Here’s a glimpse of the entrance of the 4th floor’s orchid show still at work :

The Oncidium Walkway

Be dazzled by these Oncidium trees along the aisle leading to the main site of the orchid show. The trees look like a mass of gold from afar and when passing beneath them, there’s some resemblance to cherry blossom trees during their seasons but with yellow blossoms instead of pink ones.

(The Oncidium Golden Shower/Golden Wish, also known as the “Dancing Ladies” in layman term, is one of the major cut orchid exported by Singapore. This hybrid is also commonly used for orchidscapes and displays that augment its characteristicly elegant arching manner of its flowers, in an outward manner, as its flowers matures.)

Another spectacular view that was close to completion yesterday was the stalagmite and stalactite orchidscape fixated and blended into the main entrance just outside the site of orchid show. The ceiling of the entrance and a few other trees that are also covered with a range of different coloured hybrids from the Oncidium Alliance.

Orchids secured to the ceiling

Stalagmite & Stalactite

Those who are keen on attending the Garden & Orchid Show, you may grab your tickets at
http://www.singaporegardenfestival.com/ or at the front desk of the showroom at Suntec City Convention Hall. The Garden Show will be on from the 15th to the 22nd of July.

For vendors, traders, growers and societies who are exhibiting/visiting Singapore during this period of time may contact us for a visit to our nursery to learn more about tropical orchids that we grow in Singapore’s nurseries. We will be available to bring visiting groups from the 18th of July on.

More pictures updated below just before the start of the show:

These photos were taken by avid photographer, Ms Rita Sim, during her visit to our nursery a few months ago. You may view the full collections of her works here.

*This entry was backdated.
** Photos courtesy of Ms Rita Sim

The Dendrobium Singapore Scouts was registered on the 20th Jan 2010 and officially unveiled during the 100th Year Anniversary Dinner on 27th Feb 2010 at Suntec International Convention & Exhibition Centre. The Dendrobium Singapore Scouts’ unveiling ceremony was graced by Guest of Honour, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, who was a Scout during his former years as a student.

Scouts and friends who wish to purchase this orchid now may do so by placing an order with the Scout Shop (In Singapore Scout Association HQ). If you desire to visit and purchase directly from our nursery, kindly remember to bring along your Scout membership card for exclusive discount entitlement to the Dendrobium Singapore Scouts & other potted Orchid varieties.

In line with the centennial celebrations, the Singapore Scout Association have a few major events lined up this year for Scouts and their families to get together. For those who have missed the anniversary dinner, look out for the next event, the ‘Centenary Scout Rally’ on the 22nd May 2010 (Saturday) at Hwa Chong Institution. More details can be found on Singapore Scout Association website at http://www.scout.org.sg/.

*This entry was backdated.
**Photos courtesy of Singapore Scout Association

As part of Singapore Botanical Garden’s 150th Anniversary and year end celebrations, we were cordially invited to be part of the companies/organizations that were invited to decorate 150 Xmas trees in the light up of the “Trees of the World” event.

We diy our own floral version of  tropical snowmen for sprucing up the vicinity around our Xmas tree for this event. The snowman on the left is almost entirely made up of orchid blooms, excluding the eyes, nose, mouth and bow which were made of stone, carrot, chili and foliage (the accessories). The first one was rather shabbily done as it was the first few “prototypes”. And the second picture here on the right is one of the completed final product which is more prim and neat.

It was tedious work just to make one and we made a good mess out of our office but it is definitely gratifying to see how cute the little snowmen turn out to be. =)

Attached below are some pictures of the snowmen in the making.

And finally we proceeded on to decorate our trees.

And the completed Xmas Tree Decor.

*This entry was backdated due to our busy schedule.

This is a new Renantanda hybrid that has started flowering recently in our nursery. The long-lasting flowers of this Renantanda span 10cm and each stalks is about 55cm when in bloom. As the plants are still in their infancy, longer stalks of flowers could be expected as the plant matures.

Aside from this new hybrid, our nursery also houses Renantanda Genting Gem from Genting nursery as shown below.

Frequently unknown to most layman, orchids can produce many phenotypic colours and traits in a single cross with multiple alleles suppressing each other. Taking for example the above crossing between the brown curly, purple lipped Dendrobium Spatulata and yellow and red lipped Dendrobium SGH. Their progenies gave rise to a bizarre phentypic combination of  orchids as shown below.

