Winter rest for mounted orchids

[Roberta]

The Neo doesn't need a strong rest... the drying out that happens naturally with a mounted plant should be plenty. I haven't had consistent results with Den. aggegatum (now lindleyi), dryer or wetter, potted plants bloom some years and not others. Mounted should be better... My point of reference is a lot of visits to Andy's Orchids. Andy groups plants by temperature and light needs, and greenhouses/shadehouses get watered throughout the year. There is no effort to separate the "winter rest" ones from the "no winter rest" ones, it would be physically impossible to manage that with tens of thousands of the "winter rest" ones mixed in with the hundreds of thousands of total plants. And they bloom anyway... most are mounted. So the drying that the mounted plants get just in the matter of normal drying seems to be sufficient. I do the same (of course with a lot fewer plants) and get similar results.

What DOES happen at Andy's, and also in my back yard, is winter temperature variation... most of these can grow on the cool side, so are in unheated ambient or barely-protected shade houses at Andy's (and outside at my house) So I strongly suspect that lower temperatures, especially at night, may also be a "bloom trigger" that may compensate for lack of drying-out. (In nature the plants experience much more humidity and dew even if it doesn't rain, so "dry" in habitat is a lot wetter than "dry" in southern California)