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Saturday, August 11, 2012

Giving my angraecum leonis a monsoon season

Angraecum leonis getting watered in a vase

     I've had my angraecum leonis for a year now, and it really hasn't done much in that time.  It dropped a leaf soon after I bought it, and then grew a new one.  Most of its activity over the past year involved root growth.  The orchid arrived with a rather poor root system, and most of the roots it has now are newly grown.

     Overall, the orchid has been doing well in vase culture.  While the old leaves are wrinkled from dehydration, the newest leaf is unwrinkled. Its root system now seems fairly substantial. 

     However, I want my orchid to thrive and to flower.  Looking around for tips on how to grow it better, I was reminded that in nature these orchids from Madagascar experience a summer monsoon season.  In response, I've started watering the angraecum twice daily.  Once the weather cools off in the Fall, I'll scale back again to once daily watering (and maybe less for the duration of the winter).

3 comments:

  1. It looks very pretty in that vase. I have angraecum sesquipedale and even though it is much larger plant than yours - it's been sloooow as a slug. Produced two leaves in a year and no blooms at all. I took it outside this summer and am going to keep it there until cold nights will come. Maybe that will trigger some blooms.

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    Replies
    1. Let me know if the cold does it, lol. I have mine so close close to the lights, that my cattleyas burned from a greater distance. I can't imagine getting it any brighter. Humidity in NYC summer is through the roof. So if the watering doesn't do it, the temperature is all that's left, aside from some sort of voodoo magic :-)

      Btw, I saw a huge (probly 3 feet tall) angcm sesquipidale specimen that was covered in blooms at the natural history museum in DC... that thing was majestic.

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  2. Do you have it in any media in the vase? Or just water?

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