Rhynchostylis gigantea alba

[Posey]

One of my favs

[cb977]

WOW!!! That's fantastic!
I adore pure white blooms

[tuvoc]

Awesome!

Kim

[isurus79]

Thats great! This species is really something else!! I dont know why I havnt gotten one before.

[kiki-do]

Wow, that's impressive! I too love white blooms. I'm a green grower and had never heard of this type orchid. Is it a difficult orchid to grow? She sure is beautiful!
kiki

[isurus79]

I actually dont know how hard these guys are to grow because I just bought one myself! From what I understand, however, they arent that tricky to deal with. Just grow them under Cattleya like conditions (bright light, allow dryness between waterings, etc). Posey, are these assumptions true??

[Stefan]

absolutly stunning
well done

stefan

[Posey]

Originally Posted by isurus79

I actually dont know how hard these guys are to grow because I just bought one myself! From what I understand, however, they arent that tricky to deal with. Just grow them under Cattleya like conditions (bright light, allow dryness between waterings, etc). Posey, are these assumptions true??

This is one of the first 5 orchids I ever bought. One of the other ones is the same species so I'd say not that hard to grow. Especially since 2 or the first 5 orchids I ever got croaked. Cattleya light or a little more. Roots do NOT like to be disturbed and they don't like to stay wet. Plant is also more sensitive to cold temperatures than most strap leaf vandas. I like em cause they bloom so regularly right smack dab in the middle of the winter and smell heavenly. For some reason I find the offspring from these harder to get going, right outa flask, than other vandaceous species.

[Ely]

Oh My Gosh! TONS OF FLOWERS! That makes Jordan very happy; and somewhat jelous! By the way, did you buy it as a blooming size, or a seedling? Just curious... I want to get one and would like to know a little about your experience with it.

[Posey]

Thanks folks for looking and your kind words

If you want a plant that is going to bloom relatively soon, you should get one that is at least 3 years old. I'm not sure how old mine was when I got it but I would guess 4 or 5 years since it bloomed the first year.

They get rather big but grow REALLY slow. SO slow that when I was a brand new orchid newbie it would give me fits and I was 'positive' I was doing something wrong.

To give you an idea of the growth rate, here is the plant in Jan 2005. (well heck, anybody else haveing problems with getting pictures outa their gallary???). Sigh, 2005 photo is on the far left. The plant came in a 4" plastic basket and I just nested the plastic basket in that 6" wood basket. The less you mess with the roots the better.

The picture of the plant now is in the middle. Its still in the same set of baskets. The picture on the far right is a closer view of this year's blooms.