Dendrobium culture: Dendrobium cucullatum, getting the plant to produce really long canes

 One of my favorite Dendrobium has been Dendrobium cucullatum, also known as Den pierardii, and Den aphyllum.  This species does well in my climatic conditions, so much so that all you need to do is attach it to a tree and it will grow and bloom with little care.  I have had plants of this species for many years.

In photos of this plant in Asia I noted that the plants were in many cases much thicker and longer than my plants and produced more and larger flowers.  After observing my plants, I concluded that the issue was that the plants were in baskets and pots that dried too fast for this species.  As a result, a plant that could potentially produce a six feet cane, would top out at a third of that size.

To rest this hypothesis, I put a three-cane plant of this species in plastic soda bottle that was cut in a way that there is a water reservoir at the bottom of the bottle that the roots of the orchid can reach.  I also made holes that allowed plenty of air to reach the roots, this is to avoid rot.

The results were highly gratifying.  The plant produced a five and a half foot cane, much thicker than usual.  In the second year in the pot its on its way to produce an even larger cane.   This year it bloomed with many flowers, sadly marred by thrips.  I expect that next year it will produce even more flowers.  I have a nasty surprise prepared for any thrip that might show up to eat the flowers.

In the future, I plan to make a basket that will allow for four or five canes to grow together.   Given the large size that such an arrangement would achieve the basket and pot would need to be quite strong not to be turned upside down by the sheer weight of the canes.

On a final note, the size of a plant is influenced by many things, light, fertilizer, watering, genetics, temperature and others.  It may be that some plants of this species are naturally small.  The plant I used for the test came from a parent that I knew can produce at least six foot long canes and maybe longer if given optimal care.  So don’t be frustrated if you plant doesn’t suddenly becomes a giant.

Dendrobium culture: Observations on the color of the mature canes in some Dendrobium species when exposed to strong light

Many Dendrobium need high light to bloom at their best, but the way they respond to it varies depending on the species.  My Den. nobile blooms with larger flowers with richer color when the canes are getting so much sun that they take a yellowish tint.   On the other hand, the Dendrobium primulinum from Laos produces larger flowers when the canes are exposed to full sun and turn purple.    Den anosmum doesn’t change color too much even when exposed to full sun, perhaps the canes are just a bit lighter green color.  I haven’t noticed a color change in the canes of Den devonianum, but the flowers of my plant which is exposed to full sun for hours in the morning show very pale color in the sepals and petals, so pale that it can make one think the flowers are not of devonianum unless one looks closely.  My newly acquired plant of Dendrobium ceraula shows a deep purple tint on the side of the cane that receives the sun and green on the side that is under the shade of the leaves.  In my experience Dendrobium cucullatum becomes yellowish and stunted if exposed to too much sun.   

Dendrobium culture: A shade house for Dendrobium anosmum

Dendrobium anosmum needs exposure to full sunlight to bloom well.   But too much sun burns the plants.   I build this wooden shade house so that I could grow my plants in a place where they got the right balance of sun/shade.   The shade house was oriented so its longest axis was perpendicular to the sunrise in the spring/autumn equinox.   It was eight feet tall so that the long canes of the Dendrobiums could hang down without touching the ground.  It was 10 feet long and four feet wide.  To shield the orchids from the harsh midday sunlight a camo fabric was used.   In places I also used black shade fabric.  Notice the camo fabric has a multitude of holes.  This made a pattern of sunlight and shadow that moved across the plants during the hottest parts of the day.   The desired effect was to achieve something similar to the way sunlight is naturally filtered by the leaves in the forest.

 But the key thing of the shade house was its open sides.  To the east of the shade house there were few trees, so the Dendrobium and other plants would get full strength sunlight from about 8 am to 11 am.   The west side of the shade house faced the closed canopy of the forest, so after midday, the plants were in the shade.   This mimics what happens in the natural habitat, where a plant that is growing in the side of a tree can get plenty of sunlight during part of the day and its on the shade after that.

