Brassia culture: Brassia Edvah Loo, how I lost a specimen plant

I used to have an enormous specimen plant of Brassia Edvah Loo ‘Nishida”.   When it was in full bloom, it was something to behold.  The flowers were more than 30 centimeters tall, and the plant produced dozens of them in six large inflorescences.   Sadly, I lost my plant.  How?  I decided to divide it in several smaller pieces.  Up to that point my experience with Brassia was that they rarely got sick, grew fast and were problem free.   But this Brassia showed me there are exceptions to everything.

Because the lead growths were growing over the edge of the pot, I divided the plant in pieces with two to three pseudobulbs and a lead growth.   I gave some pieces away, others I potted some I mounted in fern poles.  To my horror every single piece died.  They didn’t all die at the same time.  What happened was that they stopped growing vigorously.   Some rotted away, others produced smaller and smaller pseudobulbs until they died.  To this day I cannot figure out what happened.  By the way I sterilize with fire every tool I use to cut the stems of the orchids, so it probably wasn’t a pathogen that was accidentally introduced to the plant during the process of dividing it.  

After that depressing experience, I no longer divide specimen plants that way.  What I do is I take a piece from the specimen plant and pot it separately So I have a spare in case it gets sick.   My experience with specimen plants is that as they grow larger, they can naturally divide themselves into pieces as the older parts of the stem die off.   In some cases, like my experience with Paphiopedilum, the stem can divide in separate pieces and yet the roots are joined in a hard root ball so that they cannot be separated without doing horrendous damage to the roots.  In those cases, I take out the old decayed potting material from the root mass and fill the spaces with fresh material.  

Growing an orchid specimen plant takes patience, dedication and consistent care.  It is a huge investment of time and effort.   Damaging the roots of specimen plants should be avoided.  It can severely set back the plant or even kill it.    On a closing note, don't give in to people begging for pieces!!  Send them to a vendor.

Brassia "Waiomao Spotless" and Brassia Rex "Sakata"

These two Brassias bloomed at the same time but are different in various ways.  In contrast to "Waiomao spotless', which for me is a slow and deliberate grower, Brassia Rex 'Sakata' is a veritable weed that grows well with minimal care and can gallop across pots and baskets because its vigorous growth habits.  Both hybrids are well worth growing, although my favorite is 'Waiomao' because of its larger flowers and elegant presentation of the inflorescence.  Both are fragrant.  

Brassia Edvah Loo 'Nishida' x Miltonia clowesii, a hybrid that grows very well but rarely blooms in my garden

The flowers of this orchid have been surprisingly variable, sometimes they have long Brassia like floral segments and sometimes they don't.  It grows very well and can tolerate a wide range of sun exposures.  I have grown it in shade and in places where it gets hours of full sun.  It has bloomed in both places the flowers were more Brassia like when grown shady and favored the clowesii parent when grown in the sun.

Brassia Rex 'Waiomao Spotless' not your everyday Brassia hybrid

Unlike my other Brassia hybrids, this one demands that one pays attention to its need if it is to produce its large and impressive inflorescences.  If neglected it produces small pseudobulbs that bloom with inflorescences that are only a fraction of what this plant is capable of producing under optimal conditions.  It needs regular watering and fertilization during its growth phase and bright light.  For me it is a slow and deliberate grower, not in any way like my other Brassia Rex clones, which grow constantly and bloom frequently.  This plant blooms for me just once a year.

Last year's inflorescence, pictured above was larger and had more flower than the 2014.

Brassia Datacosa

This Brassia hybrid is floriferous and easy to care for, but it has the same habit as many other Brassia hybrids, it gallops across the pot or basket and soon its pseudobulbs are growing in the air outside the pot.  Pseudobulbs whose roots are not in the media are weaker and smaller than those that have their roots inside the pot.  If the plant loses its roots it can take several years to recuperate its former vigor.  A plant with several healthy and adult pseudobuls and with several growing points, can bloom  repeatedly during the blooming season or can produce all its inflorescences in one large display, as this plant did.

Brassia Edvah Loo 'Nishida' specimen plant

All the inflorescences would orient in the direction of the strongest ligh, this caused some to overlap which caused the flowers to become crowded due to their large size.

This orchid produces huge flowers well over one foot tall.  The inflorescences are massive and the fragrance is delightful and powerful.  I used to have this huge specimen which produced amazing displays of flowers when it bloomed.  When it got so large it was difficult to move I decided to divide it.   I cut it in seven pieces and to my horror six of the pieces started dying from rot.  Only a tiny piece, that I had left out and had not potted because it had few roots, survived.  After four years of precarious growth that piece bloomed for the first time this July.  Hopefully it will grow well enough to reclaim its past glory.

Previous to that awful loss of plants, this orchid had proved to be easy to culture, a vigorous grower and a reliable bloomer.  It is not clear why the pieces got rot.   This orchid used to be very common, however it has been some years since I have seen plants of this hybrid shown anywhere.  It would be interesting to know if others have had the same experience I had with this orchid.  I remember seeing some pretty impressive plants shown in orchid group meetings.