Bulbophyllum tingabarinum ‘Sunset’

One of the great things about orchids is that there are so many types, with varying flowers, colours, growth habits and sizes.  Now although this website is more for what we have in production, I have added this miscellaneous category to put in posts on various orchids that I see in my travels.  Some are strange, some odd, some only their mother would love, but they all belong to this wonderful world of orchids that I hope you enjoy and find fascinating.  Now on my recent travels to Hawaii I visited the Hilo Orchid Show where orchids were displayed in all their glory.  One of the displays was from a lovely lady who specialises in growing miniature orchids.  Leslie is a wonderful grower who drives her Mini (how appropriate) like Charlize Theron in the movie The Italian Job.  The great thing about miniature orchids is you don’t need a big greenhouse and lots of space to grow them, making them perfect for growers who live in units or have limited space.

The displayed contained a Bulbophyllum tingabarinum ‘Sunset’ that was on loan from Karen for the display and during the show managed to pick up an AOS cultural award, and rightly so for it was an excellent specimen of the species.  Now when you look up this species in the Orchidwiz program it comes from South-east Asia, mainly South-east China, Vietnam, Laos and Taiwan.  It is a small sympodial epiphyte with small pseudobulbs that are only 5 to 12mm long by 7 to 18mm wide, and as you can see from the photo this was a large plant with plenty of pseudobulbs packed onto a small treefern mount.  The orchid put on a profuse flower display for the show, hence the cultural award.  So to both ladies, well done.