Friday Orchid Blogging

Oncidium Sharry Baby

This is a great plant, and you can find them everywhere - Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, lots of places sell them. Gets a bit large, but the flowers smell like chocolate to many people - to me they smell like some kind of warm dessert just out of the oven, but not quite chocolate. The smell is strong enough to waft a good ten to twelve feet in my apartment (the scent is strongest when the plant is in good lighting, no scent at night). It's considered an easy plant, as orchids go, though I did kill one. Generally you just water it once it gets dry, and give it a lot of light. I have a second version of this plant, a little bit different, but still a Sharry Baby - it has 3 big spikes (a spike is a long stem that has the flower on the end, or many flowers in this guy's case), and one of the spikes is 3.5 feet long and still growing, it hasn't flowered yet - that one I'll photograph when it finally explodes. One spike can have dozens of flowers, and a well grown plant can 4 or more spikes in bloom at once. The plant needs a good deal of sunlight, year round, in order to flower, and flower well.

Enjoy. JOHN