The most frustrating plants u hav ever owned...

[paphioboy]

Hi there, everyone! I'm starting this thread so that everybody gets to 'introduce' his/her most frustrating orchid, slipper or non-slipper... It may be something that's difficult to grow, or will not bloom... U get the idea... And tell us what happened to it... Is the stubborn thing still with u? or has it deceased..? Let me tell u about the most annoying things i've ever owned...:wink:

Well, I must say that among the most unrewarding plants in my whole collection, coelogynes top the list... In this tropical, humid climate, they grow like weeds, and take up lots of precious space. I am of course referring to the massive giants, coel. pandurata and coel. asperata. Pandurata keeps extending longer and longer that i am now trying to 'wind' the rhizomes around the pot... it has not bloomed since the day I bought it :sob: . Asperata, on the other hand, looks like a huge palm, and no flowers even though it has bearly 10 bulbs already . Smaller species, like coel fimbriata, however, do bloom, but they are very troublesome. Recently, one of my fimbriatas was infested seriously with scales. Took me a lot of trouble to remove those little pests, and the surface of the leaves are now rather damaged... Well, anyway, all these are still with me as they are practically unkillable...sigh...

If anyone has success with these species, i would greatly appreciate your advice.. thanks, and do tell us your experiences too..

 

[Heather]

My stonei.

I bought a nice, multi-growth division and it looked like it had a bit of old mite damage, so, just to be safe, I sprayed it with Safer (not SAFE!) soap, which promptly dessicated the leaves beyond repair. It is recovering, two years later, but is such a slow grower. Roots are good, but who knows when it will bloom, and it still looks awful to this day.

 

[Ron-NY]

Den.cuthbertsonii is my nemisis
I have done everything that I can think of but is still slowly is on the decline. I suspect it started when the greenhouse was oiled.

 

[Paphman910]

Dendrobium cuthbertsoni is very sensitive to oil spray and the leaves get damaged very easily.

Paphman910

 

[smartie2000]

Dendrobium anything.... they don't bloom regardless how hard I try Now I froze my phal type dend outside by accident. oops. Well my new Dend moniliforme 'Tosa Fukurin' has pretty leaves at least.

 

[Barbara]

I had a Vuyl. Fall in Love once. It wouldn't flower. It had wet spells, fallowed by dry spells. It was in a warm room, in a cool room, was in the sun, in the shade. It 'had a talking to', it hit the bottom of the trash can, it came back out. It was in fir bark, moss, pastic pot, clay pot. It would not flower. Guess were it is now.:viking: :evil: I have another Vuyl. now and it has 2 flower spikes coming.

 

[Rick]

Hi there, everyone! I'm starting this thread so that everybody gets to 'introduce' his/her most frustrating orchid, slipper or non-slipper... It may be something that's difficult to grow, or will not bloom... U get the idea... And tell us what happened to it... Is the stubborn thing still with u? or has it deceased..? Let me tell u about the most annoying things i've ever owned...:wink:

Well, I must say that among the most unrewarding plants in my whole collection, coelogynes top the list... In this tropical, humid climate, they grow like weeds, and take up lots of precious space. I am of course referring to the massive giants, coel. pandurata and coel. asperata. Pandurata keeps extending longer and longer that i am now trying to 'wind' the rhizomes around the pot... it has not bloomed since the day I bought it :sob: . Asperata, on the other hand, looks like a huge palm, and no flowers even though it has bearly 10 bulbs already . Smaller species, like coel fimbriata, however, do bloom, but they are very troublesome. Recently, one of my fimbriatas was infested seriously with scales. Took me a lot of trouble to remove those little pests, and the surface of the leaves are now rather damaged... Well, anyway, all these are still with me as they are practically unkillable...sigh...

If anyone has success with these species, i would greatly appreciate your advice.. thanks, and do tell us your experiences too..

