Let’s talk a little more about vandas!
This genus is originally from Australia and southeast Asia over a swatch from India to the Philippines, where these plants are so popular. For the most part, the vandas love to be warm and in the bright light of tropical regions. Technically speaking you can classify vandas as being monopodial, which means they typically only have one “axis” where its branches, or in this case leaves, all originate from. Vandas are, as weird as this is to say, evergreens, so they retain their leaves all year round and don’t lose them when the weather changes. They are also able to bloom throughout the year, and I cannot find any credible sources that will vouch that they can be induced to bloom using lower temperatures in the same way that phaleanopsis can.
Vandas are often hybrid both in nature and in cultivation, but unfortunately many of the lovely species like Vanda coerulea, which were already rather rare in the “wild”, have fallen endangered. Some of the hybrids are even intergeneric, which means they are crossed with plants from two or more different genuses! Out of all of the orchids, vandas have the knack for the color blue, even though to me it often looks more like a purple color. Here are some snaps of vandas along with some other orchids from Marie Selby Botanical Gardens 40th anniversary orchid show:
It feels like a huge honor to be able to appreciate these plants in person. Don’t you wish we could visit them in their native habitats, too?
Now that we have basic care and some background out of the way, I want to tell you a bit about propagation of vandas. While they have the potential to get busy just like every other type of angiosperm, if you would like to grow orchids from sexual reproduction, it takes patience and a controlled, specific environment. So for now let’s look at a simple and less time-consuming method of getting even more vanda plants:
As a vanda grows, it grows upwards and the roots will begin to grow out of the base higher and higher up the main stem, which is actually a rhizome, of the plant. Once you have a substantially long rhizome, especially if the rhizome of the plant is emitting aerial roots, then you can simply lop off the top along with a few roots, treat both plants with anti-fungal powder or spray, and allow both to grow their separate ways. The finessed way of doing this is to nick a slice about 1/4 to 1/2 way through the stem, apply the anti-fungal of your choice, and allow the plant to recover for a while before completely severing the top, with a few roots, from the base of the plant.
Once the baby puts out roots and both plants begin to grow upwards once again, they will be exact clones of each other. All without the hassles of dealing with microscopic seeds, flasks of thousands of baby orchids, and the years of waiting… Not like that sounds like a hassle to me!
And don’t worry! They are tougher than they seem. This plant pictured with two babies survived a plane ride, being broken in half, and then left in a too-dry spot in the sun for a whole week as I slept off my jet lag, and look at it now!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this informational post on vandas, and I hope to see you around for my next post!
limehouse 