Spring 2022 plant project: sign up and plant suggestions
 

It's that time of year again!! It's still a bit cold in many areas to order orchids, but it usually takes at least a couple weeks to find suitable plants and vote for the favorite, so we might as well get started. If we aim to have a plant selected by the second week of April, then the shipping window should have opened for nearly everyone.

For those that haven’t participated in such a project before, here’s the concept: We research orchids that meet a rough set of criteria, and once we have a list of at least 5-6 candidates, all participants vote for their favorite. The winning plant is our project plant that everyone will purchase. Then we can compare notes about culture, give tips to each other (and see who gets it to bloom first!).

I propose to keep the standard criteria in place for plant selection in order to make the project open to as many people as possible:

• Climate: No extremes, so intermediate temperature and moderate humidity requirements.
• Age: blooming size or near blooming size (should be BS in less than a year).
• Size: miniature-small to intermediate sized plants. No monsters!
• Price: Affordable - usually try to stay under $25/25€, but that might be too low as prices seem to have risen quite a bit in recent years.
• Availability: available in sufficient numbers/multiple growers
• Preferably species: easier to find worldwide, but common hybrids can work too. This is not an issue if only US based members join.

In this post I will keep a list of members who are joining the project, as well as the list of plant suggestions.


When suggesting plants, please keep the criteria in mind, and please post the name/link of at least 1 reputable vendor who carries the plant. This makes the selection process much easier.

Do we want to focus on a couple specific genera this year, or leave it open to everything?

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Participants:
Keysguy ??
Camille1585
PlumCrazy
realoldbeachbum
Leafmite
WaterWitchin
Tim P


Plant suggestions:

• Leptotes bicolor (Hausermann (2 years from BS); Ecuagenera; SBOE $25+ size unknown; Diamond Orchids 4N $35 - also has unicolor and bohnkiana).
  Letotes pohlitinicoi (Cal Orchid $25; NWO $25)
  Andy has bohnkiana for $40, and L. bicolor (not on website) for $25, of 4N types for $40 (also not on website)
  
  Leptotes bicolor and related species meet criteria and are considered 'easy'.
  
• Tolumnia urophyllum (Andy's $18 BS)
• Tolumnia prionochilum (Andy's $22 BS)
• Angraecum distichum (Diamond Orchids $28 BS ; SBOE $25+)
  Meets criteria, 'easy'
• Dendrobium unicum (Andy's $26 BS ; NWO $25)
  Does not seem to need cool winter. Meets criteria

May be challenging due to temperature requirements:

• Dendrobium jenkinsii (Andy's $24 BS ; Hausermann $25 BS ; NWO $25)
  Cool, dry winter rest needed - challenging for indoor growers
• Dendrobium ejerii (syn. capillipes) (Andy's $33 BS ; NWO $25)
  Cool, dry winter rest also needed??
• Dendrobium hekouense (J&L $28 BS ; NWO $35)
  Cool growing but apparently tolerates heat rather well.

No vendors found yet:

• Macodes petola
• Brassia species
• Cattleya dayana fma. coerulea

Gets too large for our purposes:

• Epidendrum ciliare (SBOE $25+)
• Dendrobium farmerii (Andy's $32 NBS; LOC $35)
  Seems it can get quite large? 20-40cm (~8 to 15 inches)

C'mon Camille, how can I start a new project when my last project plant still hasn't bloomed? :lol:

The good news is, it's still alive!

My last project plant hasn't grown at all, let alone bloom! Like you say the good news is that it's still alive but it might as well be a fake plant at this point. I need another (hopefully easier) plant to make up for it :biggrin:

I hope to join!

I would like to join -- if it is an EASY grower.

Leptotes bicolor is usually available and is not too difficult. I just ordered a tiny one from Hausermann's but Ecuagenera has it https://www.ecuagenera.com/epages/ec..._Lyco/Leptotes

---------- Post added at 10:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:50 PM ----------

Same. Easy grower and not too difficult to find for a decent price.

I agree, I have one and it is a super easy grower, very fast growing and with fantastic fragrance if you get up early enough to go smell it. I don't mind if it were to be the project plant, I can buy Leptotes unicolor or pohlitinocoi instead. They are similar enough to count as project plant I think!

Leptotes bicolor would be a good pick, but only places I can find one for sale is Hausermann's (two years from BS) and Ecuagenera (only one review and it's not a good review). Other places all show out of stock. Hmmmmm.

