grammatophyllum orchid
Grammatophyllum are a favorite here at Oak Street Garden Shop! If you’re seeking a distinctive and tropical plant for your green space, I highly recommend these orchids. These are some of the largest orchids you can buy and they do well in warm and slightly humid climates like what we have here in Birmingham.
Grammatophyllum, also known as Tiger Orchids, are native to the Philippines and Southeast Asian countries. During the summer, Grammatophyllum orchids thrive outdoors and in greenhouses in warm and humid weather. To ensure their well-being, provide them with filtered shade and lots of moisture.
As the seasons transition to winter, bring them indoors but be sure to ease up on their moisture. They do well on pebble trays that add moisture to the air around them. They also prefer fish emulsion and more organic fertilizers.
Here’s a fun fact: In 1851, at the great exhibition at Hyde Park in London, a Grammatophyllum weighed in at 2 tons! Don’t worry, most don’t get that large. What we can say with certainty is that these beauties look great just about anywhere, and we love to see what you do with them.
Learn even more!
Someone who worked for us many years ago called from North Carolina to order an orchid for her mother’s birthday. She likes succulents too; so a double stemmed phalaenopsis and a lady slipper orchid were paired in a container and succulents nestled at the base. The addition of angelvine and a touch of brown ribbon complete the design.
This is just a sampling of the early fall things we’ve been creating! Since we’re always searching for new ideas and ways to make our arrangements more interesting and unique, who knows what we’ll come up with next…
Jamie put together this stunning display the other day at the front of the shop, using a beautiful mix of containers and plants. The picture doesn’t do her designs justice,,,a pony tail palm underplanted with succulents; another succulent planting in cork bark; and a gorgeous arrangement of a standing cork bark planter with brassidium, or spider, orchids.
This closeup picture of the succulent plantings shows both the diversity of this group of plants and why we enjoy working with them so much. In addition to the drought tolerant ponytail palm, there are echeverias, string of pearls, string of bananas, crassulas, and variegated trailing jade plant, all right at home in her design.
The greenhouse is so beautiful all year round, but it’s especially so in the height of the holiday season. In fact, sometimes there are so many flowers and new plants coming in almost daily that they are literally everywhere – on tables, on the floor around tables, and anywhere we can find a spare space. Never let it be said we don’t have a little something for everyone!
Autumn inspires us! The past month we’ve been designing with thoughts of fall…a copper container, a beautiful basket, a heavy stone trough, and even something as simple as a wooden box made wonderful starting pieces for a few of them.
This wooden box arrangement was done for a garden club – the customer brought in the antlers! This one was a fun change of pace. Those antlers didn’t want to stay put, and the box was a tad rickety…it reminds us that each day may bring different and interesting challenges!
This summer’s wet, cool weather might have kept many of you out of your gardens, but we’ve managed to stay busy in the greenhouse putting together arrangements filled with orchids, succulents, houseplants, and so much more…here’s a peek at some of them. We regularly have folks who stop in just to see what we’ve been working on! All of these arrangements are composed of live plants, no cut flowers here.
Finally, the silver container was given in memory of someone…the longlasting and low maintenance houseplants of trailiing pepperomia and cryptanthus make excellent companions. It’s gratifying, also, to know that whoever is on the receiving end will be able to enjoy this longer than a fresh flower arrangement could ever hope to last.
The last planting is shown to serve as an example of how you can definitely have color in the shade using foliage in addition to flowers…the ‘Garden White’ caladium in contrast with the golden carex and sunpatien really catches the eye! The planter at the top of this post is also one for shade, and, once again, the foliage is the star.
