Miltoniopsis phalaenopsis ‘John Leathers’

[Michael Bonda]

Very compact plant.
A small flower but very attractive.
Cannot detect a fragrance.
Originally from Ecuagenera

 

[mrhappyrotter]

I've got one of these as well. They do have a fragrance. It's very delicate, a classic sweet floral scent. It can be pretty strong if conditions are right, but I think some people just can't smell these types of fragrances.

 

[Michael Bonda]

Thank you for the response. I will try different times of day to detect fragrance and have others try too. My large flower Miltonia hybrids have fragrance that fill the room.
Does yours have multiple blooms on one inflorescence? Mine has a single flower but this is a first bloom.

 

[mrhappyrotter]

Does yours have multiple blooms on one inflorescence? Mine has a single flower but this is a first bloom.

Yeah, usually at least 2 - 3 flowers per spike, sometimes 4. I have terrible conditions for Miltoniopsis, even indoors with A/C it's hard to keep temps below 80F sometimes, and at the height of winter and height of summer, it's a struggle to keep my humidity above 50%. So, my plant struggled a bit to get acclimated at first and still to this day the foliage looks like crap, but it grows and blooms. So I have faith yours will too.

Good call on the fragrance. It's definitely strongest from mid-morning to early afternoon, and then trails off rapidly in the afternoon / evening. It's also stronger under natural sunlight, outdoors than it is indoors under artificial lighting. I've noticed that same phenomenon with other orchids as well.

 

[DrLeslieEe]

I have seen these bloom with multiple blooms per spike in Colombia. Of course weather and humidity are to their liking so they thrive.

Have you considered semi-water culture with LECA, top with moss? A friend grows them like this in intermediate to warm and they grow. If the roots stay cool enough (like Masdies) they will survive hot summers.

 

[mrhappyrotter]

I have seen these bloom with multiple blooms per spike in Colombia. Of course weather and humidity are to their liking so they thrive.

Have you considered semi-water culture with LECA, top with moss? A friend grows them like this in intermediate to warm and they grow. If the roots stay cool enough (like Masdies) they will survive hot summers.

That's pretty close to how I've been growing my plant.

Net pot with LECA as the media, live sphagnum moss growing on top. The whole thing is placed down in a clay pot with no drainage holes, and I keep a small amount of water in there pretty much all times like I would a Phrag. The clay pot soaks up the moisture and in theory provides some added evaporative cooling as well as some added humidity in the vicinity of the plant.

For several years I placed the whole thing down into a transparent plastic bag, kept open at the top, and it looked much better then. However, I got tired of looking at a plastic bag, so now it's sitting out more exposed and it has let me know that it believes I'm the worst human being in the history of human beings. But it still blooms so I guess it could be worse.