Can hardly wait for the pic!

Yes! Folklore says that every so often you will get a good blooming year but to my knowledge there is no reason given for the ++ blooming.

Not too sure how cold tolerant this orchid is but some literature gives a recommended low of 2C.

Must get the old saw out, tone up the muscles and cut my plant in half.

Here is the 2011 blooming of my Den. It is just an average clone. Note no shadehouse or glasshouse needed.
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WAHOO! Now that's a specimen. Thanks for sharing.

Finally took the time to count them. There is a total of 42 canes, 8 are new from this year so they don't bear flowers, they will next year. Of the remaining, 13 are old and will bloom no more. The 21 actively blooming canes sport 58 developing buds which comes to 2.8 buds per cane, some have one, several have 4. This plant has never before produced a shower of flowers like this. Keep in mind that every one of them will turn into a 2' fox tail with 40 to 60 flowers each.

In case some of you windowsill growers are tempted, the volume occupied by the plant is 7' x 7' x 5', I need help lifting it. It is mounted in the saddle of a root stump where it has been since 2,000. The root stump is large enough so the whole thing is in proportion, when I selected the root stump, I already knew how big this thing would get. It's going to stay there for the rest of my life, no chain saw to cut it in half, it's just no longer going to go to orchid shows.

As I said, it's a var grandiflorum, hillii and var speciosum also get big, the others varieties of Dend speciosum, pedunculatum, capricornium and pedunculatum are more manageable size wise. I have never seen the new var boreale, sounds beautiful being a pure white.

Nick

I suppose you are going to have a display that looks something like this. Den. speciosum is a feature of the winter shows around here. For all that, the orchid is not all that popular for the space or time challenged. Big and takes eons to grow from seed to first flowering.
Den. speciosum Class in an orchid display.
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I'm counting fewer than 30 fox tails on 6 plants. Mine should have 58 on one plant. Check this one out, it was a Santa Barbara 13 years ago.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/afriorchids/950859916/

Nick

Mouth hanging open....

Very impressive! I did use the word Big in my post and also they are not for the light challenged. I've got some line bred speciosum seedlings to give out at the next Society meeting, those seedlings will not be first selected by the raffle winners.

I think it's one of the most spectacular orchids and totally under appreciated. If I were to keep only one of all of my plants, this would be the one without hesitation.

Our spring show is the first weekend in March, it will probably be in bloom. A few years ago they made it 'Best of Show' which created a problem because they could not fit it on the trophy table. It's twice as big now, for their sake I hope it does not win. Personally, if it's in perfect bloom, I think it should.. The guy who arranges the plants as they arrive is a respected senior and a good friend of mine. His comment when I brought it in last year: "These damn things are in bloom again!"

Oh well, no respect.

Nick