Note the number of different variant from this spatulata type x with phalaenopsis hybrid type of Dendrobiums. Some have more curly petals as they gain more Spatulata characteristics, while others have less curly petals due to the influence of the Dendrobium Phalaenopsis genetics. Note that most of the progenies retained the red/purple lipped characteristics of both mother plant, however for some of them, the red/purple lip characteristic is missing. This is probably attributed to a pair of double recessive alleles resurfacing in progenies without this characteristic. Some gain more brownish characteristic, other gain more yellowish characteristic and the rest have intermediate colours between brown and yellow for their petals.

This example was specifically used to illustrate that phenotypic traits can be derived from both parent plants. Some progenies may have traits from either one parent strongly expressed while other progenies may have an intermediate between various characteristics of the two parents. Secondly, recessive traits underlying both parents plant may also resurface (E.g. for some of the progenies, the red/purple lip characteristic is absent despite being present in both parents). Recessive traits may stay dormant for several generations before resurfacing again many generation later.

That’s how interesting a single cross can be and particularly in this crossing as the colours and traits of both parent plants are greatly different and where recessive traits were observed. The greater number of difference in phenotypic traits, the greater number of variants in the offsprings. In fact, for this crossing, almost every single plant were unique from the others. =)

Multiple Spatulata Hybrids

Spatulatas (Dendrobium Lasianthera), originate primarily from Papua New Guinea, Eastern Indonesia and variably across Southeast Asia and the west Pacific Islands. Their originating sources are frequently from pristine, undisturbed forest. Spatulatas orchids are very colourful and resilient Dendrobiums and can grow to a large majestic size as seen in the photo above. Spatulatas do very well in full sunlight.

Compared to Phalaenopsis-Type Dendrobiums, which are artificially selected for cut flower production, Spatulatas are more ideal as a potted plant as their flowers can last from one to three months when left intact. It is not unusual to find Spatulatas with more than 3 colours/tones. Spatulatas are also fully compatible for hybridizing with Phalaenopsis-Type Dendrobiums.

These Spatulata hybrids will soon be available for sales in our online store.

Next up, we will be introducing more on Spatulata hybrids x Dendrobium Phalaenopsis hybrids.

Splash mutations are well sought after by many collectors and hobbyist as they occur very rarely, maybe one plant in a thousand of non-mutants. Splash mutations are mostly unstable mutation and can only be propagated vegetatively to reproduce more of them. Thus, their rare occurence and difficulty to reproduce augmented their value as collectibles.

If you were to tissue culture one of these mutation, its very likely (based on our experiences) that the non-mutant form will be reproduced. Although for some, there’s a chance of obtaining a very small percentage of the tissue cultured crops with splash mutations.

Here at TG, we’ve been trying to stablise the splash mutation by hybridizing splash with splash for a few years. Theoretically, we believe that if the resultant seedpod produces splash progenies, the chance of the progenies being capable of being tissue culture with retained splash characteristics will be much higher. However the chances of producing such a crossing would probably be extremely slim.

This Doritaenopsis currently in bloom is a crossing between Doritis Pulcherrima & Phalaenopsis Equestris. This progeny has a remarkably red tongue and smooth colours descended from both parent plants and its vegetative growth more similar to its Phalaenopsis. This variety is not the original Doritaenopsis Purple Gem registerd by E.Iwanaga in 1963 but a more pinkish variation of the hybrid and with its flower form more alike Phalaenopsis Equestris.

Tolumnias, used to be called Equitant oncidiums, are true miniatures. Tolumnias are native to the carribean region and usually have flowers not more than 1cm large and looks very much like miniature Oncidiums. Their colour ranges from white to brown, yellow to purple, and thus is also one of the main source of colours of the many Oncidumnia hybrids today. Tolumnias are ideal as tabletop plants due to their small stature and bright colours.

The Tolumnia that we house has a unique characteristic. Their petals changes colours as they mature. Notice that in the pictures, the newly opened petals are yellow, as they mature, the sides of the petals turn orange. Tolumnia with oncidium hybrids also display this characteristic, but differently. It was observed that newly open petals are entirely yellow and gradually turns white as the petal matures in this Oncidumnia hybrid that we grow.

Tolumnias requires high humdity to grow. These plants are suitable for growing in tropical climate, and will do well in high light intensity. Being epiphytic in nature, thus high drainage media like charcoal is recommended. Misting rather than watering would be preferred by these plant, particularly if you intend to keep them indoors. Overwatering may result in leave rot.

Here at TG, we also house a few other varieties of Oncidiums, Tolumnias & their hybrids. Oncidiums has much large, flat, thin and soft leaves, whilst Tolumnias have smaller, succulent, thick and hardy leaves and their hybrids have something in between.