Dendrochilum wenzelii

[TDT]

This has been a cheerful Christmas decoration all holiday season!
Photo credit to my daughter Sara

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Nicely grown and flowered. Any cultural advice on getting it to flower? I've never had one stalk on mine in over 3 years now.

 

[SlipperFan]

I echo Tom...

 

[NYEric]

Mine is on the rebound from an obnoxious scale attack. Hopefully it will come back as nice as yours.

 

[TDT]

Thanks. It grows in intermediate temps (my living room!), bright indirect light (under T5 bulb supplementing what comes through the south facing window) in a bark mix of medium bark, charcoal, perlite. It sits in the clay pot saucer and I spray rain water into the pot just about every morning; I let it sit in the water that comes out of the pot and I don't water again until that water disappears. I fertilize with K-lite once every week or two, more often in summer.

I repotted the plant into this clay pot last spring, from a small clay pot that I'd placed into a larger clay pot sitting in water, more to stabilize it than anything else. It seemed to respond well to being plunked into the larger pot and given fresh mix. I think maybe the trick was putting it through a drier period (when it was pot-bound) and then increasing water and subsequent root growth. This is certainly the best flowering I've had from it. Here's a photo of it taken Feb 2011, the last time it flowered.

 

[SlipperFan]

Thanks, Tracey.

 

[Migrant13]

Outstanding specimen. Great growing.