Stanhopea panamensis

[Ricardo in PR]

This Stanhopea has a strong chocolate fragrance and I can detect also a vanilla like scent. The flowers produce a powerful fragrance and today I had to take it out of the house because a visitor said the fragrance was a bit overwhelming. This is the third time this plant has bloomed in the last three months and the present inflorescence is the largest one it has produced.
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[Greenpaph]

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

[Marci in SoFL]

Love these guys. They are weirdly wonderful.

[Ricardo in PR]

Thanks for the comments. This plant has been with me for many years but it has only been recently that I mastered how to get it to bloom reliably.

[Greenpaph]

What media are you using? It looks like large bark and moss.

[DREW HARTIS]

I am glad to see someone post a picture other then Cattleya type plants although I love them too. I really love stanhopea and have two. Like you I have struggled to grow them well.. But I manage to get blooms at least every other year. Your's is beautiful and I wouldn't care what anyone else said I would just enjoy the wonderful fragrance.

[Ricardo in PR]

The media was composed of coconut husk pieces that were kept wet all the growing season. The coconut pieces essencially melted away from the combination of lots of water and fertilizer. So I put the plant in medium bark until I can go to the beach to gather more pieces of coconut husks to make new media. I wash and soak the coconut pieces carefully as they have a certain amount of salt from being exposed to the sea spray. This plant was pretty well pampered and grew huge but didn't bloom. I moved it to a sunnier spot and then it started blooming, three times so far. Maybe I had it too shady for its taste. On the other hand the plant shed almost all its very dark green leaves when moved to a higher light level and as far as I know Stanhopeas are not deciduous in this fashion. Perhaps this leaf loss was the stress that prompted the plant to bloom. Anyway it did bloom and quite nicely at it.