Dendrobium anosmum, when cultured so that they can hang down as they do in nature, can produce quite a show. Here are ten plants hanging from the roof of the terrace of my house. The fragrance was delicious, strong and could be perceived for quite some distance due to the large number of flowers open at the same time.
These plants are growing in a shade house, notice the large number of blooms per cane.
When fed well, given strong light and ample watering, Den. anosmum can produce impressively large leaves.
Den. anosmum growing in a pot made out of a plastic soda bottle. Note the large size of the plant in comparison with the pot in which it is growing. If you see the older canes you will notice that they are all smaller than the new one, this is a clue that this is a relatively young plant.
The bottom of the pot was sealed with a piece of saran shade cloth, the roots grew over the saran and into the media, notice the white color of the new roots a clear sign of health.
As a fanatic of pendent dendrobiums, I have had quite a lot of experience growing these lovely but at times very frustrating plants. Perhaps the most difficult problem I have had with these type of Dendrobium has been finding out by trial and error that some of the most beautiful species will not grow and flower under my climatic conditions. When I got them, in the dim prehistory of the pre-Internet era, there was not much information available locally on growing particular species of Dendrobium. Nowadays there is such an enormous amount of information on the Internet that a little detective work using the various search engines for finding out the proper growing conditions of the particular species you like will go a long way toward avoiding dissapointment. The pendent Dendrobium species find agreeable my local climatic conditions grow vigorously and flower abundantly. In the next lines I will share some of my experiences with these plants. My experience has been with Adrasta, aduncum, anosmun, aphyllum, loddiggessii, nobile, parishii, primulinum and tortile among others.
Light: These plants love high light and benefit from some hours of full sun, some can even stand full midday sun without complaint, however exposing the base of the canes to full sun is deathly for these plants. The base of the canes will die if sunburned, and eventually the plant will die too. It is a perplexing and surprising experience when your plant suddenly becomes a group of live canes held together by a dead base.
Watering: Everyday at the height of the growing season, drenching the pots until water flows out. When leaves start turning yellow I stop watering, (around December), when flower buds appear, in the middle of February locally I resume watering.
Fertilizing: Heavy, on plants potted upside down I put some pieces of horse manure on top of the pot.
Potting: I no longer pot my pendent dendrobiums in the top of pots, I pot them in the bottom of wire baskets and pots I make out of soda pop bottles. I started potting them upside down because I became extremely frustrated with the fact that plants eventually weighted so much they would tip the pots and make watering and fertilizing difficult. Plants can stay in these pots for many years. The first plant I potted in a soda pop bottle fifteen years ago is still growing in the same pot.
Media: These plants seem to be able to grow on anything as long as it allows for oxygenation of the roots. Every year I hose off the decayed material and add fresh one. I have used sphagnum moss, bark of all sizes, glass marbles, wood chips, tree fern, charcoal, etc. As long as the plant gets watered and fertilized appropriately for the material it seems to make no difference.Since a picture is worth a thousand words here are some showing how I pot my plants.
