Orchid royalty

[coeruleo]

omg, cymbidiums grow like weeds here. the absolutely most commonly available orchid in southern california, fall through spring, and even some summer ones are found occasionally. practically foolproof. so easy i got bored with them, there was no challenge. and kelly, you can say whatever you want about lady and the tramp, but don't f with kerli. or my k-pop. grrrrrrr!

[Chris1140]

I don't have the light or the space for Vandas or Catts. My Paphs and Phals all bloom and give me plenty of orchid satisfaction.

[gardenguysorchids]

Next to a Catt nothing compares to a well grown and multi spiked phrag. Talk about regal ! Catts are king and queen but phrags are the emperor.

[sand_tiger86]

omg, cymbidiums grow like weeds here. the absolutely most commonly available orchid in southern california, fall through spring, and even some summer ones are found occasionally. practically foolproof. so easy i got bored with them, there was no challenge. and kelly, you can say whatever you want about lady and the tramp, but don't f with kerli. or my k-pop. grrrrrrr!

Everybody knows Lady Gaga rules the pop industry with iron fist while Madonna withers away into dust in the wind. Don't know much about Kerli or K-pop but Gaga is biggest star on the planet.

[pavel]

Terrestrial orchids automatically are demoted to pawns in my book. I definitely think Vandas are the Queen of the hive, but that's a biased opinion. I find them the most regal, complicated and striking of all genres.

Poor lad is obviously delirious and suffering from heat stroke. Vandas are about on par with your average phal in terms of regalness and definitely in terms of being complicated.

For regalness, some of the catts (though I would have to exclude all of the lavender ones) have it as do some of the paphs/phrags. I would say that a number of the cyms also have a air of regality as do Angraecums like A. sesquipedale. There are of course others that would fit here as well.

As for being complicated? Well if you are going to look at complexity of flowers, there really isn't anything terribly special about vandas. Again pretty much on par with a phal. Nope for flower complexity paphs and phrags have them beat hands down without even working up a sweat. And they in turn take a distant back seat to many of the bulbos, not to mention Cynoches. And are there any that truly can beat out Coryanthes for complex flowers? None that immediately come to mind.

[orchids^_^]

Ditto to Jeff and Bill, A classic Lavender Cattleya...

[coeruleo]

kerli is a singer from estonia that is always compared to lady gaga. they don't really sound much alike, and kerli's style is more bubble-goth... so i don't really get the argument that she is 'copying' lady gaga, when she is really not that similar. a little more edgy than gaga i think, and not as 'weird' for attention's sake. but online people just slam her all the time about ripping off lady gaga. it's annoying. as for k-pop, if you at all think asian guys are cute, omg check out k-pop. they are highly trained singers, dancers, rappers, and actors. very entertaining, and their fans are rabid over their chosen bands. my fave is super junior, their first album was supposed to be like a menudo thing, where the members would change each album as some found other projects, but their fans went nuts when they found out and pooled their allowance and bought into their entertainment company to 'save the 13' and thousands of teen girls ran away and camped out at their headquarters to protest. DO NOT mess with korean pop fangirls. they will eat you alive. but they will also turn you on to some really fun music. .................. and now back to orchids, um cattleya, paph, water, fert, oncidium. yeah.

[sand_tiger86]

kerli is a singer from estonia that is always compared to lady gaga. they don't really sound much alike, and kerli's style is more bubble-goth... so i don't really get the argument that she is 'copying' lady gaga, when she is really not that similar. a little more edgy than gaga i think, and not as 'weird' for attention's sake. but online people just slam her all the time about ripping off lady gaga. it's annoying. as for k-pop, if you at all think asian guys are cute, omg check out k-pop. they are highly trained singers, dancers, rappers, and actors. very entertaining, and their fans are rabid over their chosen bands. my fave is super junior, their first album was supposed to be like a menudo thing, where the members would change each album as some found other projects, but their fans went nuts when they found out and pooled their allowance and bought into their entertainment company to 'save the 13' and thousands of teen girls ran away and camped out at their headquarters to protest. DO NOT mess with korean pop fangirls. they will eat you alive. but they will also turn you on to some really fun music. .................. and now back to orchids, um cattleya, paph, water, fert, oncidium. yeah.

I mean, I know who Kerli is...I'm just not familiar with her music. I've been on quite a few pop music forums and rarely see people claiming that Kerli copies Gaga...the usual arguments are that Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj are copying Gaga's style just in a light, fun way - which is an absolute truth. I just think Gaga's music goes above and beyond most pop. If you haven't, you should listen to Heavy Metal Lover and Bloody Mary by her. Probably two of the most amazing songs ever. I'll have to check out Kerli's music now!

But yeah, Vandas - I think their regalness lies in the simplicity of their flowers. They're so much more vibrant and tropical looking than Phals...a similar shape, perhaps, but the color palette of Vandaceous orchids is rivaled only by Cattleyas. And by "complex" I mean the entire plant. The spiked leaves with these arching sprays of gigantic, flat fuchsia flowers emerging between the axels, bottomed out by a huge, vine-like root system. They're almost lethal looking and yet so beautiful at the same time.

[orchidsal]

Each grouping of orchids has its own complex patterns, vivid colors, and varying degrees of substance that make for exceptional blooms that I would count as regal. I lean fairly heavily to the Vandaceous types (About 23 of them), but my taste and high opinion of them is mostly subjective. They make me happy. That does not exclude other orchids by any means. If it's patterns are vivid and varied, if it's colors are vibrant or rich hues, or multi-colored I'm interested. I like heavy substance on the blooms, but that would not exclude orchid flowers with a delicate touch. There are not that many things in life that have the WOW factor some orchids can. I also like orchids that scretch the imagination! AL

[Halloamey]

For me nothing beats, a well flowered Cattleya warscewiczii, especially the alba and the semi-alba clones. Nothing can compare to their grandeur and regal flair.