Red Vanda noid

[Cjcorner]

I found this lovely at a roadside vendor today. Much to my amazement it is potted in spag. Not sure at this point whether to leave it alone or pull it out of the spag. No idea...i'd never ever seen one in spag and as it's in bloom don't really know if I should bother it. I am guessing that it's Kagawara as i've not seen this type before. Anyone got a clue? On the potting or the name?



added: After a lot of research i'm going to call it a Mokara. I found an almost dead on copy called Annie Kool on a website carrying cut flowers. Annie Kool so fits this plant...just growing right along in spag. Everything looks healthy...so for now maybe i'll leave it alone.

[catttan]

I agree with you, Connie. It looks very much like a Mokara. From the looks of it, it is a top cutting and it is quite usual for it to be kept moist - in this case - in sphagnum -until new roots have formed and the cutting well established in its new home. Here in Malaysia we use wood shaving in place of sphagnum as the latter is too expensive here. In the large cut flower farms wood shaving is left there to act as mulching and also as extra nutrient as the shaving breaks down.Since these farms use a lot of fungicide and insecticide the shavings seem to present no threat of disease or pests,

[orchidsal]

Beautiful Connie! I like not just the flowers on this Mokara, but the form of the plant itself. This orchid looks fairly big. May I ask about how tall it is? Also I was wondering about the long multi-budded spike on the right in your second photo down. What orchid is that? Looks awesome even if it is not in full bloom yet. AL

[Brutal_Dreamer]

I would agree that it is a Mokara too and lovely. I have not seen an established vanda grown in spag like that before.

Cheers,
BD

[Cjcorner]

Beautiful Connie! I like not just the flowers on this Mokara, but the form of the plant itself. This orchid looks fairly big. May I ask about how tall it is? Also I was wondering about the long multi-budded spike on the right in your second photo down. What orchid is that? Looks awesome even if it is not in full bloom yet. AL

The Mokara is about 18 inches tall. I measured from the top of the pot to the top of the mokara..so that doesn't include pot height. The lovely plant sitting next to it came home with me from the same road side stand. It is Odtna Papageno 'Mi Amour'. The name fits....i'll do a separate post on this plant today.

[panam]

Connie - I can't imagine a roadside vendor selling orchids - you are SO lucky to have this available. Here in the middle of the desert, we would have to see baked orchids!

OK, OK, I'm lucky that I get to see your lovely finds at a fraction of the cost, ha! ha! Good eye - thanks for sharing your treasures.

[ManilaByNight]

Yes it is very unusual to see a semi-terete type vanda, much more a Mokara (or Kagawara) planted in sphag. Here in the tropics the base would rot easily if left in sphag because of the high humidity and rain. Perhaps you might want to replace the sphag with bark instead? Just keep the medium loose and use the large grade bark as Vandaceous types like to have plenty of air moving around the root area.