Restrepia striata culture

[tbaenziger]

More news on the Restrepia. It got dried out while I was away for a week and one of the most promising new growths (in hopes of a bloom!) just turned a pale brown and stopped growing (duh, I should have known the plant was NOT a lover of desert conditions). Anyway, it has now resumed growing new leaves and I am hopeful that with longer days it will decide to bloom. Meanwhile the tree-fern mount, over 18 months old, seems to be holding up well, and there are roots throughout. I keep it propped in a large-mouth glass with a bit of water at the bottom (not touching the mount, but providing more humidity). While other things here are coming into bud, especially Siderea japonica and some Phals, this plant just acts reluctant. Sigh.

[kiki-do]

Hey Ted, I also recently (last October) bought two Restrepias and both look promising, are kept wet, bright light but not direct sun, and they keep shooting up new leaves, but never a bloom. Unless it's so small it can't be seen by the naked eye. I'm going to keep my eyes and ears open for more comments from the experts on this particular plant. Thanks for bringing up the question about them. Welcome aboard! kiki

[tbaenziger]

Well, it bloomed, finally. About one inch (2.5 cm) natural spread, brick red, but looking like some kind of delicate insect. I took a picture, which is in my gallery, but I haven't figured out how to post it in this thread as yet. It was pretty cute, lasting one day fully opened, and then drawing the hair-like lateral sepals toward the dorsal and fading after three days. Does it rebloom on the same growth or only on new ones?

[tbaenziger]

After a bit of searching on how to downsize files, here is the only photo I got of my Restrepia child, sorry,... 'chid.

[Pals]

Congratulations Dad !!!

We'll be expecting magnums of champagne and cigars to be delivered in the next few days then ???
It's an interesting/beautiful little flower and although not lasting phal-length times, should last for more than a day (a few days - not much more than a week).
Perhaps this flower was the "advance party" surveying the conditions before bringing all its little mates out !!!
Once it gets going, you won't notice that the odd flower lasts just 1 day as there'll always be more buds or flowers on the way.
It doesn't re-flower from the original stem, but the new flowers will emerge from the same dried sheath at the base of the leaf. In time you will be left with a clump of dried flower stalks and I always got the scissors to these to keep it looking tidy.
Well done, looks like you're on your way to a (hopefully) very big family. What are you going to name it?

Pals

[tbaenziger]

Now this could be interesting. Name it? For the moment it's just 'number one', my first.When I get it awarded I'll probably give it a high-falutin' name like 'Benedict XVI' on a plant that was awarded the week he was elected. Later, I got to name the hybrid so the total name was Promenea Margaret E Boice 'Benedict XVI' AM/AOS, after my mother and the Pope. Now that's a moniker!
... of course it died two months later. No, I think I'll just give this a nickname for now; don't want to jinx it.

[Pals]

Originally Posted by tbaenziger

I got to name the hybrid so the total name was Promenea Margaret E Boice 'Benedict XVI' AM/AOS, after my mother and the Pope. Now that's a moniker!

No, that's not a moniker, that's almost a story !
A chance to name a plant ?....that's quite an honour for the namer and the namee!

Pals

[Tindomul]

What a great little bloomer. How is it doing now? Have you had better luck blooming it?

[maitaman]

Restrepias grow here mostly in the cloud forests and will, according to variety, tolerate some extreme conditions of light and temperature for short periods. I've seen them in full sun where the entire plant is yellow and purple and some in dense shade where the plants are dark green. The major factor seems to be humidity. even the ones in full sun are in the clouds at night where the humidity is 95% or more for several hours.

[Tindomul]

Great info maitaman! Do you explore the orchids of Panama often?