 I used to have many of plants of Den anosmum.  So many plants that when the shade house was full, I could grow plants that needed lower light levels under the Dendrobium.    I hung the Den anosmum in the east side of the shade house and in the center of the structure, these were the areas that received the most intense sunlight for the longest time.   Under the Dendrobium, in the ground I grew Phaius, Calanthe, Phaiocalanthe, Cymbidium, Paphiopedilum, Vanda and Angraecum.   The shade was narrow to maximize the plants exposure to light while protecting them from the midday sun. 

 During the rainy season, in the afternoon the sky would get cloudy and it would rain, this would reduce the intensity of light in the afternoon.    But in the dry season there would be very sunny days, uninterrupted by any clouds, and this threatened the plants with sunburn, even those that were in their resting phase.  To avoid this, I would put a few old dry palm fronds on the roof of the shade house.  This reduced the level of light to tolerable levels.

When the Dendrobium were ready to bloom, they were moved to the terrace.  You can see the result in the photo below.

The wooden shade house was destroyed by a tropical storm.  It was rebuilt, much stronger, now made of two inch metal pipes.  This one lasted until Hurricane Maria dropped the top of a Teak tree on it.

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.

Dendrobium culture: No, its not dead.

For most orchid growers nowadays, Phalaenopsis are the gateway drug to bigger and more expensive plants.  But the Phalaenopsis that are now widely available are the product of many decades of hybridizing toward producing a plant that will survive in the average home even when (shudder of horror), watered with ice cubes.   Orchids species are an entirely different beast.  With 30,000 species (at least) species orchids show growing patterns and seasonal cycles very different from your average hardware store Phalaenopsis.   That is why it is important to read about the plants you buy.  A lot of orchid growers do impulse buying and then are bewildered by the way their plants react. 

 An example of a plant that can confuse a novice grower that is trying species is Dendrobium devonianum.  It produces slim canes that can be almost a meter long.  Unlike the leaves of Phalaenopsis, the leaves of Den. devonianum are slim, delicate and are soon deciduous.   During the growing season a cane of this species has leaves near the growing end of the cane with the rest quite bare.   When the cane stops growing, it eventually sheds all its leaves and for months afterwards it looks like its dead.    If the canes have been exposed to strong light and have developed a purplish color, they can look even worse.

This is an adaptation to the cold dry season when the trees lose their leaves and it rains little.  The orchids then have to endure months of drought and harsh sunlight.   My plant blooms in April, just before the local rainy season starts.  For months it looks like a mass of dead and shriveled stems.   But this is deceptive.  In the nodes of those leafless stems the flower buds are maturing.  A well flowered plant is quite impressive.

If you look at the top photo, the orchid looks like its in a wretched condition, ready to be thrown into the trash can.   But if you look closely, you can see the remains of many inflorescences in the second longest cane.   Note the very small root ball.  That is not unusual, if a plant is well fed and watered it will produce just the minimum of roots it needs to fill its needs.   In the bottom photo you can see the cane covered with flowers.

Bulbophyllum scaberulum (Rolfe) Bolus 1889, on a basket. The irritating problem of long internodes between pseudobulbs

 

I love the genus Bulbophyllum.  It has an enormous number of species with curious and eye-catching flowers.  But they are also the source of much frustration.  The reason is the long internodes between pseudobulbs.  You put an orchid with long internodes in a pot and before you know it, all its new growths are out of the pot and hanging in the air.  This is not good as pseudobulbs that are not attached to something tend to be weaker than those that are mounted of growing in media like bark or tree fern. 

I have tried many things to tame these uncontrollable plants.  Two things have worked, tying them to a long tree fern pole and tying them to a wire basket full of water retentive media.  With Bulbophyllum scaberulum I tried a wire basket filled with media.  I worked wonders, and in a relatively short time the orchid have covered the outside of the wire basket.   The thing is these plants need constant attention to bend the long internodes back toward the wire basket and tie them so that when the pseudobulb develops the roots will easily find the media.   It is very annoying that they tend to grow in every direction except toward the media.