---------- Post added at 09:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:41 AM ----------

Well, we're in reverse situation. Mine bloomed, but it's been dead since shortly thereafter. :biggrin:

---------- Post added at 11:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:43 AM ----------

Dendrobium jenkinsii
Dendrobium ejerii
Dendrobium farmerii
Tolumnia urophyllum
Tolumnia prionochilum

Andy's Orchids - Species Specialist - Orchids on a stick

My two selections would be macodes petola, or dendrobium hekouense. Those are two I've wanted to try for some time, and I'd like to experiment with petola to see if I can grow it like my african violets :)

I'd love to try macodes petola. It would give me a reason to get one. :biggrin:

---------- Post added at 09:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 AM ----------

Been wanting Cattleya dayana fma. coerulea again for a long time. I killed one early on in my orchid adventures. But too hard to source, and too expensive for me.

Epidendrum ciliare or a Brassia species would be fun.

Just throwing stuff out there to see what sticks. :biggrin:

I really liked Den hekouense last year when it was suggested, but it ultimately didn't make the cut. As it's a recently discovered species there was not too much information about it and it seemed to be a cool grower. However if there is more info on this plant since last year, I'd love to consider it again!

I totally love Den. hekouense. Yes, it grows on the cool side, but don't know if that is a requirement or something that it just accommodates. It is really cute, flowers bigger than the plant.

For a plant that that grows warm, blooms multiple times a year, fragrant at night, and small but vigorous, consider Angraecum distichum. I grow it in a 4 inch/10 cm wood basket (much of it is now outside the basket, though), a rather bulletproof little orchid. Don't know how available it is across the world but don't think it is particularly rare, it is in cultivation pretty widely,

This is what it can do with nothing beyond normal orchid care and not a lot of that... pretty much, Phalenopsis conditions.http://orchidcentral.org/Images/Angr...tichum%202.jpg

I searched for more info on Den hekouense, and New World Orchids says that it tolerates 100F in the summer in their greenhouse. So it doesn't seem like an obligate cool grower. Dendrobium hekouense - New World Orchids

Love the Angraecum distichum, I think it was on the list last year too but we couldn't find vendors for it.

There are some cool growers on the list that would just not work for me, which is fine.

I noticed Camille included Epidendrum ciliare on her suggestion list. If people are not familiar with this plant, I highly recommend you do some research. I have over 200 plants in my collection and ciliare is among my top 5 favorites. It's an easy grower (mounted), interesting flower (lacy lip) and growth habit and a fragrance very similar to gardenia that will knock your socks off.

2 potential drawbacks for some growers might be that a) it grows best mounted and b) it's a fairly good sized plant.

Mine just won best Epidendrum at the Key West show and is about to undergo a major re-mounting on a new piece of cork when it stops blooming as the current mount is ancient and disintegrating.

I think it's a worthy consideration for the project team.

Thanks for the info, and congrats on getting an award!
The plant was suggested by someone else, and I put all the suggestions in the first post as a way to centralize the information. Last night I was busy looking up vendors, and Epidendrum ciliare seems hard to find in the US, so it probably won't make the list regardless of its size.

I did some research last night and looked up vendor and general information for the plants on the list so far, and updated the first post of this thread. Let me know if anything is incorrect or if I missed some good vendors.

Den. Hekouense is listed at hausermanns for 15 dollars.

Macodes petola is pretty easy to run across for 20 dollars on etsy or eBay here in the states.

Michael Tibbs at exoticplantcompany.com (Europe) has them for 25 euros... I've ordered from him before. Great plants, and he ships to the states legally.

Hello! Just pitching in my 2 cents on the plants so far (really like the list!!)

Leptotes bicolor - have this on my wish list with Leptotes bohnkiana as alternative. I think bohnkiana is even smaller, but Andy's does have that for $40 on sale now.

Dendrobium jenkinsii - got one in January, so I'm in:)

Dendrobium hekouense - got one in August, but it's not doing so great. I think it might be starting to adapt to my orchidarium now...

Cattleya dayana fma. coerulea - have Laelia dayana semi-alba 'Lip-Service' on my wish list. Also haven't been able to find that specific one.

Dendrobium unicum - was on my wish list, but my notes say it needs a cool winter rest. Is that necessary?

I like everything on the list so far. Obviously the main issue seems to be finding something that has enough availability, so maybe once we choose one we can have someone call the vendors and make sure they have enough of it before we start purchasing...

