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.