 As long as I kept a constant watch for new growths and tied them to the basket, everything was hunky-dory.  But since this plant was doing so well, my attention wandered.  What an error.  The next thing I knew all the new growths were in the air.   If this is not corrected, the plants become several chains of pseudobulbs hanging from the basket that are not full size and will not bloom.   This is very irritating.

 My recommendation if you have one of these orchids.   Buy a long tree fern pole and attach the plant to it.  Buy U shaped nails in the hardware store. When this pesky plant starts producing new growths, as soon as you see the new pseudobulb emerging from the internode, use the U shaped nail to attach the growth to the fern pole.  Be careful not to harm the internode as in this stage its not that hard.  So, don’t damage the internode when affixing the U nail to the fern pole.   I have lost several of these Bulbophyllum due to their tendency to gallop across and escape from even the largest pot before you realize it.   Take pieces of your plant and start new plants on other mounts so that if one deteriorates you will not lose the orchid.

Encyclia plicata culture: Caring for a newly purchased plants with few roots

 A few months ago, I brought an Encyclia plicata.  The plant was somewhat dehydrated from its from its journey (it came from an orchid nursery in Jamaica) but otherwise it was in a fairly good shape.   The plant was sold bare root and has very short roots because they were cropped for transportation.  This presents a bit of a challenge, Encyclias that have lost their roots need a high humidity environment to recuperate, and yet in my experience the are intolerant of media that remains wet for a long time.  My sad experience with Cuban Encyclias is that they can rot away if keep too wet.   I have lost Enc moebusi and Enc. Phoenicia.   I think Enc moebusi died from its mount staying wet too long in the climatic chaos after hurricane Maria.  The reasons for the loss of Encyclia phoenicia are not clear.

So, what I have done is I have put the plant in an empty wire basket with no media.  I am lucky that in my locality the climate offers a level of environmental humidity that is good for tropical orchids.  Once or twice a day, depending on the weather, I soak the plant.  In hot, dry, windy weather, I soak it twice a day.  Before soaking, I check it to make sure it is perfectly dry.  For two months the plant stayed inactive.  But in August I saw three basal buds start developing.  Also a few roots have started growing.

 If this one was one of my other Encyclias, I would have put it in a terracotta pot with coarse potting media.  But with this one I plan to keep it in the basket with no media to see how the roots develop.  If all the new growths mature successfully, I might mount it on a tree fern plaque.  This has worked well in the past with Enc alata, Enc bractecens and Enc Borincana.   Or I might decide to fill the basket its in now with large pieces of tree fern.   Given that the plant has a limited quantity of roots, I don’t expect the new growths to reach blooming size but to stay smaller.  Once the new growths they developed a root system, I will decide what to do with it.  

  

Neobenthamia gracilis culture

I lost many orchids in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.   Most of them were in pots.  So, I decided to plant most of my orchids in baskets to avoid a repeat of that disaster.  Not all plants do well in baskets.   One plant that thrives in a pot is Neobenthamia gracilis.  I decided to experiment how it would do in a basket.   Neobenthamia defies our concept of what an orchid should look like.  A well grown plant looks like an untidy patch of grass.  

I planted a few keikis in a custom-made basket and filled the basket with pieces of coconut husk and a layer of leaf litter.   The keikis grew slowly.   The plant grew and produced new canes at a slow pace.  It eventually produced adult canes that bloomed.  The inflorescences are smaller than those of plants that I had in the past potted in a mix of bark and leaf litter.   The keikis took five years to reach blooming size.   I think that the plant would have taken less time if I had given the basket a top dressing of organic fertilizer.   Although the plant has not done as well as I would have liked, I will keep it in the basket, as a back up in case I lose the other plants.

The root system in the basket is large and its in an excellent condition.  When the plant starts producing keikis I will plant them in pots.  I will keep the mother plant in the basket, just in case.  

 

Ornithocephalus patentilobus C.Schweinf. 1947

 This orchid was photographed at the 2023 Puerto Rico Orchid show at the Caguas botanical gardens.  The plant is mounted and its fan shaped growths hang from the mount.  Its flowers are small and complex.  

