Maxillaria help

[Roy]

Asking this question for a friend of mine. She has a plant of Maxillaria sophronitis that is roughly 6 - 7 inches across, has no dead parts and has been grown from a seedling in a 2 inch pot. NO flowers as yet.
Mostly I find that flowering is Not one of its great features, occasionally a massive specimen plant in full flower is seen but only occasionally.
Can anyone offer some advice as to how to get some flowers on my friends plant please. I believe from her described cultural conditions, its in the right spot for moisture and light, maybe even a little too much light but its nt burning.

 

[cnycharles]

. Hello Roy,
I've got a piece of the same from a society auction, had growing instructions which were mostly 'bright and moist'. I have a culture sheet myself for maxillaria sophronitis from baker's www.orchidculture.com , which I can't post in whole, but looking at it came up with this very interesting section which I hadn't read before (shame on me!).

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES: The bloom season shown in the climate table is based
on cultivation reports. Maxillaria sophronitis has a reputation of being
difficult to bloom in cultivation. Dunsterville in Orchid Hunting in the
Lost World (And Elsewhere in Venezuela) indicated that there are
cultivation problems with this species without specifying what his
problems were.

Our plant grows very well under the conditions indicated by the climate
data, but it produces only a few blossoms scattered through many new
growths that are mature and should flower.

We recently learned from Dale Borders, a friend from coastal Oregon, is
producing spectacular displays of blooms. He reports that for years his
plant grew in intermediate conditions and produced rampant vegetative
growth but few flowers. He now grows his plant in his cool room with
daytime highs near 70F (21C) and nighttime low temperatures at a cool
52F (11C). He waters all year, and his cool room is very humid. Dale
estimates that his plant grows in approximately 50% shade, but that it
may be slightly brighter. His plant regularly produces 50-60 blooms at a
time. The spectacular blooming might be credited to his having an
exceptional clone, except for the fact that our plant probably came from
him, and we have never had more than a few blooms at a time. The only
possible conclusion is that his spectacular displays of flowers result
from either his growing skill or the cool growing temperatures. It's
probably both, but the rest of us can easily try the temperatures he
recommends.

Looks like from the culture sheet and then the above note, that growing very cool and moist plus bright and humid is the key to lots of flowers instead of tons of growth. ... or else grow the plant like crazy and then drop the temps and hope for a cultural award ; )
it also lists possible elevations as being very high, so it seems like another one of those 'cold but very bright' plants that give me fits because sometimes I can grow them but rarely flower them! often it isn't the winter temps and such, but the warm season which can often be way too warm

 

[Roy]

Thanks Charles, I'll copy this and send it to her.

 

[Ron-NY]

I have problems blooming mine as well...I am going to up the light again.