Why Orchids are both Fascinating and Confusing

Spring is Sprung and the garden smells delightfully of a mix of the jasmine (now finishing) the wisteria (just starting to bloom) and the citrus & burnt honey scent of the Dendrobium speciosum.

A native Australian orchid - common names are King Orchid and Rock Lily - and those common names are confusing because the Dendrobium kingianum (now Thelchiton kingianum) gets called Pink Rock Lily but the speciosum is the King!!!    We also have some kingianums - pretty things.

There is confusion not only with the common names - the botanists have been renaming many of our orchids and I'm not sure if I should call our "King orchids"  Dendrobium speciosum or Thelychiton speciosus.

While we are on names - the Royal Botanical Gardens site gives the Eora peoples names for the D or T speciosum/sus and says that:

"The starchy stems of the rock Lily (Dendrobium speciosum) are edible. The stems from a variety of other species of Dendrobium are crushed and applied to sores, wounds and burns..."

Also confusing is the variability inherent to orchids - we've two plants currently flowering - the one in the top photo and this one -
with flowers that are quite cream / lemon in colour, more sparse on the stem and much larger.

The cream King Orchid flowers are about 1.5" almost 4cm tall

The almost white King Orchid flowers are 3/4" or 2cm tall

The whiter varient is quite spectacular this year.

Naturally the Blythe dolls love all the spring flowers too :-)

And here I am introducing my latest darling - Ruby Beatrice Rose.  Ruby is a Rosie Red BL

Hmmm smelly!

Such a cutie - she often looks like she is about to burst into giggles.  Ruby is in really good shape for a 12yr old dolly - the RR BL was the 4th Neo Blythe to be released by Takara.  The only thing is that a previous owner gave her a wonky hair-cut and fringe (bangs).  However, I think I can restore her original hair style with a partial re-root ... more later.

Meanwhile - another Blythe & orchid photo and thanks to Beatrix Potter for the quote I'm about to mangle. 

Imogen found the effect of so many orchid flowers is soporific

Spring Flowers

The garden is darling hubby's creation and it was delightful to return from Melbourne to a garden full of lovely flowers. Especially as many are native orchids ...

We've lots of Dendrobium kingianums growing in the rocks around the fish pond :-) some are man-made hibrids (with D. falcorostrum aka beech orchid) so they vary -

they smell very sweet and more traditionally floral than most of the Dendis.

Checking on the google web I find that they've been reclassified and renamed Thelychiton kingianum - as Dendrobium means "tree living" and Kingys like to live on rocks (one common name is Pink Rock Orchid) this seems sensible but these constant name changes are really confusing for us amateurs. Shall I be cheeky and point out to my botanist friends that D. speciosum (common name King Orchid which is confusing) also likes a home made of stone - nice crumbly sandstone. We've a couple of Kings in the garden and the biggest has 3 flower spikes this year :-) Big fox-tails of secretive creamy lemon flowers with a wonderful scent - powdery and burnt sweetness like a burnt honey cake or overdone toasted marshmallows.

Also just starting to flower is the D. gracilicaule - graceful because of the long thin stems - I love the plump little flowers -

Again the scent is a bit burnt & powdery but this time with a citrus tang.

Finally a non-orchid and not an Ozzie but quite lovely - Spanish Bluebells.