Encyclia bractescens (Lindl.) Hoehne 1952

I brought this small Encyclia decades ago.  I has not failed to bloom every year between April and May.  I have two plants, both attached to pieces of tree fern.  This plant grows well in the hot, sunny conditions of coastal Puerto Rico.  I have it just under the shadecloth where it gets the brightest light possible without exposing it to direct sun.

The only problem that I have had with this orchid is that it loathes media that is too water retentive.  I had a wonderful specimen plant that would produce hundreds of flowers at a time.  I lost most of the plant because the tree fern plaque in which it was growing decayed so much that it started retaining water to the extent that it would dry very, very slowly.  This caused rot in the center of the specimen plant, I had to cut it in pieces in the process of removing the decayed and rotting parts.

This orchid needs frequent fertilizer applications when it is producing its new pseudobulbs.  If this is not done the pseudobulbs might not reach their full potential.  Given that this plant do best in small mounts that don't retain much water, you have to work out on your own which schedule of watering will produce the best growth.  I have seen plants of this species being grown on terracota mounts with absolutely no media.

Not afraid to show its tougher, larger female side; Cycnoches Jean E. Monnier (Cyc. barthiorum x Cyc. cooperi)

Female flower

Inflorescence of male flowers

Male flowers

The genus Cycnoches produces flower that can be male or female.   The male flowers are normally smaller and more numerous, the female flowers are larger and fewer in number.  My plants of Cycnoches Jeane E. Monnier (Cyc. barthiorum x Cyc. cooperi) would bloom several times a season with inflorescences of small papery male flowers.  But on one occasion one of the plants produced a female flower. 

The plant produced a single female flower.  The female flower was big, much bigger than the male flowers. The floral segments of had a heavier texture and it had a different color than the male flowers.  The male flowers, because they were relatively thin textured become spotted and decay quite easily, the female flower was longer lasting. 

 

My experience cultivating Cycnoches is paradoxical.  They grew well, flowered abundantly and few pests bothered them.  They thrived, that is until they died.  All the plants died the same way.  One day I would find a sunken yellow spot in the stem and in a few days the spot would spread and the plant would rot away.  Cutting the plant in pieces in an effort to save a least a piece, didn’t work.  Some pieces of stem would endure for a time and then they would start producing shoots, only to start rotting away.  Even Cycnoches barthiorum, a plant that I grew for a whole decade in spite of its reputation as a difficult plant, eventually succumbed this way.