A habenaria and a cynorkis...

[estación seca]

A Habenaria and a Cynorkis walked into a bar. The bartender said, "Don't you two give me any lip."

[fishmom]

Groan!!!

Congrats on the sprouting habenaria, though. I killed a rhodocheila a couple of years ago, sadly. At present I am trying Habenaria radiata. I have 4 plants, two of which are Habenaria radiata 'Ginja' , which have a white band around the edge of the leaves. You can just see the smaller 'Ginja"on the left; it is less than an inch tall.


I ordered the pea-sized tubers from Kusamono Gardens, and they had already sprouted roots when they arrived so I was pretty sure they would grow. Of course, the challenge is to get them to come to life after dormancy.

Kusamono recommends keeping the tubers cool (36-42 degrees) and moist but not wet for the winter, and also after potting in spring, until they sprout leaves.

[estación seca]

From my reading, the radiatas are a little different. They still need to be pretty dry, but also a lot cooler in the winter. My rhodocheilas probably weren't below 60 F / 15C.

[katrina]

I think Estacion is right about radiata...I think it needs a cooler dormancy than any of the ones I grow. I have 3 different colors of rhodocheila and 2 medusae. The Cynorkis I grow don't want it too cool either.

I do water a wee bit during dormancy...just a teeny-tiny drizzle around the outside edges of the pots every week or two. My space is soooooooo dry in the winter and I worry no water will result in the tubers getting so shrunken up that they can't produce any new growths. I also think in nature, even during dormancy, most of these plants come from areas that are exposed to some moisture from, at the very least, dew. They aren't desert plants so there must be some moisture...some where. I think the real key w/watering is to make sure you don't water them much and as the new growths are coming up to be very careful in not letting any water get down inside those new leaves.

The one thing that I completely withhold is fertilizer. I don't resume fert until the growths are at a point where I'm once again keeping the plants evenly moist. Once they are about an inch tall I add a balanced, time released, granular to the pots.

The only ones that I've really had trouble with are recent imports and I don't think it was anything I did as my culture has been the same for all...I just think they didn't make it through all that is involved (including the time frame) during the import process. I'd give it another try though.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Very cool plants.

[estación seca]

Amen to the shipping thing. May 2015 I bought two as a set from Carter & Holmes, H. rhodocheila and H. regineri. They arrived in identical pots, identical medium, and they looked very similar. I set them side by side and took care of them the same way. The H. regineri just up and died a few weeks later. ????? After that Ray had rhodocheila on sale so I bought another one, in case my first croaked.

I want to grow some more but I figured I should first make sure I can grow this easy one. H. medusae seems fairly easy to get if you search at the right time of year, and I've seen others sold as well. I think Marlowe's and Seattle Orchid have carried them.

[katrina]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Amen to the shipping thing. May 2015 I bought two as a set from Carter & Holmes....

Yea, if you think across country is bad...imagine across oceans. My imported Cynorkis took somewhere between 4-6 weeks to get from prepping in Madagascar going into Miami customs then onto Wyoming (bulk, group order) and then onto me in Ohio. They were dormant at the time but it was just too much for them to overcome. I have better luck w/S.American imports but even then there is a certain percentage that might not make it. I've also done imports from Taiwan and while I've only lost 1 from the couple of groups I got from Ten Shin...it can take awhile for the plants to bounce back. It's just the reality of buying plants that have to go through what they do in order to cross country borders.

I will still always buy imported plants...for me, the reward of having something I can't get in the US is worth the risk of loss and the extra time it takes them to bounce back.

[No-Pro-mwa]

You mean I could have intercepted them?

[estación seca]

Katrina, is your red Habenaria rhodocheila in the very first post of this thread in a standard US "1-gallon" black plastic pot?

[katrina]

Originally Posted by No-Pro-mwa

You mean I could have intercepted them?

Uh-oh, I guess I better make sure the vendor who organizes these bulk orders has extra security in place next time.

Originally Posted by estación seca

Katrina, is your red Habenaria rhodocheila in the very first post of this thread in a standard US "1-gallon" black plastic pot?

Nope...that was just a small black orchid pot w/extra holes in the bottom...I think it was 5". The kind of pot you often find paphs potted in. It's in a 4" clay pot now. I put them all in clay last fall so they'd be more stable when those tall spikes grow up. If it were a gallon sized pot that would be a giant rhodocheila. What a site that would be! Hmmmm...maybe I should stop dividing them down and try to grow a colony big enough to take up a gallon pot. Thanks for the idea.