Masdevallia culture, cool growers outdoor culture and Kool logs

[wintergirl]

Originally Posted by Subrosa

In some cases plants which require cool temps actually require a sufficient temperature drop at night. Constant moderate warmth can be worse than spiking higher during the day and cooling off at night.

Oh I have that drop at night in my growing space. Edited to say my M. uniflora was the masdie that hated the heat, not the M. glandulosa. My bad I mixed the 2 up, sorry

[u bada]

I have tonduzii and it did well through close to 90's last year... really beautiful one. it had 4-5 flowers but I missed them by the time I got to photographing them.

This is beautiful hybrid from my old collection which was a NOid but eventually was identified as Masd. Whiskers which is between veitch x glandulosa... it handled upper 80's i believe, but sorta sulked higher than that. never had a lot of leaves... grew at bottom of a large growing case I had before. And I did have it in a pot with bark/perlite/rock sunk in a larger clay pot with sphag...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bada_b.../album-171935/

You can see the glandulosa close up:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bada_b.../album-171935/

the other masdevallias i grew that did better were in an more open mix and some were mounted... but in a growing case... this by far of the coolest and cooler growing that adapted, M. patula:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bada_b.../album-171935/

They appeared to like higher light than less, but i guess I have to grow more masdies myself now to say more...

When I get kool logs I'll probably try mounting masdies and other pleuros on them and see how they do outside in some sort of enclosure. I'll try to order soon before it gets too hot already here...

Thanks Paphy on all you said re SBOE water, Andy's (didn't think they are 100 miles away, seems SD is a hop skip away from OC, but...)

[Paphy]

tonduzii is lovely, has subtle allure. nice to know it can handle a bit of heat. but WOW! vietch x gladulosa! omg the lilac frosting is like candy! great shot! they really named it 'whiskers'? really?? lol, too beautiful for that. i want one. especially cuz not only beautiful but also a fair heat trooper. thnx for that info.

andy's.. yeah, a bit far but FYI, next wknd is big international show in san diego and andy's has his annual open house to coincide with it. i prob gonna go down with a friend. not sure which day, like to on Sat. but might end up Sunday. this wknd (right now!) is basic same show in santa barbara..

u have some very nice orchids u bada! i'm intrigued with the miniatures via your inspiring shots. maybe i pick up a few at andy's.. but i'm just starting out again and i need a lot of things.. pots, bark, sphag, kool-logs, the list grows.. sheesh

i have two new masdies that are being shipped now. cassiope (coccinea x triangularis) and schroederiana (species). i love the schroedy, it's semi-mini. fairly well heat tolerant both these, as i've read, we'll find out.

[u bada]

All those are from my past collection. Long story, but life happens and i had to let go of all of them *sniff*... but started back up a few years ago...

Yeah, I'm goin to the santa barbara show, won't get there til sunday. And I may go down to SD for Andy's open house, too. not sure yet on that one...

those are awesome hybrids, because of you talking about them so much I may try masdies with my current outdoor set up now! (actually just today I realized I have a very shady spot that needs something LOL)

[Paphy]

Ahh. I see. Kind of same story with me! Funny.. rebuilding reinvention mode.

Enjoy SB. My fave place in California.

Only cassiope hybrid. Schroederiana is species. Costa Rica area I believe. Likes more shade, but supposed to be somewhat heat tolerant.. lower elevation growth indigenously. The cassiope because of triangularis mix? (or is it the coccinea.. I forget) is a bit more tolerant as well, relatively speaking.

Here two cool photo links to masdie's I found, both hybrid and species..

Masdevallia
Gallery Masdevallia, Jostia and Porroglossum orchids Photo Gallery by Pieter C. Brouwer at pbase.com

Kool. Maybe we find way to hook up at SD/Andy's.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Your masdies are beautiful. I am hopping to get mine to coming back. I re-potted mine this time mixing spagh and tree fern. Most of my roots looked not to bad. And I have 2 spiking, fingers crossed.

[u bada]

I'm not sure where people are at, but I always think masdies would do well in s/h, but haven't really heard of people doing that, or maybe they are here and I just haven't done a proper search lol.

If you're addressing me, shannon, again i sadly don't have those masdies anymore... but thank you. They were awesome plants. masdevallia caesia being my favorite, although i'll have dig up my photos of that one...

Tree fern was my fav media until it came out how not so renewable of a resource it is... I would grow everything in that if i could get away with it... but nowadays i'll grow things in granite stone, even pleuros, planted in a larger pot with sphag or sitting on top of spag, or just watering often. i'm sick of using bark, but I've seen happy masdies in bark, and a grower up near, as another friend/grower told me, claims it's one of the best for masdies (hawkin hill?)

paphy, yeah, I'll keep you posted if I go down, it'll be sunday though as i usually work saturdays. Supposedly they're having win tasting friday if you do end up going then... lol... what a mix of wine and orchids... cha ching for andy's perhaps...

sorry I knew one of them was a species, but was just writing a quick reply! the cassiope, and pretty much anything with wings is always cool to me! the schroederiana is pretty amazing, anything from costa rica, central america, i think can be a bit more adaptable for warm... i remember visiting puerto rico and going into the el yunque and it being fairly warm at higher elevations, even saw some lepanthes flowering, although don't recall any masdevallias...

Infracta is probably of the most warm and adaptable masdies, if you like the look of it, and it's a sequential bloomer, it's hybrids are probably just as adaptable. I'll probably finally get a wendlandiana and herradurae either at sboe show or andy's, both small growers that are warm growing.

[wintergirl]

Originally Posted by Subrosa

I didn't use a humidity tray, and I put the plants where they receive no direct sun. One thing to consider in regards to the alleged tolerance of hybrids to warmer temps. If you cross two cool growing Masdevallia the odds are high that each resulting clone will be a cool growing hybrid. There will naturally be a variance in all traits including this one. Another thing is that not all Masdevallia species are cool growers. I've acquired two warm growing species, M. herradurae and M. tonduzii that I'm growing alongside the hybrids. I plan on adding M. glandulosa in the near future, another warm grower.

I just realized that I made a mistake. I have 7 species masdies and I was thinking of M. uniflora and mixed it up with my M. glandulosa. The uniflora is the one that did not like the heat. The glanulosa has been very hardy so far. I apologize for the confusion. I hope you do try the glanulosa and it works well for you, my big mistake.

[u bada]

Yeah, makes sense as the glandulosa i think is what made the hybrid i grew handle heat ok. thanks for clarifying...

wintergirl, now your masdies you're growing attached to kool logs or potted in them?

[Subrosa]

All of my Masdevallia are in s/h and have responded well to it. Undoubtedly there is some helpful evaporative cooling from keeping them this way.

---------- Post added at 03:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:40 PM ----------

Originally Posted by wintergirl

I just realized that I made a mistake. I have 7 species masdies and I was thinking of M. uniflora and mixed it up with my M. glandulosa. The uniflora is the one that did not like the heat. The glanulosa has been very hardy so far. I apologize for the confusion. I hope you do try the glanulosa and it works well for you, my big mistake.

No problem, I'm becoming a sink or swim orchid keeper. I have certain conditions I can provide, and an orchid will thrive in them or it won't. I do as much research as I can to keep from making truly poor choices, but once I pull the trigger the plant is going into the rotation with other plants that like the same conditions. For a Masdevallia that means being outside all summer.