big these grow I decided to install the other orchids in different trees.
The no name ‘dead’ orchid was placed in the Gumbo Limbo tree alongside a Schlomburgkia orchid that has been in the tree for a few years. Below is the Schlomburgkia sending up buds. Maybe I should call the no name orchid ‘Zombie’
The Schlomburgkia, buds on the right side. These are native to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico and live in Mangrove swamps along the Gulf of Mexico. The flower sprays are easily six feet long with multiple pink and red orchids.
Finally, the Dendrobiums ended up in the Catalina Avocado tree and they seemed very happy.
I have no idea how long it takes for the orchids to establish and flower, but it will be interesting to watch.
Thanks to Jim for hosting Six on Saturday and Happy Spring Gardening to all!!
The Shrub Queen 
I can’t wait to see the progress on this! I just put orchids in my palms as well. However, my palms are smooth trunked – I had to attach with pantyhose. lol. We will see if they hate that. 
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Wonderful lessons. I look forward to updates.
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I am hoping the zombie will open soon.
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I can’t wait to see them bloom.
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Fingers crossed.
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Amazing choice of orchids! Mine ( Dendrobium and oncidium for example ) are in my living room and not in trees of course … I’m looking forward to seeing the flowers now!
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Thanks, Fred. Hoping for flowers, most are summer bloomers.
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Orchids are one of several groups of flowers that I would like to bring back here from Southern California. Most of what grows there can also grow here, but some are sensitive to the mild frost. Of course, tropical sorts do not perform so well there either because of the minimal humidity. Is vanilla orchid popular there?
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Yes, vanilla orchids are popular, a friend pollinated some by hand recently. I don’t know of anyone who has had beans.
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I got a piece, but I do not believe that the weather is warm enough for long enough for beans to mature, even if pollination is successful. I suppose that I will find out.
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So envious that you can grow orchids outside! I love those handy pockets on the palm trunk, perfect for the job.
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I’m a big fan of booted palms.. people think they are full of critters and they are!
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As I had thought, they seem like they’d be good habitat. I’ve read that the shaggy palm and yucca trunks out West, if left on their own, would host insects, lizards and birds.
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I had one cleaned up and the black racers were flying out.
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There goes the pest control! đŸ˜‰
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Wow, I’m going to have Thai food with friends tonight…wish she would be bring gifts like this. Lucky you!
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There are probably very few people who have a comparable orchid collection! Did you make it to the Key West butterfly conservatory?
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It’s so interesting reading about the exotic things you can grow in your climate, can’t wait for updates on these! I never fail to kill any phalanopsis I get given as indoor plants.
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It’s thrilling just to watch from a distance! Please do keep us posted as they grow on. I love the way you can use one plant to provide habitat for the others.
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Thanks, I hope it works.
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It will be exciting to watch them and wait for signs of life or flowering!
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I usually do better with the orchids outside here. I have killed all of them as houseplants.
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Wow, I have orchid envy! I have some palm trees I could utilize as planting bokets. So I just need to acquire some coconut coir.
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Yes, I would love to hear how you do with it. No western exposure is the advice from my friend. I got the coir on Amazon.
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No WEstern exposure is interesting. CAn they tolerate full sun? And how do you water?
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No dappled light but not fully shaded. I have been watering daily with hose on shower setting.
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