Beallara Princess Patricia McCully
 

So I am now the proud owner. It's just leaves, but I did get to see it when it was blooming and it was spectacular. Could anyone give me any pointers as to what I need to do to get it to bloom again? Books to read?

What a pretty orchid, I've just looked it up and it's gorgeous.

As far as I can tell this is part of the Oncidium/Odontoglossum Alliance. I'm not an expert on these but I've taken a look for care sheets for you. We don't have a care sheet over here but the AOS has a couple which might help.

AOS | Odontoglossum
AOS | Oncidium

Thank you Rosie, I'll check them out.

Judy

I want to buy one of these, does anyone know how much light she needs? South facing window ? Or she will like north east ? Thanks

I am also in the Netherlands, and have always grown my Oncidium type orchids either in south or west facing windows. I did have them in an east facing window until 4 years ago, and while they did bloom, the flower count was a bit low. North-east may be too little light.

Thank you very much Camille. This is very helpful. I am growing now my onicidiums in the south west room but probably in the summer I will have to put some curtains or some film on the windows. I keep the phals in the north east room and they seem to like it, they are all spiking. I have been keeping my brassia in the phal room and she is not spiking so might be placing her to the south west room.

Of course it's up to you to judge based on how yours plants respond, but in the summer I've never had problems with the plants in the south windows. I have a large Sharry Baby and a few smaller Twinkle type Oncs, and they have never burned. Even my Phals don't burn in South facing windows, as long as I gradually adapt new plants to the light first. The light at our latitude is not that strong and besides,there are too many rainy days between bouts of sun!

Like most orchids they are not in bloom all the time. With my beallarra, the trick to getting them to bloom is that they need a cold-snap type situation. You need to research to find the exact temperatures. What I would do was to bring them outside when it became cold, like in October, but don't let them get too cold, so you have to remember to bring them inside.

Often the nursery has used an artificial way to get them to bloom out of their natural blooming cycle. Perhaps they put them into a refrigerator for a time? Either way, you need to get the plant back onto it's natural blooming cycle.

Thank you so much for your replies guys ! Camilla, do you use any curtain to filter the south sun or some window film ? Indeed we have alot of cloudy days so that is natural filtering of light. Also may I ask you where you buy your orchids from or order them from a webshop? I cannot seem to find so many orchid nurseries here in Holland, which is strange as it's the country of flowers.

Optimist, what you are saying is exactly what I do with my orchids, I usually open the window at night and it get quite cold. All 11 of my phals are in spike. However I am having no luck with my oncidiums. But they have been in the north east room and that is way too less light so now they are in the south west. So maybe now they will spike hopefully

I don't have curtains or anything to filter the light. Most of my orchids are on a stand in front of a window. But the window is narrow so they get less hours of direct sunlight than if they were in a typical large window as there si in most dutch homes. I also place them on the shelves so that the ones that need less light are behind other plants. My big Oncs and Maxillaria tenuifolia are on the floor in front of another (much larger) window.

As to places to shop, in NL there are indeed few choices. I mostly shop online. There is Reinhart Orchideeën up north, and Claessen Orchideeën (orchideen-shop) down in Limburg. But the plants from Claessen are not as nice as they were 4-5 years ago, so I shop there less. I mostly shop in Germany, despite the really high shipping costs. Elsner, Schwerter, Roellke, Lucke are my favorite German vendors. Akerne in Belgium is supposed to be good too.
I will be going to Orchideen Lucke in March when they have their open day. They are just across the border from Venlo, so it's not that far for me (I'm in Wageningen).

Wow Camille your orchids looks amazing ! I love the display! Also on the right corner is there a cattleya in full water culture? How did you manage that? I heard they are very hard to adapt to this!

Thank you soo so much for all the recommendations ! I will check them out ! I have been watching unboxing videos from the Orchid Girl and she is very happy the way Schwerter is sending the flowers but I couldn't find so many types there. I really want to try Orchideen Lucke and get 4-5 orchids that are in bloom. Did you ever got ones in bloom ? Did they survive the transport ?

I have a lot less orchids than I used to, mealy bugs and a disease wiped out half my collection (many were Phals) over the past 2 years. So new Phals go to the office where I work until I'm sure my home area is disease free. I got the stand from Ikea, and liked the fact that it's a nice looking metal stand that fits well in the living room.

The Catt actually isn't in water culture. I neglected it and didn't repot it when it needed it and the roots grew all over the place. So rather than trying to force it into a pot, it sits in a vase. I pour about 4-5cm of water in it, wait a couple hours for all the roots to turn green, and then tip out the water. The vase keeps the humidity so I only have to water every 2 weeks or so.

Ordering blooming orchids: It's rare that I do that, since usually there are orchids that I absolutely want and I order them however they are. But my experiences with blooming/spiking orchids have been good. They are always very well packed and come through with nearly no damage. Sometimes a pollen cap gets knocked off, or buds blast a shortly after, but I can ahrdly blame the vendor.

I'm surprised about your comment on Schwerter, they have one of the most diverse selections of orchids of all the growers I know, with lots of unusual species.

I am sorry to hear about the infecton, those mealy bugs are very nasty. Hope the flowers will recover fast and the new ones don't get infected.

So with the cattleya you are kind of doing a semi water culture. I heard they like that alot. I am growing all my oncidiums and phals in full water culture and is going well now, after 6 months.

So this weekend I have followed your advice and went to Reinhart Orchideeen......I cannot express my surprise and my happiness when I saw such amazing plants ! It was my best experience so far and they are my favorite nursery! The size of the plants they sell is gigantic, they are so mature, and so well grown. I bought this oncidium sharry baby with dozen of pseudobulbs, 6 spikes, amazing smell. Then I found this oncidium twinkle with 6 spikes too, and sooo many pseudobulbs, at the price of 15 euros just as I ordered from Claessen Orchids, and was given a small plant with 1 medium pseudobulb and 2 very very tiny pseudobulbs. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the size of the plants they sell. It was so hard to resist so I bought my first ever Vanda which is 2 meters tall with the roots !!! It's crazy! I am so grateful for your recommendation. Thank you so much !!!

Would love to advertise them more, because they really deliver top quality of orchids, and alot of species, would it be possible to make a thread and advertise them there ? They have opened an online shop too so it would be very helpful for them too. Oh, and the people are so nice there!

You can create a thread in the forum especially made for that called vendor feedback.

I've never gone to Reinhardt ( 2 hour drive for me) nor ordered, but I always get a plant from them at the NOV day show in Utrecht every October.

And those are fantastic looking plants! I already saw the photos, on the NOV Facebook page! And you experienced what I did with Claessen: tiny plants. He used to have plants as nice as Reinhart, what a shame...

Yes will try to do that because they fully deserve it !

I was wondering if there are any big orchid shows here in Netherlands. DO you have any idea? Besides the NOV show in Utrecht.

Thanks !

alexa, welcome to the Orchid Board!

Oncidiums flower with each new growth once they are large enough. If you don't water enough as the new growth develops, the flowers may abort. They need a lot more water than many other orchids.

Thank you so much estacion seca !
I have at this moment changed all my orchids, phals, oncidiums, catts, zygos, all of them to water culture, so there won't any problem about not enough water.