Grammatophyllum culture: My experience with plants that have lost their roots

 

The aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria left most people in the island of Puerto Rico scrambling to secure the basic survival needs.  I my case, I was so busy at work, that for many months I could not pay attention to my orchids.   The hurricanes destroyed the forest canopy in my locale.  This produced wildly fluctuating temperature, humidity and light exposure.   Periods of extreme rain alternated with periods of almost no rain.  Many of my orchids could not adapt to the new circumstances and died.   Those that survived often suffered massive root loss.   Among those that lost their roots were my Grammatophyllums of the scriptum and elegans type.  As a result, they became much smaller, some plants divided into small groups of rootless pseudobulbs. 

Normally, Grammatophyllums are tough and resilient, but their tolerance was solely tested after the hurricanes.   To compound the problem the tags of most of them were lost.  So I took the remaining pieces and planted them in a variety of mounts to see in which ones they did better.   I have one advantage most people don’t enjoy, the humidity in my locale normally lies in the range that is good for tropical orchids. 

I planted the pieces I had in four different ways.   One was tied to a wire framework, with nothing else to provide attachment or moisture.  Another was put on a small plastic mesh pot filled with bark.  A third one was put on top of a metal wire basket.  Lastly one was tied to the bottom of a wire basket.  Before I go on, I have to explain what is a root basket.   Grammatophyllum often produces a mass of roots with many roots pointing upwards.  The purpose of these roots is to trap leaves and debris that fall on the plant as a source of moisture and nutrients.  A healthy plant often has a large root basket surrounding its pseudobulbs.  Many people affix their plants to tree fern plaques, or grow them in wooden baskets to allow the roots of the root basket to expand at will.  

 After a few years of care this is the results:  The one that was tied to the metal wire mesh has done better, it’s the one that has the most bulbs and the largest root basket.   On second place came the one on top of a metal wire basket, it produced small bulbs until it reached the edge of the basket, then produced the largest pseudobulb of them all.   Unfortunately, I put this one in a planter and it send a mass of roots into the pot next to it.  I had to rip it from the pot and in the process damaged its root basket, I expect it will recuperate quickly.  On third place is the plant growing attached to the bottom of a wire basket.  It has grown slowly, lost some pseudobulbs to rot and it still hasn’t started producing a root basket.  The piece that is growing on top of the plastic mesh pot filled with bark is the slowest growing of them all.  It only has two relatively small pseudobulbs and its yet to start producing its root basket. 

 From these results, I think it is clear that the Grammatophyllum prefer that their roots not be confined and will do better if their roots can grow at will and are exposed to air.  These plants are heavy feeders and need constant fertilization during their growth cycle for their pseudobulb to attain a large size.  High environmental humidity is extremely important in the case of plants that have lost their roots. 

Dendrobium culture: Dendrobium Mentor 2023 growing season

 

This Dendrobium is a hybrid of Den primulinum and Den anosmum.  This plant is from a remake, the original hybrid was made in 1893.   This plant is attached to the bottom of a custom-made wire basket.  As you must have noted from my posts on orchid culture, I prefer to grow these pendent orchids attached to the bottom of wire baskets.   I do this because when these plants become larger the canes tend to outweigh the pot many times, even when potted in a heavy terracotta pot.  As a result the pots lean to the side, making watering and fertilizer more difficult than usual.   Also these plants are heavy feeders which tends to deteriorate the potting material at an accelerated pace in a pot.  In a wire basket the media stays sopping wet for only brief moments with helps control the bacteria and fungi that destroy potting material.

My plant of Dendrobium Mentor tends to favor the primulinum parent in regards to plant form.  The canes grow almost horizontal, in the direction of the strongest light, until they grow to a size that makes their weight force them into a vertical alignment.   My plant needs heavy fertilizing during the growing season and daily watering to get the best rate of growth.  It also needs strong light.  I have it in a place where it gets full sunlight for a few hours each day between 8 am and 11 am.   In primulinum, the best flowers I have seen were in canes that were exposed to so much sunlight that they were purple.    At this moment, in August, the plant is about halfway to its final size which it will reach December.

