Plantio La Orquidea & my infamous lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana orchid

Once upon a time there was a gardening girl in Pompano Beach that would spend lots of her hard earned cash on orchids.  Yes that girl is me & yes those times are over, whaaaa...thank you crappy economy (yes that's a whole different conversation lol).  Back in 2006 I bought an amazing orchid from a vendor at Tropiflora's Spring Festival.  Turns out I killed the orchid & had no record of who I bought the orchid from (I now record every purchase in my orchid journal).  I tried in vain to find another.  Later that year my orchid club, Fort Lauderdale Orchid Society, had Rafael Romero from Plantio la Orquidea come speak at one of our monthly meetings.  Well long story short, guess who I bought that orchid from, yup, Rafael.  I told him the story about this orchid & how I loved it so much.  I ended up ordering three bare root orchids from him.  This orchid is lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana.  I attached two of the three orchids to one of my Christmas palms, veitchia merrillii, in the front yard.  It was remarkable how fast they rooted.  Here is a picture of the two when I first mounted them five years ago (see pics below).

lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana's
attached to Christmas palm June 2006

lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana's
attached to Christmas palm June 2006

The third one I mounted on a piece of driftwood I found at John U. Lloyd State Park (see pic below).

lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana
June 2006

lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana
June 2006

Two years later, November 2008, this is what they look like (see pic below).

lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana
November 2008
 The palm was in decline & the fronds were sparse so the amount of full sun was increasing.
An orchid's leaves will have a reddish color to them when they get a lot of direct sunlight.

The Christmas Palm was damaged during a very active hurricane season & didn't make it.  Though surprisingly the orchids adapted extremely quickly to the full morning sun it was now getting.  Here are a couple pictures of the orchids after the palm completely died in 2009.

lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana
November 2009
exposed to full sun in morning

lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana
November 2009
flower close up

Look at all the roots growing around the trunk of the palm, such a vigorous grower and extremely hardy orchid. It blooms twice a year, the flowers bloom in a grandiose cluster with multiple clusters all over the orchid and the blooms last for months.  I was tentative to remove the dead palm trunk, so I left it as a show piece since it was right by our front entry way.  Yes, this orchid loves to show off & dag nab-it I would too if I were this orchid.  So there she grew for another two years until a few months ago when the palm trunk began to dry out in the middle.  Time for the big move.  My boyfriend helped cut the base of the palm so we could move the entire piece to another area.  Yes, it's still a show piece but located in our backyard.  So here it is right now starting to bloom again at the end of October & will probably continue until the end of November.

lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana
October 30, 2011
The leaves are back to a rich emerald green color
since the orchids are now getting the ideal bright light
from dappled sunlight through the trees above.

lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana
October 30, 2011
You can see in this picture how I buried part of
the palm trunk in the ground for better stability.
You would never know there are two orchids.

lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana
October 30, 2011
close up of one of the flower clusters
this orchid is a super happy & extremely hardy orchid
what a survivor, oh a thought just popped in my head...
it would be a great poster plant for breast cancer
awareness month (pink & October)...whatcha think huh huh

lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana
October 3, 2011
another flower cluster

lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana
a Butterfly Ginger is to the left of the orchid (see Sept 30th blog entry) which has a super sweet gardenia like smell that perfumes the air. An extremely hardy ginger esp. in winter.

So this is the short story of my infamous lc. gold digger 'redland gold' x c. schilleriana orchids.  Over the past five years I have continued to email Rafael pictures of this gem of an orchid along with my many thanks & much appreciation.  Keep up the great work to everyone at Plantio la Orquidea!
Merci beaucoup pour mes belles orchidees!!!  :)