Dendrobium bullenianum, culture notes

This is this orchid second blooming on my garden.  My plant if far from being an adult.  This plant presents a particular cultural challenge.  It needs plenty of watering to produce the large, long canes of the adult plant.  And yet, it does better mounted in media that drains freely.  So you have to water this plant often but also need to be watchful that the media doesn't become so decayed and waterlogged to the extent that it will stay wet all the time and kill the roots.

Dendrobium bullenianum Rchb.f 1862, first flowers in my garden

I have found that this Dendrobium is easy to cultivate in Puerto Rico.  The plant needs a well drained medium, abundant watering and regular fertilizing to produce its long canes.  It does equally well in the coast and in the mountains. Where I live, at 1000 feet of altitude temperatures only go under 60F at night during a short spell in winter, it doesn't seem to bother this plant.  I prefer to cultivate upside down like I do my Den. anosmum so that the mature canes hang down as they do in nature.  This is the first blooming of this species for me, the plant is still small and young.  I expect that when it reaches its adult size it will produce its characteristic many flowered globular inflorescences.