 My Dendrobium anosmum plants shed their leaves in December.  I have not paid attention to when Dendrobium Mentor becomes deciduous.  In my garden, this orchid blooms in March or April.  I was slightly disappointed that the two adult canes of my plant bloomed at slightly different times in 2023.  This year the plant has three canes that have the potential to reach blooming size.  The best outcome will be for the to open their flowers all at the same time.  This orchid produces a single flower from each flowering node.

 Den Mentor is fragrant in my garden, although its fragrance is not as powerful as that of Den. anosmum.   The fragrance is subtly different from the sweet smell of Den. anosmum, but I lack the training to give an exact description of the fragrance.   I find its fragrance pleasing.

 As can be seen in the photo above the plant has a few keikis.  These will be removed and planted separately at the start of the next dry season, when the plant is dormant.  Some keikis will be removed along with the cane they are growing from to give them a sizeable reserve of water and nutrients to fall back on when they are producing their next year growth and roots.

Dendrobium anosmum var.huttonii, 2023 growing season, plant in wire basket

 

The best performing of all my Den anosmum huttonii plants is potted in a home-made wire basket.  The wire basket is five inches deep and four inches wide.  It looks small for an orchid that is several feet long, but it is the best option for me since this plant is growing outdoors and gets soaked almost every day during summer and fall which is the time of the rainy season.  The plant has been growing since February and still have four months to go to finish its growing season.   The plant has some keikis that I have kept on the plant so they will be larger and stronger when they are removed next year after the plant blooms.  During the peak of the rainy season, it rains so much that the media can become coated in patches with white fungus.  In a pot this would be really, really bad for the plant since the fungus accelerates the decay of the media and interferes with the capacity of the roots to absorb water.   But in the basket, the roots still have access to moisture and oxygen in spite of the fungus.  With the onset of the dry season the fungus dies out.   Normally this type of fungus is kept in check by the daily cycle of drying that the media experiences every day.  But during the rainiest days of the year, the media can remain wet for weeks or months even in the baskets. 

This orchid is growing so well I plan to move all my other var. huttonii to baskets.   Because some of my plants are grown in the north coast of Puerto Rico which is drier and windier than my current location, I plan to grow them in plastic pots with a small water reservoir.  I will try this because in the coast the winds dries the media in the baskets much faster than in the mountains.

Dendrobium Culture: Making a Den cretaceum specimen plant

 

Some years ago, I started cultivating a Dendrobium cretaceum plant with the aim of eventually getting a specimen plant with many flowers.  For aesthetic reasons I decided to cultivate the plant so that the canes hang from the bottom of the basket.   The orchid is planted in a way that is extremely different from what is the usual way of growing Dendrobium.   The plant was originally attached to the center of the bottom of the basket.  That way the roots would grow up into the potting mix and the canes would grow downward.   That is the exact opposite of how these plants are grown.    The basket is six inches wide and three and a half inch deep.  The potting media is bark, and fills the basket to a depth of two inches.   Den cretaceum is not a big plant so this arrangement allows plenty of space for it to grow for years.

There two-inch layer of media in the basket allows for plenty of air to reach the roots.   This is a very important detail.  You would think that is a very small quantity of media for a plant that one eventually wants to become large and bushy.  But due to the local climatic conditions it is the perfect amount.  The reason is that during summer and fall in my locality it rains almost daily.   At the peak of the rainy season the media can stay wet for weeks or months.   In a plastic pot this would mean a waterlogged media that would quickly become devoid of oxygen, will start rotting and turning into slush under the influence of fungi, bacteria, high temperatures and fertilizer.  

 To my delight, at the start of the 2023 growing season the plant, that usually produces four or five new canes every year, in a fit of exuberance, started producing nine new canes.   This is wonderful but it bring its own suit of problems.   First, all the canes are clustered and oriented toward the strongest source of light.   That means that the plant is self-shading.   This can result in that some of the canes will be spindlier and weaker.   To avoid that I moved the plant to a spot where it gets the strongest sunlight I can give it without burning the leaves.  Eventually as they grow the canes will spread out and the issue will resolve itself.  Because of the particular way the canes of Den cretaceum grow the leaves are not particularly vulnerable to burn if exposed to strong light.  The canes of this orchid arch downward, so that when the sun is at its strongest the leaves are edge on to the light.   A note of warning, while canes are capable of taking full sunlight, the base of the canes are prone to burning if exposed to very strong sunlight.  Fortunately, this is not a problem for me since the basket protects the tender bases from the sunlight.

