Slippertalk Orchid Forum

Help Support Slippertalk Orchid Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Brucher, your P. helenae with its lemon yellow dorsal and its the white margin is a feast for the eyes and looks like a P. helenae should look in my dreams. I grow 3 of them and so far none flowers as beautiful as yours.....but there's one last shot because one of them hasn't flowered yet.

....... I'm afraid, that when it comes to Masdevalia and Cymbidiums, I'm not 'The Chosen One'! 😁
Jens, you're absolutely right. If you try to grow Masdevallias without a special growing area - a vitrine - on a windowsill in an appartement....you can only lose. Cymbidums is another story.
 
We have a saying: 'It's not us choosing the orchids, it's the orchids choosing us" - and I'm afraid, that when it comes to Masdevalia and Cymbidiums, I'm not 'The Chosen One'! 😁

Jens, important thing is to realize as early as possible that trying to grow them fails .... unfortunately quite some orchid nuts do not believe that they are unable to grow them ... (I know what I am writing about ... :-( , gets expensive then on the long .. :) )
 
Brucher, your P. helenae with its lemon yellow dorsal and its the white margin is a feast for the eyes and looks like a P. helenae should look in my dreams. I grow 3 of them and so far none flowers as beautiful as yours.....but there's one last shot because one of them hasn't flowered yet.
That’s so very nice of you to write! Thank you! I hope you’re goes off like a little lemon bomb!

Jens, you're absolutely right. If you try to grow Masdevallias without a special growing area - a vitrine - on a windowsill in an appartement....you can only lose. Cymbidums is another story.
 
Purchased in bloom over a year ago. The top two leaves were in active growth when I received it, and since they looked to be developing a little long and narrow, I upped the light a bit. It has not budged since those top two leaves finished growing. I have tried both east and south-facing windows. I have tried giving it more water, and tried keeping it on the drier side, but it resisted being tricked into growth. I believe it came from a population of plants treated to try to induce tetraploid conversion, so perhaps that may help explain it’s reluctance to grow a new leaf.
9B08CEE0-E7CB-410E-A643-FAD03E27533B.jpeg
Mine did too, for going on 4 years! But it was worth it. Let’s see your plant? Tell its story?
 
Purchased in bloom over a year ago. The top two leaves were in active growth when I received it, and since they looked to be developing a little long and narrow, I upped the light a bit. It has not budged since those top two leaves finished growing. I have tried both east and south-facing windows. I have tried giving it more water, and tried keeping it on the drier side, but it resisted being tricked into growth. I believe it came from a population of plants treated to try to induce tetraploid conversion, so perhaps that may help explain it’s reluctance to grow a new leaf.
View attachment 30540
So interesting! Why do you think that about the tetraploid treatment? It looks to me like that new growth is a dud for flowering, maybe the plant is producing lots of new roots under there to support good growths after the previous flowerings?
 
Last edited:
So interesting! Why do you think that about the tetraploud treatment? It looks to me like that new growth is a dud for flowering, maybe the plant is producing lots of new roots under there to support good growths after the previous flowerings?
In general I've heard that tetraploid/altered ploidy plants can be extremely slow growing. It's anecdotal, but I have a triploid Fritz Schomberg that also grows at a glacial pace. The standard, diploid Fritz sitting next to it grows laps around it. I just wonder if part of the reason this plant is growing so slowly is because the tetraploid conversion was successful. It's also very likely that I'm just missing some key component of its culture. Fingers crossed you're right and it's just working on some nice new roots to support a coming burst of growth/flowering!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top