ease of growing besseae

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A

Amy

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I would like to know how easy is it to grow and bloom Phrag besseae in the "house" conditions??

I don't want to waste money on buying one if it needs special living and blooming conditions??

Amy
 
Good humidity with good moist media (SH) using RO (reverse osmosis) water. Good light 1,000 FC and intermediate temperature. Hope this helps.

Ramon:)
 
I grow mine in a bark mix, use distilled water (or rainwater), fertilize every week or two and give it good (south) facing light. I've always found them pretty easy as far as Phrags go, though not everyone does...

Pretty much the same way I grow mine. I've found 'em to be pretty easy.
 
Thank all, I was under the impression that these Phrags had to be in a cool room in order to survive and bloom.

Can you tell me, are the plants of these orchids small or do they get huge light most Phrags??

Also, how long do they bloom for??

Cheers,
Amy
 
They don't get too huge - it's a smaller growing species and I haven't found that the ones I've had have been prone to clumping - mine tends to bloom on each mature growth, and then by the time the next new growth is mature, the older one dies back.

They like bright light - cooler temps will often cause them to bloom a brighter shade of red but they should do fine in normal household temps.

Because they bloom sequentially, they can bloom for many months, one bloom after the next. I find they tend to generally have 4-7 buds over time.
 
Sounds lovely. Now I have a question for you all. The place I am going to order from has a few different "besseae". But out of these two which one would you choose for ease of growing, blooming etc in the home with normal window light??

Phrag Prissy (St. Quen x besseae)

or

Phrag besseae "Wings of fire x self"


Some of the besseae crosses don't have that definate shape of the besseae itself so the first one is the only one I could find from this vendor that would be the close form type.

Amy
 
Prissy is a hybrid - and not an easy one to find, so I'd do both, personally. But I'm a dangerous girl...bad to ask, really! And that's especially true when besseae is involved as it is a favorite of mine. Just be glad Eric from NY is out of town today - then you'd really get an earful! He was searching for Prissy for ages!

Wings of Fire is a known cross of the species besseae and should do well for you also. But, if you are nervous about the species, start with the hybrid and see how you do, as it will be a bit easier.

Prissy is about 3/4 besseae species, so it's a good one to practice on. St. Ouen is besseae x Hanne Popow, Hanne Popow is besseae x schlimii. So, there's a lot of besseae in Phrag. Prissy.

If you had to choose only one, I'd go with Prissy - grow it, practice on it, then get a besseae. Or just get both now!

oh, both should stay fairly small also, 12-18" leafspan at the most, likely. Being that there is no longifolium or sargeantianum in the background helps to keep the plants down in size.
 
Prissy can be red or pink. The one they brought in bloom for sale at the show was a delicate salmon pink, though they have several in bud that time.
 
Thanks for the replies. I am only able to get "one" so this will be tough.

Phrag Prissy looks very nice, is it the same form of flower at besseae??

I just want to make the right decision and out of the two the easier on for me to start with.

Amy
 
The one paramount brought at the sales table was besseae form. So imagine a salmon pink besseae....I almost bought it! I don't know how I resisted

The culture is probably very close to besseae. Maybe the breeding has given some vigor, but proper culture is what will keep it alive.
I think it depends on luck too. I had bought a besseae that is not a very good grower (maybe I need to change something), but a Waunakee Sunset (75% besseae, 25%fischerii, very similar to Prissy) is a good grower. Both of them grow in sphag moss and came from the same person.

Now looking through Paramount's catalogue: For something that is compact and vigorous try the Ecua-bess or Mary Bess they are offering. Don Wimber will probably also be vigorous (and more besseae shaped), though some plants may get a little larger. These sorts of hybrids are easier to grow usually. My ecua bess is a weedy grower and the plant is not too big. Scarlet O'Hara would have been my first choice for a besseae shaped, but I do not know why they are not available (and I have not bothered asking yet...)
 
Fren,

Hi, have you ever ordered from Clouds Orchids??

I have ordered most of my plant from Paramount, my only complaint is the most of the stuff you order is seedlings and so small.

I am going to think about the Phrags though, thank you very much for the great info though.

Now I have a question for you. I absolutley love the bellatulum paph and have one that is doing very well. I hope for a bloom real soon.

Now, I would love to get a couple more paphs but they have to be the bellatulum shape and a cross with them would be great too.

From the two places, Clouds and Paramount do you have any recommendations there??

Amy
 
Hi! Phrag besseae or Prissy you say? Neither of them are especially easy. It's the other species that make besseae type phrags easy to grow. Waunakee Sunset can have a similar shape. If you want to pick something similar Mt. Maid is nice; Hanne Popow is similar and usually fragrant. You can look up infrageneric hybrids in the Phragweb site. JP Faust is in Canada and Orchids by Kimberly are 2 other Candian vendors [+ phrag guy here should have some for sale]. And Heather its another apricot colored Prisssy that I've been trying to get. :p
 
I have order a lot from Cloud's orchids and I do recommend them. I believe they truely know what they are doing when it comes to the genetics of their plants. My paphs and phrags I got last year are still growing... I am assuming cloud's phrags won't be huge because they seem to be recent additions to their catalogue. Their blooming size plants are large!

I have seen Paramount's orchids at shows and they do not bring small phrags to shows, all blooming size. I cannot testify for mail orders, though Todd or someone might (I think todd recieved one in spike). I can always deal with them in person because they come to Edmonton for society meetings

I also get some nice phrags from a local phrag grower, Chuck. I don't think he mails his plants around regularly (which is why I don't see his email posted online), but I am sure he won't mind emailing what he has to say about phrag culture and perhaps sending a plant...he is a silent member here too
 
Okay, now that I have all the phrag stuff straight, will have to think about it for a while.

Back to Clouds, they have an orchid I have been wanting. Paph concolor, anyone have this orchid??

I have bellatulum and wanted concolor soooooo bad. Any feed back about it??

Amy
 
I just bought a concolor and bellatulum this orchid show....I haven't been growing many brachysepalums They like good water quality and can take low light. From what I heard on this forum concolor is supposed to be easy to grow.

My Vanda M. Pearman (bellatulum x delanatii) is in low spike . It has been a easy grower. Some of them turn out odd, but mine was nice last time it bloomed. The brachy look is very dominate in this cross
 
See the problem is Cloud has the concolor and you have to place a 50.00 order with them. When you only want the one orchid that is not easy to do. However, there is a friend of mine here that has placed a huge order with them to be shipped in May so if they have it in stock I might get them to put it with her order.

I love the look of the Paph Vanda M Pearman, but do you think it would look to much like the bellatulum colors??

Another not brachy orchid that has caught my eye is Paph armeniacum, what do you think of this one??

As you can tell I love the color yellow.

Amy
 
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