With regard to Den unicum, just what it does for me. it's deciduous... I don't dry mine but it's mounted so it dries fast. And growing outside, it gets a chill. And blooms very well. So I don't know how much of the "rest" requirement is a requirement and how much is just tolerant or how much is cold and how much is reduced water or if they can be interchanged.

Note, Den hekouense is, I think, also one of those that benefits from winter cool. Fairly high elevation.

I'm putting myself down as a Maybe participant.

Just saw that LOC has Dendrobium farmerii available for $35 and the canes grow 20-40cm (~8 to 15 inches).

I would love to try the leptotes bicolor as well. Is it hard to source in non-US areas? Wonder if we could ask Andy’s or somewhere similar if he could source it here…

If it isn't on Andy's website, ask... What is on the website is a very small fraction of what he has, I'd be really surprised if he didn't have that one. Another note... Leptotes bicolor and Leptotes pohlitinocoi have the same culture (and bloom at about the same time) so the project could be expanded to include related species. That would expand the options.

Maybe someone non-US could look and see if available elsewhere.

I'm the only non US participant, and already have 2 of the 3 main Leptotes species (missing unicolor). They are easy to find in Europe at least.
Andy must have a few, there was a post a week or so ago from someone asking for advice about a mounted L.bicolor just purchased from Andy's.

Also in the US, it's on the Diamond Orchids list (A 4N in a 2 inch pot). In the past, Gold Country Orchids and Santa Barbara Orchid Estate have had either Lpt bicolor or politinocoi or both, don't know if that's still the case.

I'm new to the Orchid Board, and fairly new to growing orchids in general, but you can count me in too!

If people are interested in the Leptotes:

J&L has Leptotes bicolor

Leptotes bicolor-Looks like starting to spike! - J&L Orchids

Ecuagenera has Leptotes bicolor

https://www.ecuagenera.com/Leptotes-bicolor/en

Hausermann's has ones a few years from blooming

Leptotes bicolor (mounted): Orchids By Hausermann

Cal Orchid has the pohlitinicoi

Leptotes pohlitinicoi — Cal-Orchid Inc.

Thanks for taking the time to look it up.
J&L doesn't have any stock though, it's listed as unavailable. For the others, someone posted early on in the thread that the Hausermann plant is 2 years from blooming, and the Ecuagenera plant didn't have good reviews.

I can add the pohlitinicoi from Cal Orchids to the list!

---------- Post added at 08:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:10 AM ----------

I updated the candidate list in the first post and separated them into different categories.

If we open up Leptotes bicolor to related species which are all very similar in appearance and culture (Letotes pohlitinicoi, unicolor and bohnkiana) there should be enough to go around, especially as the group of participants is quite small this year.

If we want to check availability of Leptotes bicolor (and other species) at Andy's, is he likely to respond to an email or is it better to call? If calling is better would someone in the US might giving him a call? I can take care of emailing if that's fine too.

Very responsive to emails. I've never tried calling.

Great, thanks! I'll shoot him an email and ask what he has hidden in his greenhouse.

i am in for any of the suggestions, i have a few and they are not amazing me so i would benefit from some advice and ideas.

my vote is unicum only bc i have killed that and never tried again

I would be willing to give unicum a shot as well.
I'd also do a Leptotes. Not because I love them but because somehow I just killed a bicolor and I'm not sure what happened. Autopsy results are pending. :lol:

Macodes Petola
 

Michael Tibbs ships his plants to the us via high desert orchids. He has macodes petola. I’m planning on doing an order with him soon and they ship about once a month to the states. I’ve ordered before with him and was happy with the plants.

Has Den. antennatum ever been considered?
Fragrant and has interesting flowers and can be grown over a fairly wide temperature range.
I'm not sure how available it is but there are also lots of really nice hybrids.

---------- Post added at 10:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:07 AM ----------

Has Den. antennatum ever been considered?
Fragrant and has interesting flowers and can be grown over a fairly wide temperature range.
I'm not sure how available it is but there are also lots of really nice hybrids.
IOSPE PHOTOS

If the group is open to larger plants, why not?.

I really love this Den (and all antelope types) but I would probably sit it out if it were project plant. I've seen an entire bench full of these in bloom, and with spikes they were well over 2ft tall. I have no space for that. Andy has some on his website and it is listed as 18in with 10in spikes.

True. It is a fairly good sized plant.

Was just one that I've been thinking about trying.

If the winning plant is something Andy has, you know what to add to your order! ;) :biggrin:

True that! :biggrin: