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).

Signs of life on Psychopsis Mariposa 'Mountain'

A sad looking Psychopsis Mariposa 'Mountain'

     My Psychp Mariposa arrived to me in a sad shape.  Its roots were mostly rotten, and the few that remained died soon after.  The orchid then lost its spike, and lost some leaves.  Now its leaves are wrinkled and leathery, its pseudobulbs are flattened, and its roots all gone.

Signs of new growth on Psychopsis Mariposa

     In an effort to revive the orchid, I've had it 'potted' in a 2 inch pot on a bed of sphagnum moss that I keep moist.  Today, after accidentally knocking the little orchid out of its pot, I noticed the first signs of life.  The little root nub (on left) stands out as a bright green spot against the dark background.  Meanwhile, less visible, is what looks like the start of a new growth (on right). 

     While survival is still less than certain (my den victoria reginae had also produced a futile new growth before finally giving up) I choose to be optimistic for my orchid's survival.  

Psychopsis Mendenhall 'Hildos' seems to be adjusting well

Psychopsis Mendenhall 'Hildos'

     In the two months since I purchased it, my Psychp Mendenhall has put in some good growth.  Its pseudobulbs remain full and mostly wrinkle-free, indicating that the orchid's root system is pulling in sufficient moisture.  Meanwhile, the plant's spike has doubled in height, and is now almost 2 feet tall.  

     This height is actually rather awkward, as the tip of the spike is almost at the level of my lighting fixture, and on more than one occasion, I have smacked it against the lights while moving the orchid for watering.  It's only due to the spike's flexibility and my incredible luck that I haven't snapped it yet.

Tip of the psychopsis spike: this tip will die, and the spike will produce a side growth

     At the same time, I'm a little paranoid about the health of the spike.  The very tip seems to be just a little yellow and dried out?  It's hard to tell, and I don't know what to expect from this orchid, since I've never flowered a psychopsis before.  I really really hope that this is just indication that the spike is done growing upward and is somehow transitioning to bud development, rather than the first signs of the spike drying out.

EDIT (11/16/12): That tip did end up drying out, and the spike produced a side growth.

     A thought occurred to me as I was writing this, that maybe the tip of the spike was suffering from sunburn by being so close to the T5 lamps.  To be safe, I moved the orchid to the floor just next to the shelves.  This leaves the spike tip a few inches lower, where the light wouldn't be quite as intense.

New root growth from psychopsis

     For a more hopeful sign, the orchid seems to have some new root growth going on.  My Psychp Mariposa, which whithered away and is barely hanging on now, has yet to produce any new roots.  These new roots are more likely to adjust well to the current potting conditions, and support future growth.

     Whatever happens to the current spike, all other signs indicate that this orchid is doing well.  Yay!

Noid phal exits rest with a spurt of root and leaf growth

Large noid phalaenopsis with three keikis

     For over a year now, my noid phal has put all leaf and root growth on hold while it was growing its keikis.  Over time, it lost several leaves. The remaining leaves have lost firmness and acquired a leathery texture.  

Closeup on phal root and leaf growth

     Now the mother orchid is finally expending some energy on its own growth.  It seems to be growing two new leaves concurrently, as well as a number of fresh roots.

     The keikis are almost big enough to remove from the mother plant and pot on their own.  They all have nice big leaves, and the oldest has two roots that are just over 3" long.  

     However, as the mother plant seems to be doing well, I am in no hurry to cut them from the spikes.  My plan is to remove the largest keiki as soon as it starts  growing new roots.  For the smaller two keikis I'll wait until they both have roots that are over 3" long and fresh roots growing.  Waiting to remove the keikis might delay the mother phal from flowering, but I have enough other orchids in bloom and/or spike that I am willing to take that risk. 

Cymbidiums are big

Cymbidium Kusuda Shining x Douglas Dillon

     It seems like a statement of the obvious, but it's hard to appreciate the size of cymbidiums until you've had one nearly double in size on you.  Last February when I first bought this orchid, I marveled at its miniature size.  I now know that I made the mistake of confusing 'blooming size' for 'mature size'.  While the plant I received was supposedly large enough to bloom, it was no where near done growing.

From the February 29 blog entry: Cym Kusuda Shining x Douglas Dillon

     The two new growths that were just starting to open last winter have now matured, and overshadow the original pseudobulbs.  The cymbidium is 2 feet tall from floor to tip of the tallest leaf.  The longest leaves are now 18" long, and they're also thicker than the leaves from the older bulbs.  At this rate, I expect to orchid to grow even bigger over time.

New growth bud on cymbidium

     The oldest backbulb rapidly shriveled up and dried out last month.  Meanwhile, the two newly matured pseudobulbs have produced new growth buds of their own.  I've counted two so far (one on each pseudobulb) but it's possible that more will appear over time.  While it is possible that one of both of these are actually flower spikes, it is far too soon to be possible to distinguish buds from growth, and leaf growth is much more likely.

     

Remounting Tolumnia Pink Panther

Tolumnia Pink Panther (left) and Tolumnia Genting Orange (right)

     I remounted my Tolumnia Pink Panther today, so that it could have its own mount. Having it co-mounted with the Tol. Genting Orange looked nice, but it made watering more awkward.  And I think both orchids are large enough to warrant separate mounts. 

     The transfer was very quick and fast.  I unpeeled the wire holding the orchid to its original mount, pulled off the plant+moss, and transferred it over to a new piece of aquarium bark.    The orchid had not been on its old mount long enough for the roots to start working their way into the bark yet, so remounting was a very simple procedure, that shouldn't have caused any root damage.

I Don't Like Sphagnum Moss

Newly repotted Dtps Jungo City (left) and Dtps Yu Pin Burgundy (Right)

     Sphagnum moss is a good orchid media, and many people grow their phals in it successfully, but it's not for me.  I last watered my sphagnum potted phals almost two weeks ago, and they were still moist today.  It freaks me out when orchids take that long to dry out; I start to imagine all sorts of rot and fungus spreading rampant through the root system when my pots aren't drying within a week.  I've had a good experience growing phals in bark, so I decided to go with what has always worked for me.

Dtps Yu Pin Burgundy has a healty root system

     The roots on my Dtps Yu Pin Burgundy looked great; most of the roots were firm and unbroken, and there were many growing tips.  The phal had a good mix of older and new roots.  

     I potted it into a clear version of the 4.5" pot that it came with.

Dtps Jungo City roots before and after trimming

     The Dtps Jungo City, on the other hand, was in poor shape.  The orchid had dropped a leaf soon after I got it, which may be an indication that it was less capable to handle stress.  The Dtps had a ball of old blackened moss near the root base, and many many rotten roots.  Of the roots that remained after trimming, all have blackened tips, which is a strong indicator of prior bad potting conditions.  There are a couple new roots budding off the base, so I am confident that this orchid will recover quickly if I get the care right, though.

     The remaining root system on this phal was far too small to pot back into a 5" pot like the one it came with.  Instead, I downsized to a 4" clear plastic pot.  With it's tall leaves and minimal roots, the phal is a little shaky in it's pot, but hopefully it will stabilize once the media settles in and the new roots help it establish itself.