If all goes well, by the start of the 2024 dry season, the canes will have reached their full size.  When the canes reach full size, I stop watering and fertilizing the plant, it gets only the scant amount of rain we get during the dry season.  The plant loses all its leaves and looks dead for a time.   In April I will start looking for the swelling flower buds along the length of the canes.  Then in May I expect the plant to produce a mass of flowers.  You can see on top the 2023 blooming.   The plant as it is now is in the photo below.

The Orchid a book by Lauren Gardiner and Phillip Cribb, a beautiful book with 40 botanical prints

 

This book is my birthday present to myself.   Why I brought it?  Because its beautiful.  The authoritative text is the frosting on top of the cake.  Along with the book there are 40 botanical prints.  The orchids in the prints are described in the text.  The prints are suitable for framing. 

Myrmecophila culture: Why my plant won't bloom? A checklist of possible causes

The most common question I get asked about Myrmecophila orchids is “why won’t my plant bloom?” I have decided to make a checklist of the reasons Myrmecophila might not bloom. This will help guide you to find the way to make your plants bloom. 

1. Is the plant adult sized? Myrmecophilas are plants that in the wild live in a symbiotic relationship with ants that live inside their hollow pseudobulbs. These ants fertilize the plant with their feces. Plants in cultivation that don’t have ant colonies might become stunted and never reach adult size. So the first thing is to get an ID the plant and check on the size of an adult pseudobulb. If the pseudobulbs are smaller than the reported size for the species they you need to make sure you fertilize this plant with a high nitrogen fertilizer and give it plenty of water when it is producing new pseudobulbs. 

 

2. Is it getting enough sunlight? Myrmecophilas are not plants that bloom in shady spots. They will grow well, and might eventually produce a large clump of pseudobulbs. But they will not bloom. If a plant is an adult and is not blooming, the next thing to check it if it is getting the level of light it needs. I have seen Myrmecophilas growing quite well in places where they get full sun for most of the day. Personally, I put my plants close to the shade cloth, I grow them under a shade cloth that allows most of sunlight to come through. The best plants I have seen were grown with full exposure morning or afternoon sun, but protected from the midday sun by shade cloth or the canopy of a tree. 

 3. Is it in the proper location for blooming? Myrmecophilas are often planted on trees with dense canopies. This keeps the plants in shade. They will grow well but not bloom. A friend had a massive plant of Myr humboltii growing in a citrus tree. It had never produced a single flower. A hurricane severely damaged the canopy of the tree, allowing full sunlight to reach the Myrmecophila. As a result, the plant bloomed. 

 4. Is it receiving the care it needs at the critical time in its growth cycle? Most people I know affix their Myrmecophilas to a tree and that is that. No watering, except for rain, or fertilizing, except what it gets naturally from the tree or from ants if they have colonized the plant. This is a hit or miss approach. Some plants will grow well and bloom, other will rarely bloom and some will never bloom. I have seen Myr humboltii and Myr exaltata growing on the stems of palm trees doing well and blooming. I have seen a massive plant of Myr humboltii under the thick canopy of an avocado tree, with no evidence of it ever blooming. You need to observe your plant, and when it is producing a new pseudobulb, give it the watering and fertilizing it needs. 

 5. Is it healthy? Some Myrmecophilas are attacked by a type of fungus that kills their stems and primordial buds. You can tell this because part of the stem that should be green look like cork. The sad thing about this is that often nothing can be done. The warning sign is often that the plant is not producing new growths. The fact that the rest of the plant can look good even if it has lost all its capacity to produce new growths, and can remain looking good for years, is a confounding thing. Plants like this will not bloom ever. On occasion an older side bud will produce healthy new growth. But if a plant has not produced new growths after a few years, it is probably a lost cause. 

