Vanda tessellata 'Friendship' CCE, AM/AOS

First bloom seedling! For two years I grew this under 100% artificial light in my indoor warm vivarium, very high light (5000 foot candles) both under 400w HPS and later 400w MH lamps but it refused to bloom. Since I didn't have room in my outdoor greenhouse, friends up north offered to give it a place in their greenhouse. A few months ago it bloomed for the first time putting on a magnificent show and they took it for AOS judging in Helena, Montana where it won a CCE and an AM. I'm not really interested in the award but I am really delighted with the outcome of this plant.

I don't know who the photographer was, it was taken by a person associated with the judging team.

We've got a selfing seed pod on it

 

Thank you. I have seen this phenomenon with at least a dozen vandaceous and angraecoid species, many simply will not bloom without natural light; whether it is the waxing and waning of sunlight throughout the day that is missing (artificial light is of course constant all day) under 100% artificial light (no sunlight in the room at all) or that certain spectra are missing from the lamps I don't know. So while I do successfully bloom many orchids under these entirely artificial conditions, a fair number of them wait to bloom until they have been in an outdoor greenhouse for 3-6 months. This seems especially true for Vanda species. What happens is that all floral nodes that have lain dormant activate simultaneously, and the show is really spectacular, see my 2011 Angraecum erectum bloom.

Some OI members have bloomed these stubborn species indoors but from what I can tell they also have some natural light coming in through a window.

 

Thanks! The cross is by RF orchids, the parents: Vanda tessellata v. alba 'T. Orchids' HCC/AOS X v. aurea 'Fuchs Lemonade' CHM/AOS