PlantFiles: Sekkoku
Dendrobium moniliforme

This is the northernmost growing Dendrobium (all the way up past Tokyo!) and is even slightly hardy - mine have taken temperatures down to -3C for short periods of time. There's a great picture on a Japanese website of one blooming on a snow-covered branch in Chiba Prefecture...

The canes are deciduous, and the plant needs a dry cool rest in the winter or it will not flower in spring. It can be grown in a pot of sphagnum, bark, or any other epiphytic mix, or tied onto a cork slab. In warmer areas, you could even try to get it going on a living tree - a common practice here.

The typical flowers are pinkish, though the pure white clone is very common in the garden trade in Japan. The Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese have been cultivating and breeding this species for more than a thousand years - but for the foliage and pseudobulb shapes and colors rather than the flowers. Dwarf clones with varigated leaves of various colored tints are the most popular, and can fetch thousands of dollars.