#1.  White means purity.  But not everyone like flowers in white.  My mom does not like white flower.  She has even asked me to remove some plants with white flower from our garden.  For Chinese, it might be related to death or funeral.  Do you like white flowers?

#2.  I wonder if white orchid could be dyed with other colours.  I have seen some florists dyeing chrysanthemum into odd colours such as black, blue and dark green etc.  However, I like flowers in their natural colours.

#3.  Under the hot sun, the white orchid looked wrinkled.  May be she needed more shade, may be she needed to drink more water.  Human beings drink 8 cups of water per day, how about orchids?

White ray is a mixture of all the other coloured rays.  If we use water colour or poster colour to mix up all the colours, the result it produces would be totally the opposite because it gives you black.  I think there is a colour which is purer than white, which is “transparent”.

>=2: Other colours: messy
1: White:  focused
0: Transparent: pure (not polluted)

I hope you understand what I have written here.  If we are sensitive enough, everything around us can inspire us with some truth about the universe.

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Coming up next, I will show you orchid flower with curly petals.

#1.  Yellow Orchid with purple lips.

#2.  Yellow Orchid with red lips.

#3.  Yellow Orchid with light brown lips.

Let’s compare #1, #2 and #3.  They look almost the same but their lips are in different colours.  Although they have minor differences, they might have a different name for their variety.

#4.  Look carefully and you can see that the little dots are actually randomly gathered at the inner part of the petal, and gradually less dots towards the border of the petals.

#5.  This orchid has red eyes, and a red mouth.

I have done some research on orchid, and learned that different parts of the flower has a different name:-

A- Dorsal sepal, (uppermost “petal” of a flower).
B, C- Petals.
D, E - Lateral sepal.
F - Lip.

Different genus of orchid has different size ratio of A to F.  Usually (A,D,E) or (D,E) are identical, and (B,C) are another identical group.

The following are what I have learned recently, it might not always be correct especially if the orchid is a hybrid.

* Oncidium orchid (dancing lady) has small A,B,C,D,E but out-of-proportionally big lips, F.  That’s why its lip looks like the dress of a lady, and A,B,C look like the head and hands.

**   Phalaenopsis (butterfly orchid or moth orchid) has big B,C.  and A,B,C,D,E look fat, round and usually not curly.

***   Vanda has A,B,C,D,E almost identical.

****  Paphiopedilum (slipper orchid) has big and fat A.  Usually B,C are not found.  D,E are thin and sometimes curly and long.  Most importantly the lips, F look like a slipper.

#6.  The back side of an orchid flower.

#7.  This orchid has A,B,C,D,E all curly.

While I was searching information about orchid, I found a sentence somewhere which said that the number of orchid species are about the same as the number of species of birds.

The information provided above are from my reading and observation.  If there is anything that needs to be corrected, I will appreciate it very much if you can tell me.

#1.  Three flowers from a same orchid plant are sitting side by side.  They are wearing light purple blouses, yellow ribbons and purple dresses which catch the most attention among all the other flowers.

#2.  The ribbons on their hearts uniquely identify each of them although they look almost the same.  I give them a name each - “Left”, “Middle”, and “Right”.  :P  Do you know this heart belongs to which flower from the first picture above?

#3.  This is the heart of another orchid flower.  The colour and pattern on the flower might have some secret meaning which is only known by the flowers.  There are two dots in the middle of the flower’s heart.  If I am not mistaken, it is the stigma.

#4.  This purple orchid’s siblings are still in the shape of buds.

#5.

#6.

#7.

#8.  It took me 3 clicks of shutter release button to get this shot right.  First, I used the exposure setting on my camera’s censor (0EV), but the flowers looked dark because the sky was too bright.  Then, I adjusted the exposure setting manually under aperture priority (Av) to +3EV (Exposure Value).  Only then I could see this bunch of orchids flowers in light purple (its actual colour).

#9.  It was a hot afternoon, this orchid was under a shade of a thin layer of semi-transparent black plastic sheet (the roof).

The most important thing that I have learned from this visit to the orchid garden is correcting my wrong estimation of light required by orchids.  I think all of the orchids in my home garden have not enough sunlight, no wonder it never blooms, and not healthy.  I will tell my father to move his Vanda orchids to let them get the direct sunlight.  :P  But first I must make sure it is Vanda.  I am still learning to identify types of orchids.

I think the sunlight blocked under this roof is about or less then 50%.  I have let my orchids exposed under less then 30% of sunlight for many years.

I hope someone who knows about orchids can tell me whether I should let my orchids exposed under direct sunlight.  I am afraid that my orchids get sunburn.

#1.  I guess this is a Vanda by looking at its leaves which are long.

#2.  This is also Vanda, am I right?

#3.  This orchid has a button on its heart.  I cannot identify what genus it is.

#4.  I guess this is a Phalaenopsis, but I am not sure.  Phalaenopsis is called butterfly orchid in Chinese.  The upper petals on left and right are usually bigger.  May be it is a hybrid.  Tell me if you know.

#5.

#6.  Spotted orchids.  (My way of categorizing orchids.)  :P

#7.  Striped orchids.

#8.  Orchids buds.

#9.  Another Vanda.

These orchids are planted on woods which are covered by a thick layer of dried grass.  It is a type of growing medium for orchids which can retain water but keep the draining well.

Previously I thought all orchids must be under the shades to prevent the direct sun light, but in this orchid garden, I noticed that some orchid (especially Vanda) can actually survive under the strong direct sunlight.

To be continued …

We have visited DBKU Orchid Garden in Kuching, Malaysia next to the new Sarawak’s DUN today.  I am going to show you a series of orchid photos that I took there.

This is the only type of orchid that I know how to identify its genus name.  It is called Oncidium.  There are 330 species of orchids under this genus, and this dancing ladies orchid is only one of the diverse Oncidium orchids.  The flowers have out-of-proportionally big lips that look like the skirt of evening gowns.  Look carefully again, each flower looks like a lady wearing yellow gowns dancing with opened arms.  Besides having the name “Dancing Lady“, this flower is also called “Golden Shower“.

I have dancing lady orchid in my home garden too, but it is the most common species.  The twin dancing ladies in the first picture above look like the most common species, but they have bigger sizes.

This dancing lady has brown arms instead of dotted arm compared to the first dancing lady above.

Another yellow Oncidium with only a little bit of brown.

I was surprised because this was the first time I saw a dancing lady with colour other than yellow.  It is in light yellow and this combination makes the brown looks darker.

Another light yellow dancing lady with brown tattoo on most part of its body.

Yes, this is the most common type of yellow dancing lady that is the same with the one in my home garden.  It is similar to the first picture above but it is smaller.

I have also seen the orange dancing lady in this orchid garden, but I do not have a good photo of it.

The tree-shaped wood covered with dried grass allow the orchid to grow on the trunk.

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I still have a lot of orchid photos to show you, but I do not know how to categorized them.  Therefore I have decided to use my own way to categorize them - by their colour.  :P  Please tell me if you know their species name or if I have mentioned the genus or species name wrongly.

I have also learned about Vanda orchid and Phalaenopsis orchid (Butterfly orchid in Chinese), but I cannot differentiate them by only looking at their flower.  If I have included the shapes of the leaves in some of my photos, then I might be able to differentiate them.

From Wikipedia, there is an Intergeneric hybrids of  Vanda orchid and Phalaenopsis orchid called Vandaenopsis.  It adds more difficulty to identify and differentiate it.  Hmm…  I am not a botanist…