 6. Is the plant getting the proper nutrition? Sometimes you can do all the above things and still a plant won’t bloom. Sometimes a few extra things can give it the push it needs to bloom. I have used a dilution of Epson salt to give the plants more access to magnesium, in particular those that are growing in full sun and look yellow. A fertilizer with a high nitrogen concentration is recommended when the plant is producing new growths.

Myrmecophila brysiana culture: The free spirit

Myrmecophila brysiana When I received my plant of Myrmecophila brysiana from an online vendor, it was a tiny thing on a 2 inch pot. I made a custom-made wire basket for it. The plant spent the next few years producing a line of increasingly large pseudobulbs that were tightly clustered. So far everything was unremarkable. Last year, I noticed that it was producing its largest pseudobulb yet, but it was growing sidewise, into the side of the basket (large red oval). I made a hole for the pseudobulb to grow through. A few months later I was startled to discover it was producing a new growth, downwards directly into the media (red circle). I had to remove most of the media in the basket, as well as one side, to allow the new growth to enlarge and expand to full size. Then a few weeks ago, It started a third new growth, this one points straight up (small red oval). Given that the plant seems determined to grow in all directions at the same time, I will eventually let it hang from a wire and grow in whichever direction it wants.

Myrmecophila grandiflora culture: The well behaved one, that stays, mostly in the basket

When I brought this plant, many years ago, I decided to put it in a basket. I have other Myrmecophilas growing on trees, I wanted to be able to bring the plant into the house when in bloom. I put the seedling in the middle of a custom-made basket, with big chunks of bark. The plant has been growing in the basket for many years. It has been producing closely set pseudobulbs in a pattern that has been slowly growing around what was the body of the basket. I have had to remove parts of the basket to allow its pseudobulbs to grow out. Even though I used the most durable kind of media I could find for this plant, it has been in the basket for so long that all the media decayed and was washed away. The plant is now growing on its old dried pseudobulbs and roots. You can see in the photo the old hollow pseudobulbs. The inflorescence of this plant is quite tall, so if I put the basket on the floor, the flowers can be enjoyed at eye level. This plant needs heavy fertilization and plenty of watering when producing new growths. Failure to give this plant the fertilizer and water it needs in this part of its growth cycle will result in stunted pseudobulbs that won’t bloom. This plant is hung close to the shade cloth so that it gets the brightest light. I only move this plant when the inflorescences are developing. I use long hanging hooks, so that the inflorescences don’t scrape against the shade cloth and become damaged. When the inflorescences are growing, I take care that they don’t get tangled with the other baskets that are also hanging from the top of the shade house. This is also a problem with other genera that produce long inflorescences such as Encyclia.

Encyclia culture: Some notes on root initiation

One of the most important events in the seasonal cycle of Encyclia is root initiation. It At this time of the year, in early February I am expecting my plants to start growing their inflorescences. Most of my plants finished the growth of the new bulbs at the end of last year. A few, are doing their own thing. Encyclia Borincana started producing a new growth for an old, small pseudobulb, a newly brought Encyclia alata is showing new growth. A few roots with green tips can be seen here and there. This pseudobulb of Encyclia Renate Schimdt (Enc. Orchid Jungle x Enc. Alata) decided to produce a massive growth of roots. Locally, it is the start of the dry season, not a time I find desirable for a plant to increase its water needs to nurture root growth. But you got to do what the plant needs. Because I grow my orchids outdoors this mass of delicious, tender green tipped roots is a very tempting target for insects and other critters. To stop the roots from becoming food, I give the plant a spot application of a systemic insecticide. Systemic insecticides tend to concentrate on new growths, making then inedible to any insect that might be tempted to nibble on them. Protecting the roots at this stage is vital for the future survival of the plant. The loss of the root system of its newest pseudobulb can severely set back an orchid and might even endanger its survival. Note the length of the green part of the root. A very short green tip is not a good thing, it means the plant is not getting enough water. the lenght of the green in this orchid shows it is getting the right amount of watering to promote good root growth. Root initiation in many types of orchids is not like other plants, it can only happen a specific time of the year. So when it happens the plant has to be given the care it needs to produce a strong system of roots capable of sustain the next year growth, there will not be a second chance. On some instances a plant whose lead growth is damaged will produce a secondary growth a bit back in the stem, but that doesn’t always happens. Observing the long-term growth pattern of my Encyclia I have noted that they tend to rise slowly raise they stems away from the media. After a few years the pseudobulbs are sitting on a mass of roots a few inches tall, rather than directly on the media.

