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The Dendrobium Orchid

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Mary Jo Lally: Hi, my name is Marry Jo Lally and I am the Orchid Specialist at American Plant Food. For this segment we are going to talk about the Dendrobium Orchid. The Dendrobium Orchid first of all, one of the largest orchid families there is, there are six categories of Dendrobiums. The name dendrobiums means living on trees, but for our purposes here and for greenhouse and retail purposes, the Dendrobium that we are going to be talking about is a Persistent Leaf Dendrobium and mostly the Antelope Dendrobium found in Australia and these are wonderful plants. They are not quite as conducive to your home as a Phalaenopsis because they may need some direct light from morning, early morning sun is perfect for re-blooming.

They are capable of blooming from anywhere from six to eight weeks, sometimes a little longer. One of these varieties is called a Den Phal, a Den Phal which is -- this right here is a Den Phal and what that is, this is combined with the Phalaenopsis orchid to give you the bigger flowers. Most Dendrobiums that are natural to Hawaii have a much smaller flower. The dendrobium also is a very good summer grower, it grows prolifically in the summer, it likes heat and it s capable of blooming and starting to spike in August. Lately it seems to me in retail Dendrobiums the popularity of Dendrobiums has fallen off. You will see a lot of Dendrobiums when you see cut flower arrangements; they are very inexpensive flower spikes. But I am starting to notice that when we start to put Dendrobiums and people were starting to pick up interest in them for many reasons, one is they are just a beautiful plant. Secondly with the hybridizing with Phalaenopsis orchids they are capable of doing blooming very well in your home. They are also coming in different sizes, I would like to show you, we get these little petite dendrobiums, you can put these -- these are just nice window show plants, these are nice for just coffee tables. We also have as you can see hanging baskets. You can plant them and don t they look lovely just hanging there. Orchids do well in hanging baskets. The dendrobiums as I said, they really are making a come back. Now, to re-bloom the Dendrobium, it really would like some direct morning sun and a little cooler night time temperatures. So, they are like I said a little difficult little bit more difficult than the Phalaenopsis to get to re-bloom. But when they get the conditions that they like, these are wonderful plants and by the way the Dendrobiums can come in this size which is more on the petite side to really three, four and five feet tall Dendrobiums which are really quite staggering.

So, if you haven t have tried a dendrobium before give it a try. Next, I would like to talk about the Cattleya orchid.

Expert: Mary Jo Lally

Mary Jo Lally has been with American Plant Food Co. for 17 years and was the greenhouse manager for 7 years. The past 5 years Mary Jo has specialized in orchids and is responsible for purchasing, merchandising and care of orchids at both American Plant Food locations.She is a member of the National Capitol Orchid Society and regularly visits local growers and events to keep up with the latest in the world of More »