There is a little old German lady in our orchid society who is the queen of Ceologenys. She grows in greenhouses (has 5) and virtually never fertilizes (any orchid). She waters with well or city water which does have some important nutrients. I'm sure she lets her winter temps get into the 50's and summer temps will probably clear 90 easy. Maybe even higher. Although allot of her Ceol's started in pots or baskets most of the older plants have overgrown and busted out of their origional containers, and have grown into the benches. I don't see allot of shade cloth use, so light levels are probably very high for many of her plants. Most of her shade species like phals are under some big rubber trees that have also busted out of their pots and grown into the benches and beyond.

I think allot of epiphytic species need lots of crowding before they feel like blooming. If you repot too frequently and leave lots of room in pots or baskets for new growth they add new growth without wanting to bloom.

 

[lienluu]

Paph. Gloria Naugle. Puts out tons of beautiful growths but so skimppy on spikes.

 

[Jon in SW Ohio]

Any rothschildianum x parvi or brachy hybrid. Most I have I've never seen bloom and honestly don't plan to ever see bloom. The person I got divisions from hasn't bloomed most of them and got a lot of them as seedlings before I was born. I can only hope some of the breeding with the "new" roths improves this.

Jon

 

[paphioland]

One of my rex x mm nbs seedlings just won't grow and keeps losing leaves. The others grow fine just not this one. It is the same size as it was 2 yrs ago. Thinking about trashing it. It should never be used in breeding. I would have at least liked to see the bloom.

 

[Ron-NY]

Paph. Gloria Naugle. Puts out tons of beautiful growths but so skimppy on spikes.

Gloria Naugle is such a reluctant bloomer but once you get her blooming, she tends to continue blooming with each new growth

 

[terrestrial_man]

The bane of my at home orchid experience has been Ansellia africana. I got two nice plants many many years ago and they have never flowered but grew well. Maybe it wasn't enough light or not being dry enough or ??? Anyway I only have so much space in the g/h and so out they went a couple of years ago. Now they get full sun during part of the day when they are not shaded by the trees. They get watered whenever. They have suffered and have died back some especially during the winter but I really don't care. No flowers yet!

 

[paphioboy]

Rick, thanks 4 d info... I'll try crowding my coels and see if they respond... Since my pandurata has a new growth i'm gonna try 'icing' it 4 2 wks... I do that 2 my den. crumenatum and it gives a very spectacular show... :clap:

 

[couscous74]

Damn stupid Paph. henryanums just don't appreciate my beach weather here.

 

[kentuckiense]

Probably my Paph. Lynleigh Koopowitz. It's a huge, gorgeous plant, but it's a slow grower!

 

[Rick]

I've gone through more P. purpuratums and Liparis purpuroviridus than I care to admit.

Short term is great long term is poor.

 

[Heather]

Oh, oh, I must add my Prince Edward of York (damned old clones! Several mature growths (which it has had since I got it)! chilled quite a bit this fall and STILL nothing...) and P. adductum, what a slowpoke! I just got a nice new baby one from Fox Valley and I swear it is larger in leafspan than the one I've had languishing for two years (that has two new growths)! No blooms in sight.

I was really pissed off at my Julius but it finally is coming into bud on two spikes. I am SO excited!

 

[lienluu]

Maybe the worse of all the slippers though, is P. tigrinum. At least the other reluctant bloomers don't get your hopes up... but this species gets your hopes up and then it just sits there for months and months and then nothing!

 

[Heather]

Maybe the worse of all the slippers though, is P. tigrinum. At least the other reluctant bloomers don't get your hopes up... but this species gets your hopes up and then it just sits there for months and months and then nothing!

Oh. yeah.
Had to remind me. I really hope that Matt (you know, he of the legends) can do better with mine than I did! three blasted sheaths, for crying out loud!!! :sob:

 

[lienluu]

Oh. yeah.
Had to remind me. I really hope that Matt (you know, he of the legends) can do better with mine than I did! three blasted sheaths, for crying out loud!!! :sob:

I thought Jon Babalou got that one?