The Orchid Species Society Inc. Page 50.

Dendrobium canaliculatum by Ross Harvey, 27 February 2003. This species has a wide variety of plant sizes with pseudo-bulbs from as small as

marbles to elongated styles up to 150mm in length. It is mainly a plant of tropical

Queensland (found also in tropical NT and WA) from Rockhampton in the south to

the tip of Cape York. It grows almost exclusively on paperbark trees hence the

common name of Tea-Tree Orchid. It is found in humid swampy lowland locations

and occasionally in harsh low humidity locations (especially during the winter

months) some distances inland from the coast. It is extremely intolerant of cold, wet

conditions and requires a heated orchid-house in cold locations. The flowering within

the species is extremely variable bearing from 2 - 4 flowers per raceme in the smaller

plants to 40+ flowers per raceme in the larger plants with colour of flowers varying

from white, cream, pale green, yellow and brown with purple or red labellums. The

areas in which they grow have two seasons, wet and dry (and dry meaning no rain for

two to three months with minimum temperatures seldom below 10 degrees Celsius

for long periods). Knowing the natural conditions under which these plants grow is

beneficial in their cultivation.

I am a firm believer in that if you get the environment right you are 70% there in

growing the plant, culture counts for 30%. The environment has three aspects,

Location or Growing House, Light and Ventilation.

Location or Growing House I grow the plants in a shade house covered with opaque

solarweave with walls of glass louvres in the top half combined with fixed glass in

the lower half. This enables me to keep the plants dry in the winter and, by closing

the louvres in mid-afternoon, slightly warmer. I believe that the plants will tolerate

the cold (that we get in SE Qld) and tolerate the wet but not a combined cold and wet.