Cold-weather laelia flower spikes dying

[fosterpapillon]

I have two cold-weather Laelia albida x gouldiana, each of which put out two flower spikes in April. All four spikes turned brown in early May and are pretty obviously deceased - lengths range from 75 to 200 mm. Any idea why this might have happened? The plants otherwise look very happy. The psbs are fat and smooth and two other laelias (different hybrids) receiving identical cultural attention have several excellent spikes each.

All plants are grown on a south-facing verandah with a clear, polycarbonate roof. Temperatures in April-May are 7°C to 20°C.

Note that I'm in Australia where the equator is to the north and summer is in December. A couple of photos are attached.

This is my first post on this forum.

michael

[katrina]

The older pbulbs are pretty shriveled...how much are you watering the plants? They like it drier in winter but w/the new growths hanging over the pot edge it could be a lack of water issue. It looks like the newer ones are plump but they are probably robbing all the energy from the older growths. Lack of water would be my guess because the plant looks great otherwise. It's certainly large enough to support several spikes.

I would treat the newer growths like mounted plants and water those more than the potted part...keeping the potted portion to a restricted water regimen. I water my mounted laelia (including autumnalis) in the winter a couple of times a week. In your case, since they are outside, you could do the watering on sunny days. I grow under lights so it's sunny every day.

[euplusia]

Don't worry. This often happened to my gouldianas and autumnalis, especially if the bulbs are not the strongest. Maybe the decrease of natural light is too harsh.

[fosterpapillon]

Thanks katrina and euplusia. A local grower also suggested that under-watering was the problem. At this time of year, I water only two or three times a month, obeying the old maxim that less is better than more but it seems that I need to up the level.