All in the family, three Pterostylis

[KyushuCalanthe]

OK, not my best effort, but you can see some of the Pterostylis I grow on a cold windowsill. If you follow some basic steps these are not hard to keep, flower, and even propagate.

The video:

Pterostylis Video

And the article detailing natural history and cultivation:

Three Greenhorns from Australia

 

[NYEric]

THanks, I will have to review this for sure.

 

[Ozpaph]

nice photo

 

[tonyw]

My P. curta is now in flower but they are not liking the cold weather we are having. I have to keep them closed down and they have become very etiolated

 

[cnycharles]

I tried the video but with my dialup, youtube wouldn't just play the video. After I had been on the page for a while I could see by moving the mouse along the timeline that the whole video had been downloaded but when I tell it to start at the beginning it plays maybe ten seconds, then stops for three minutes etc.

I don't think it's the video, it's the terrible youtube interface and controls. I even had it set to low resolution and it wouldn't just 'play'. I often avoid trying to view videos because it is such a hassle

picture is nice, nice encyclopedia article

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Yeah Charles, video and dial-up are a match made in hell. I'm glad to have said "sayonara" to dial-up 9 years ago. I do kind of miss the connecting sound though...

 

[Andrew]

Interesting that you've said you're struggling with nutans. It's often recommended as a beginner plant but I've come across a lot of experienced Australian terrestrial growers who don't do well with it. I've only started having success with nutans after giving it more water than most of my other Australian terrestrials. I've put the 'beginners luck' with this species down to the tendency of new growers to overwater.

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Interesting that you've said you're struggling with nutans. It's often recommended as a beginner plant but I've come across a lot of experienced Australian terrestrial growers who don't do well with it. I've only started having success with nutans after giving it more water than most of my other Australian terrestrials. I've put the 'beginners luck' with this species down to the tendency of new growers to overwater.

Hey Andrew, well you know how it is with terrestrial orchids, you can never let your guard down. I had well over a hundred flowering stems 3 years ago. I tried some outside - just too cold in winter for them to be viable - and the rest stayed in a big pot. I neglected them for two years - the second year they flowered less, but looked OK, so I just shrugged them off. The next year I was down to a handful of bulbs! Oops. I suspect this year I ought to have a fistful again. The moral of the story - repot, repot, repot!

 

[Dido]

nice thanks for sharing

 

[cnycharles]

David in Georgia told me that (in his greenhouse) while they are growing he didn't think that you could overwater curta, and i've definitely seen that 'checking' them by letting them get a little too dry is definitely a no-no. had a few emerging stems stop in their tracks and others that slowed but kept going but had smaller flowers.

I do notice that your flowers have a 'shinier' look to them than mine had (curta) and I don't know if that's because I kept them too cool after they had started flowering, or they didn't have enough fertilizer.

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

David in Georgia told me that (in his greenhouse) while they are growing he didn't think that you could overwater curta, and i've definitely seen that 'checking' them by letting them get a little too dry is definitely a no-no. had a few emerging stems stop in their tracks and others that slowed but kept going but had smaller flowers.

I do notice that your flowers have a 'shinier' look to them than mine had (curta) and I don't know if that's because I kept them too cool after they had started flowering, or they didn't have enough fertilizer.

Charles, I think any of the three in the vid can take plenty of moisture, but they must also have perfect drainage or rot will set in. These really are plants of moist subtropical forests that get cool winters when they are growing and flowering. One thing, if you grow P. nutans it loves to "dive" in the pot, producing most or all of the new bulbs at the very bottom in the drainage material, so be careful when repotting.

I grow mine on a cold windowsill that gets down to the high 30s at night and at most 50 during the day, so cold temperatures shouldn't be a problem. During flowering it gets warmer, around 50 at night and 60 during the day. Humidity must be around 50% (yes, my house is both cold and damp).

I grow all of them in an organic based soil, while maintaining good drainage. This year I tried "top soil", fine perlite, and a taste of silica sand (1:3:0.5 ratio) and the P. curta went nuts! With that kind of mix I don't even bother fertilizing.

 

[biothanasis]

great info Tom! Thank you!!!

I must get some of these...!