Spring 2024 plant project

[buzzlightyear]

I was hoping to get the ball rolling on a plant project for next year.
I don't really know what the criteria is, I presume it's buy an orchid in the spring and try to get it to flower that year.

So a few criteria are important. First of all it must be something easily available and it should be something that can be flowered ridiculously fast.

Like certain vanda's or cattleya species would be out of the question because they would take years to cultivate.

Ok so the good candidates are phals, epidendrums, slippers, oncidiums, and tolumnia's. I know in the past others like leptotes, dendrobiums, maybe even catasetums have been done but I don't think they are ideal candidates. Probably better than cattleya's unless it is a ready to bloom hybrid but I think it should be one of the fastest and easiest to get to bloom.

Personally I think phals are amazing and should always be part of any serious orchid collection but they are generally also that common we all know phals very well.

I am sure tmoney would put in a vote for phals but personally I am hoping the spring 2024 project can be a tolumnia.

I am proposing this for mainly selfish reasons as it is one I am interested in growing next year and making it a project would be great. I also am fairly confident with the modern hybrids sold these days that they are fairly reliable bloomers.

So I am proposing a Tolumnia. I think it would be easier if we just made it a general project about any kind of Tolumnia. That would make it more interesting too if they manage to flower.

The good thing is there should be lots of new hybrids coming out in spring I should imagine. Cheap, easy, and very available.

It's not necessarily my first choice but the criteria that are important does exclude a lot of choices otherwise it turns into a decade long project like watching a bonsai tree grow.

Maybe a tolumnia is a bad choice if it is a type of orchid that can just be bought in bloom at the right time but that wouldn't be too bad either. So who thinks a tolumnia would make a good project for next year?