The Urban Orchidist

Phalaenopsis bellina   is famous for its scent, which is sweet, fruity and candy-like. She flowers sequentially anytime from Spring through to Autumn,  and unlike your typical flower shop complex hybrids,  Phal. bellina  is a sequential bloomer, meaning that it continues to produce buds from the tip of its flower spike for multiple seasons as well as putting out additional spikes. Thus, flower spikes should be left on the plant until they eventually begin to yellow and dry on their own. This is the first time this particular plant has flowered, and Phalaenopsis as a genus only improves its blooms with each flowering season, so I can't wait to see what future seasons will bring.

Phalaenopsis Yaphon Perfume 'Yellow' Blooming Season : Summer-Autumn Temperature : Intermediate-warm Fragrant : Yes Size : Medium The scent of this orchid is difficult to describe, I find it rather soapy & slightly reminiscent of lemon peel. At first, I wasn't a fan of the scent, which is strongest in the morning & fades throughout the day, but it definitely wore me down.

As this is my first Orchids in Bloom post, I'd like to give a little bit of insight into the intended purpose of this particular series of posts: So here it is... We all love orchids, right? You wouldn't be here if you didn't. I'm also guessing you have at least one orchid at home, or maybe like me... 200+ orchids at home. The problem is, that we tend to buy orchids for their blooms & many (read: almost all ) tend to be fairly dull when not in bloom, especially when you have multiple phalaenopsis complex hybrids, which are arguable the most common orchids found in New Zealand stores & nurseries & all look virtually identical without their showy flowers - I'll get to orchids with beautiful foliage in a future post. In short, these posts are there to give you some ideas of what species or hybrids to look into if, like me, you are interested in having blooms year-round. Each post will contain images of a particular orchid that is in bloom at the time of the