Something grows at the tip of the cane
A couple days ago, I noticed something budding off the top of my dendrobium victoria-reginae cane. According to the kind folks at the OrchidBoard it can only be a flower bud or keiki. I'm told that since keikis rarely form so high up along a cane, it's almost definitely a flower bud. Although this is the right season to see den victoria-reginae bud (spring flowering), why would this orchid prepare to flower when in such an obvious state of distress?
As the picture clearly indicates. the den has continued dropping leaves, with only 2 green leaves remaining. The roots I wrote about in this post have continued growing, and the new cane bud seems unchanged. In an attempt to get more even moisture available to the new roots, I repotted the den into loosely-packed fresh sphagnum moss. The moss now comes in contact with the new roots, and the velamen of the longer root now looks green, suggesting that perhaps more moisture is getting through.
