Jerry's venustum

[Junglejewel]

That venustum is gorgeous!! What variant/cross is that?

 

[Junglejewel]

Beautiful!!!! What's the variant/cross??

 

[Happypaphy7]

I wish the leaves were included, the entire plant shot!

Great venustum! Send it over! lol

 

[abax]

Well done! That's a wonderful venustum and it's great to
see such blooms without the reflexed petals.

 

[slippery]

Junglejewel, sorry original tag only reads
venustum x sib. Jerry

 

[Junglejewel]

Ok well thank you anyways. It is a gorgeous specimen

 

[slippery]

Plant update. So I have been trying to squelch an aggressive infestation of a
type of scale, beige to brown in coloration, for the past year with little success.
I suppose I have been lucky in that in 25 plus years of growing orchids, I have
never had more than a slight but annoying bout with fungal gnats. I do not like
the thought of using poisons in my home, so I initially avoided that road, but
damnit this was one of my favorite plants and I wasn't about to give up. A
friend of mine has had great luck using a systemic insecticide on her orchids,
so I decided to give it a try. After multiple applications over several months
and a few repottings, the dreaded scale persisted. I then decided to remove
all previously bloomed and immature vegetative growths leaving only the
newly emerging starts that were about 1/2 inch tall. After repotting again, I
wondered if I had done the right thing. The eight inch pot had eleven little starts
peppered throughout and looked rather strange. I am happy to report that all eleven
growths have just finished blooming, news growths are emerging and the
plant is scale free. I am sure there are those out there that will say I should
have used this or that and been done with it. All that matters is that my plant
is happy again and so am I. Thanks, Jerry

 

[Happypaphy7]

Wow~ you had to take a dramatic measure to win the battle over the scales. Happy to hear the happy results in the end!
It sounds like a truly a strong plant after all.

I'm curious, what systemic did you try that didn't take care of scale problem?
With a specimen plant, it is not only hard to spot a problem, but hard to deal with also, with so many leaves and growths.

I have a clump of Armeni White that grows and blooms well for me.
I never suspected of scales as the plant looked and did fine always.
One day I had a look and it turned out there were sooooo many soft bodied brown scales.

Like you, I wasn't about to give up on the plant as it is among the best growing plants I've ever had!

I removed as many as possible manually with tooth pick and such.
Then I sprayed it down with bug spray whose main ingredients are sulfur and pyremethrin (or something similar). I spent the entire bottle to cover every nook and cranny of the leaves, back and front. Everywhere litereally.

I repeated once more about one week later.

Luckily, no phytotoxic reactions. Phew~

Then I drenched the pot in immidacloprid that is sold for treating trees and shrubs in the garden. Just a single drench for half an hour or so to let the plant really soak it all up.

I don't know what did the trick at the end, but in just one week after, I checked the plant and saw that all the remaining scales were dry and dead.
Yay!!!

That was last fall.

By the way, how long have you had your venustum? and how big was it in the beginning??

What do you grow it in? General care?

I got hooked on this species and have two flowering seedlings along with a bunch of babies from a flask.

 

[slippery]

Happypaphy,
I purchased this plant as a young seedling and it bloomed the very
first year. It has always been a good grower for me, often with two
flowers per stem, and has even bloomed on one-leaf immature
growths on several occasions. I currently grow it in straight orchiata
mix, eastern exposure, relatively cool temperatures, watered weekly.
Although I am unfamiliar with the chemicals that you used, it seems
to have paid off. Good luck with the babies. Jerry

 

[Happypaphy7]

Thank you for the reply, and for the good wishes!

Your specimen venustum is truly inspiring!

 

[NYEric]

Thanks for the update. Good luck.

 

[SlipperKing]

So Jerry, whatever happened to Gary? We never hear from him anymore.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

[slippery]

So Jerry, whatever happened to Gary? We never hear from him anymore.
Rick H

Rick, I was wondering the same thing when I resurrected this post.
When I last connected with Gary, he was sitting on his patio sipping a
glass of sauvignon blanc and watching the kudu and giraffe feeding.
He was about to embark on a new business venture. I guess it must
be keeping him busy. I wish him the best. Jerry

 

[Don I]

Beautiful plant and pictures.
Don