Are There ANY Orchids That Can Take Full Sun?

[zainal abidin]

My Rhyncholaelia digbyana and antelopes dendrobium they really love full sun light some of the Dendrochilum especially in highlands they thrives very well on open area without any sun burn at all really very weird.

[mauraec]

I concur with Pavel. Generally speaking in our country the terete, semi-terete vandas, aranda, mokara are grown in full sun in our cut flower nurseries, but the same plants begin their early life as seedlings growing under shade. They are then hardened by slowly reducing shade ('acclimatisation') before planting out in their permanent beds.Strap leaved vandas are never grown in full sun. Some hardy hard-cane dendrobiums do very well in full sun.

In our tropical jungles, species are seldom exposed to full sun for any length of time - the exceptions being the deciduous dendrobiums of the tropical monsoon farther north from the Equator (north of the Tropic of Cancer) that experience a cool dry winter, typically from Dec-Feb. During this period the trees lose their leaves, including most of the dendrobiums, and are exposed to almost full sunlight. This period also stimulates the deciduous dendobiums to spike and bloom from Mar - April. This time too is when photographers take pictures of those fabulous of blooming dendrobiums in situ. In Malaysia Arundina and Spathoglottis grow in full sunlight in grassland areas. Another species that thrive in open sunny situations is Pectelis (Habenaria) susannae and, of course, the Kinta Weed, Papilionanthe hookeriana.

And I concur with you concurring with Pavel, Yew! What an interesting post you have written - I'm not at all sure I can take advantage of any of the species you noted - I've tried both strap-leaved and terete vandas, but our full sun is still in the 20s and 30s in December, January, and February, so they have to come in after the warm weather - and THAT they do not like. Phillip had a Habenaria, but I'm not sure of the species - perhaps I'll go look for it when I go to our boarding nursery this week. The variety of climates, including strength and length of sunlight, different wet and dry seasons, places without a noticeable season at all, and for those of us sufficiently north of the Equator to have VERY different weather during a year's cycle, trying to simulate warm, humid and sunny for the winter months takes prodigious effort - which is when unlimited funds and a greenhouse would come in handy.

Of course, the best answer would bee to choose orchids native to one's own climate; unfortunately, very few of the handful of orchids native to the places I've lived - which have pretty cold (Atlanta) winters of about 2 months, to coldest (Maine), with about 7 months of temps under 50F. Lady Slippers grow wild everywhere in the forests of the Northeast, but they have never been successfully cultivated. So, we go back to playing pretend that our orchids are in pseudo-Africa, South America, Malaysia, Borneo, Australia, the Phillippines, all of southeast Asia, China, Japan, etcetera. Some of them fall for it, some don't. I just wish I could put all my high-light orchids out in the full sun during the warm weather here, and let them absorb and store it for the dark days ahead. And if wishes were horses....

---------- Post Merged at 11:26 AM ----------

My Rhyncholaelia digbyana and antelopes dendrobium they really love full sun light some of the Dendrochilum especially in highlands they thrives very well on open area without any sun burn at all really very weird.

Aha! I shall go hunting for a Rhyncholaelia digbyana, then!