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: