Gongora quinquenervis

[Milda]

Thanks for your replies all of you! Sorry I haven't been able to give any response earlier because of pc trouble. Craig - thank you so much for giving my Gongora the right name!!!! Thank you for explaining about quinquinervis. I knew there might be some species described as quinquinervis, but I didn't know that the so many species were involved. It seems like you have much info about Gongoras. I have posted the same post at some other forums as well, but I haven't met other experts than you. Does that mean that rather few people specialice in growing Gongoras? As I told, I am new to this specie, but the two I am growing seem to be very easy as houseplants - I also have a gongora with 3 spikes
If you have some pics of your Gongoras, I would really love to see them, and the same goes for information I don't find very much info on the net.
Thanks again!
Milda

[Gongora]

Hi Milda
I wouldn’t say I’m an expert (I have even seen the so called experts contradict themselves in regards to IDing a plant), I am an AVID hobbyist who likes to see the right thing done by the Gongora. If I can’t ID a plant I will not make up a name, if I can I will tell you what I believe to be right. Another area where these problems have arisen is that they are still collecting these guys and because they don’t know what they are, they again seem to call them anything that comes to mind, (usually quinquenervis) this then follows on through to the nurseries who do exactly the same thing.(This is not as bad now as it use to be ) Anyway I’m prattling again. I do have quite a few pic’s (mostly slides) of these guys. My avatar is one that I purchased (as quinquenervis) from Ecuagenera when we where there in 2001 I will post the occasional one when I can!!
Cheers for now Craig.

[Milda]

Ok, Craig, I get it You are a hobbyist who happens to know quite a bit about Gongoras, and I am very glad you want to share some of the knowledge with us on the forum This Gongora world is quite new for me. Maybe I have been extremely lucky with my galeata and my quinq... sorry, rufescens since they have blessed me with flowers. Or are Gongoras easy to flower?? I think it's perfect that they can grow in my livingroom. I hope I will be able to get some more of these beautiful plants!

Milda

[Gongora]

Yes in general they are quite easy to flower , of course there are always exceptions to the rule (I gave one to a mate of mine which I found easy to flower, he in fact grew it better than me but hasn’t flowered it yet 2 ½ years. Go Figure ) I grow them under 50% shade cloth and for best results keep them above 12c (not sure what that is in F) most of the Mexican one’s will grow cooler.
If you can find them any of the plants out of section Truncata are brilliant (G. truncata, G.scaphyphorus, G.dressleri, G. beyrodtiana, G. tracyana, etc) they all have a wonderful spicy citrus type perfume and in the case of G. scaphyphorus & G.beyrodtiana can have spikes up 2 meters long (over 6 feet) and about 80 flowers they are AWESOME.
Regards, Craig

[Ironwood]

This is Gongora scaphophorus as I purchased it or (scaphephorus scaphyphorus) take your pick for spelling. No wonder searching for info on orchids is such a challenge. It just finished blooming and the blooms lasted 8 days. 50 blooms on one inflorescence and 37 on the other, the longer being about 4 feet in length.

[Gongora]

Well done Ironwood, you'll be glad to know yours is still a youngster I have seen these guy's with bulbs 3 1/2 to 4 inches across and leaves to about 2 feet in length.Truly impressive I checked up correct spelling is scaphephorus
Regards Craig

[Greenman]

I have a plant that I bought that was labled an "alba form" but all the leaves fell off. are the alba varities of gongora's harder to grow or is it just this one plant?

[Gongora]

Hi Greenman
'Alba form' I am afraid is a very broad term and effectively could be any of the species. As to the leaves falling off, well this is not what I would call congenial, with out seeing the plant I would suggest it has a problem more than likely water based ie:- not enough or maybe even to much, to much sun is another possibility etc. If you can post a closeup pic of the plant roots & bulbs etc I may be able to tell you more.
Cheers Craig

[Greenman]

I take a picture and send it to you over the weekend. In a nutshell what happened was that all the leaves suddently turned spotty and tan and fell off one after the other over a period of 4-5 days, the bulbs though are still green and look healthy so hope springs eternal.

[rallygirl]

hi!

this is a great thread... it's neat to hear the 'enthusiast's' opinion of naming and history.

i have recently purchased a discount Gongora quinquenervis, which is very small and a little underloved. i assume there is no way to tell what variety it actually is before it flowers, so i would like to grow it well so we can find out!

it's so little that i currently have it in an aquarium that gets bright but indirect light from a NW window. i hope the light and humidity will be adequate. i have read that they are heavy feeders and that given the right watering they may tolerate a broad range of temperatures? any cultivation hints would be greatly appreciated.

i also have a Stanhopea jenischiana which is a bit bigger and at least happily planted in a basket. i'll post seperately about that to avoid interrupting the dedicated gongora chat.
jd