My lovely fiance got me a beautiful red orchid for Valentines Day! This beauty stumped me a little at first as to what spices it is. I looked at its thick pseudo bulbs and thought Ociduim and then looked up pictures of that species. Well, the pseudo bulbs were right but the flowers were way off the mark. So then I pulled out the name tag from the pot and it claimed to be an Oporta, which was a species I'd never heard of before!
Well after some digging, it turns out my initial Ocidium guess was correct. However, this is an Ocidium hybrid! I now own my very first orchid hybrid. The original plant that mine was either cloned off of or produced through seeds was called Wilsonara Oporto 'Burgundy Bliss.' This Gorgeous plant won an AM/AOS and the process to make Oporta its own species is in progress. An AM is an award from the American Orchid Society called the Award of Merit. In order to obtain this award the plant has to score a 80-89 out of 100 points which are specific to flower quality. I must agree these red flowers are beautiful and have a great fragrance!
I'm going to care for this orchid as if it was a regular Ocidium. I'll water it once every 10 to 14 days because it is in moss (to make sure it dries out between watering as it should.) I don't like the pot it is in because there are no drainage holes. These orchids are not re-potted during rest. Each year it should produce a new pseudo bulb and once its new bulb has reached two to three inches tall it will be ready to re-pot. I will be moving this one to fine-grade bark because they do have thinner roots than an Phileanopsis (which I put in coarse bark.)
I might be waiting a while to re-pot since it has a whole other spike to flower. I wont mind of course, I have months of beautiful red flowers ahead of me!
~Happy Planting!
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