Dendrobium anosmum var huttonii

I have cultivated this particular clone of Dendrobium anosmum var. huttonii for many years. It has several peculiar traits that make it distinct from other anosmum plants. But first let’s mention which trait defines var. huttonii as a distinct variety of Dendrobium anosmum. The defining trait of var. Huttonii is a pure white flower with purple color on the lip. If a plant has any color, no matter how pale, outside the lip, it is not Huttonii. There are many, many named varieties of anosmum, but only two have been scientifically described, var. dearei, the alba form and var. huttoni. The other variants, and there are probably dozens or even hundreds of them, get their names from commercial growers or from informal descriptions in popular literature. To mention just a few, anosmum from the Philippines sometimes are called superbum, also there is var. delacourii, var. velutina (both very hairy flowers with flowers that look squashed), “touch of class” and the “thai” type. Also, there are many hybrids of anosmum and parishii, cucullatum, primulinum and rhodopterygium that are sometimes sold as anosmum. Hybrids sometimes sold as anosmum are Nestor, Supernestor, and Little Sweetscent. There are several traits that are characteristic of this huttoni clone. For example, my plants start producing flower buds and showing basal growths in the middle of January. A six to seven weeks before the type form of the species does the same in my locality. The clone I have is less vigorous than the type form of the species. It takes dedicated care to coax this plant to produce canes more than two feet long, and none of my plants have produced canes larger than three feet. It is common for anosmum to produce plantlets near the tip of old canes that have lost their roots. Huttonii produces plantlets near the tip of canes, but it also produces them, at the middle of the cane. Huttonii plantlets separated from the mother plant will tend to remain small unless they get fertilized regularly during the growing season with a fertilizer that has a high nitrogen number. In December, I reduce considerably the water my plants get and they start shedding their leaves. By the end of January most of my plants are entirely leafless. My huttoni bloom from leafless canes. Normally, anosmum plants produce their flowers along the length of the cane. If the only few flowers are produced they tend to cluster at the tip of the stem. In huttonii, the flowers can appear near the tip of the cane but also at random spots near the middle. Sometimes small plants will bloom if they have several canes. I have seen plants with canes that are less than eight inches long produce a single flower at the tip of the cane. The huttonii clone has never been as floriferous as the type form which can produce dozens of flowers if well cared for. I am happy if any of the canes produce eight flowers simultaneously. Sometimes a cane will only produce two to four flowers. And here is the most bizarre thing about this clone, sometimes a cane that bloomed early in the year will bloom again, weeks or months after it first flowered. No other anosmum variety I have has shown this peculiar trait. The flowers are highly fragrant. When this plant shows the buds of the flowers and the new growth, I return to a normal watering and fertilizing schedule. I cultivate my plants in baskets because during the rainy season it can rain heavily, every day for months. This, and the heat and the insects tend to turn most organic potting media into slush in a bothersome short time if the media stays saturated all the time. Baskets allow for fast drainage and at bit of drying in between rain events. This also means that the media can get very dry during the dry season and will need several good soakings before it starts retaining water. These plants are heavy feeders and will not grow to a good size unless regularly fertilized. At the beginning of the growing season, I remove the plantlets from the older canes. Sometimes I cut a sizeable section of the cane around the plantlets to them a better head start. The critical part is the time period when the plantlet is sending into the media the roots of its first cane produced after separation. If anything happens to the roots, this will be a considerable set back to the growth and will endanger the survival of the plantlet. A plantlet that is well cared for can start blooming as soon as two years after being separated from the mother plant. There is more information on the culture of Dendrobium anosmum elsewhere in this blog.