Another hello from Australia!

[Nelly4]

Hi
I'm Janelle and I'm 31 from Victoria, Australia. I have owned some orchids and I currently have 5 of them and I'm not sure how to take care of them properly so that's why I'm here.

I posted another thread in the Beginners Discussion section hoping that someone may be able to tell me what I'm doing wrong and what I should be doing as I have no idea really. All I know is that my 2 dendrobiums I purchased about 3-4 years ago from an orchid show have not flowered since then so something is terribly wrong!!!

I'm looking forward to reading up all about orchids and also discovering some of the different species. They are such a gorgeous flower.

[RosieC]

Hi Janelle and welcome to Orchid Board

I had a look at your other thread and I'm afraid I can't help as they are not the sort of orchids I grow, but I'm sure someone with more knowledge of them will be along soon.

This is a great place to learn all about orchids and everyone is really friendly so you've found the right place

[Donald]

Hopefully someone with more knowledge with dendrobiums might help also. It would be helpful if you knew what kind of "dens" you have. Some need winter rest and colder nights others are treated differently. I got this info from this site back in January:
As classified by Rebecca Tyson Northern, there are 6 groupings that describe the differences in growing needs of Dendrobiums. I am paraphrasing to avoid copyright infringement.

Type I (deciduous, so-called nobile type) intermediate to warm in summer, cool to cold in winter, full winter rest. Examples: D. nobile, D. chrysanthum, D. wardianum.

Type II (deciduous) intermediate to warm all year, full winter rest. Examples: D. speciosum, D. aggregatum, D. findlayanum, D. heterocarpum, D. superbum (anosmum), D. parishii, D. pierardii.

Type III (persistent) intermediate to warm summer, cool in winter, no winter rest - simply reduce water. Examples: D. densiflorum, D. fimbriatum, D. thyrsiflorum, D. farmeri.

Type IV (persistent) cool all year. Short suspension of water early autumn. Examples: D. bellatulum, D. secundum.

Type V (persistent) Intermediate all year. No rest. Examples: D. antilope and hybrids of type V and type VI.

Type VI (persistent) warm growing all year. Restrict water twice during year. Examples: D. phalaenopsis, D. bigibbum, D. superbiens.

[Undergrounder]

Well on that front i can help, they're all hardcanes except for the Cymbidium with the black bacterial infection. All of them are Den. kingianum except for the one with slightly longer canes which looks like more of a hybrid with delicatum or falcorostrum or something, but treat the same, and the tall stringy one looks like Den gracilicaule, although i thought it could have been a Den. pierardii at first.

So no winter rest, although they might like reduced watering to help them flower in autumn/winter.

Edit: oh that's "Type III" of whatever scale that is, even though it wrongly lists speciosum as a "Type II", which it isn't, because it doesn't need a full winter rest.

[johnblagg]

Hmmm reading this makes me wonder just what group my noids belong too also ....

BUt mine do keep the leaves all year and I just sit them out under atree in the summer and they get rained on for water and fert pretty much and grow all summer in the fall they start spiking while still outside and then come in to bloom.

In the house they sit in a big widow facing west and the room is a really consistant 60 to 65 all winter.They get watered and fertilized once a week inside untill spring so I dont really rest them.

They bloom well for me every year

[snakecharma]

Hi Janelle!

I've been told that the rule for dens is no (artificial) watering from anzac day til spring, and a lot of light.

One of my brother's dens sits on a glass table outside, full sun til about 12ish (summer + winter) then dappled shade, looks yellow and unloved but flowers its head off every year (and few keikis)