Five Besseae in bloom

Slippertalk Orchid Forum

Help Support Slippertalk Orchid Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Achamore

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2012
Messages
877
Reaction score
15
Location
Isle of Gigha, Scotland
Never had 5 besseae in bloom at the same time before. Ok, one is a D'allesandroi, but even so, I thought it worth taking the trouble to shoot a group portrait this morning.

 
:clap:

Beautiful. Care to share your growing conditions and practices?
 
They're in bark, not repotted often, and I water them heavily every day. I grow them both cool and warm, they seem happy in both halves of my greenhouse. I've begun using those Jobes fertiliser sticks in the past year, as other feeding is difficult with my setup. Oh, and there's LOTS of dissolved salts in the spring water we have here, which is also pretty acidic, about pH of 6.3. The one thing I have learnt the hard way is to never let water sit in the crown of a besseae, as that will bring on rot in the crown more or less overnight. (Unlike kovachii, which is incredibly hardy in that regard.)
 
This reminds me I need a besseae flavum. How much light are you growing yours in?
 
I've have four in bloom at one time, so you beat me by one. My besseae seem to bloom all at the same time
within a week or so. The flowers and the photo are excellent. Magic Spring Water is his secret! I think Gigha
is a fairrie place.
 
all are very nice , the chubby one is no question a besseae , but to my eyes the other three could be something in between the besseae ...dalessandroi spectrum
 
all are very nice , the chubby one is no question a besseae , but to my eyes the other three could be something in between the besseae ...dalessandroi spectrum

That's what I was thinking as well.

Amazing flowers either way. I like the flower on the one at the top right the most, though I'm glad I don't have to find space for it -- it looks like it prefers to stretch out a bit with its growing habit.
 
The one on the upper right is my favourite, and to my eye has none of the hallmarks of dalessandroi. And the one in the lower left is besseae 'Icarus' (3N) which I bought about 8 years back from Orchids Limited in Minnesota.
 
The one on the upper right is my favourite, and to my eye has none of the hallmarks of dalessandroi. And the one in the lower left is besseae 'Icarus' (3N) which I bought about 8 years back from Orchids Limited in Minnesota.

That is a good collection of besseae, I like the fact that they all look different from each other , sort of what nature would produce .
They are all keepers for sure
 
Back
Top