Another flower spike or pseudobulb?

[Flower Fool]

Hi

I have a zygopetalum that bloomed in January. I was told that it will bloom first and then make a new pseudo bulb after blooming. So my question is, is this a new pseudo bulb developing or is it getting ready to bloom again? I have not cut off the spikes from the last bloom. Am I supposed to cut these off after it blooms? I would be totally surprised if it's going to bloom again. I've had this plant for almost 4 years and this was the first time it had bloomed for me. Do zygopetalums bloom more than once a year?

Thanks in advance everyone for any input you can give me.

[james mickelso]

New pbulb growing. You should get more than one on this plant.

[RosieC]

What these do is make a new growth like you see. It will grow some big leaves from the growth, then a flower spike will emerge from amoungst the leaves. Towards the end of the flowers you will notice that the base of the new growth from which the spike is coming will fatten and a bulb will form beside the spike from the middle of the leaves.

Not all growths produce the flower spike, the plant needs to be big enough and healthy enough to do that.

As you have been told, if it's going to flower the flower spike will form from between the leaves of the growth BEFORE the p-bulb then forms in the same growth.

So what you have is a new lead growth that will certainly form a p-bulb, but could also produce a spike

---------- Post added at 04:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:54 PM ----------

Orchids like Oncidiums also produce the flower spikes from amoungst the leaves of a growth, however they usually grow the spikes from the base of the bulb after the p-bulb has formed in the middle of growth's leaves.

The difference with Zygos is that the spike forms before the p-bulb rather than after. It forms in about the same place, but comes before the bulb forms rather than after.

I would cut away the spike part after flowering, I can see some in the picture, but leave the main part of the growths with their leaves and bulbs.

---------- Post added at 05:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:58 PM ----------

Oh and they can flower more than once a year. Mine was really small and weak for several years, but has flowered twice in 12 months. Basically now it's healthy again each new growth, of which have each taken about 6 months to mature, has produced a spike before the p-bulb as described above.

[Flower Fool]

Well, I guess it's not a new pseudo bulb. Took this picture this morning. It looks like it's getting ready to bloom again. It bloomed in January. Is this normal for a zygo. to bloom more than once a year?
Thanks

[silken]

It actually looks like the new growth and the spike. These often bloom when the new growth is very young.

[Flower Fool]

Thanks Rosie
I guess if I would have contained my excitement a bit and reread your post I would have known that this is normal. I just got so excited that it is going to bloom again.
Thanks

[lotis146]

Originally Posted by Flower Fool

Thanks Rosie
I guess if I would have contained my excitement a bit and reread your post I would have known that this is normal. I just got so excited that it is going to bloom again.
Thanks

Congrats!

SO here's my question: I see your first pic is from early April and now it's almost two months later; is the new growth in that April pic then the same one that has this new spike??

Maybe that's dumb to ask but I just had to. I have a Zygolum, my first (now have two though) that is currently in bloom & it has 3 new growths, 2 smaller than yours and one about the same. I wondered how long these typically take to grow and I see Rosie said hers takes about 6 months but it appears your may have taken only 2...? (I'll be happy one way or the other and am SUPER excited at the thought that I could have 2-3 spikes around the same time. The first had all but one die in transit.)

Please do share when they open!!

[Flower Fool]

Hi Lotis
Yes, the little growth that you see in the April picture is the same one that is getting ready to bloom. You can see in the April pictures on the left side of the plant are the old flower spikes from when it bloomed in January. So if it blooms next month it will be 5 months since it's last bloom. With 2-3 new growths I would guess that you should get lots of flowers. When mine bloomed in January it sent out 2 flower spikes, this time it seems to be only sending out 1 flower spike. But hey, ones better than none. And as an added note they sure do smell wonderful. Kind of like a cross between and rose and a gardenia.
Thank You

[lotis146]

Originally Posted by Flower Fool

Hi Lotis
Yes, the little growth that you see in the April picture is the same one that is getting ready to bloom. You can see in the April pictures on the left side of the plant are the old flower spikes from when it bloomed in January. So if it blooms next month it will be 5 months since it's last bloom. With 2-3 new growths I would guess that you should get lots of flowers. When mine bloomed in January it sent out 2 flower spikes, this time it seems to be only sending out 1 flower spike. But hey, ones better than none. And as an added note they sure do smell wonderful. Kind of like a cross between and rose and a gardenia.
Thank You

Wonderful, and congrats for you!!

I see so Rosie and your time frames are relatively the same from one "bloom" to another. I think there is a lot of excitement surrounding a spike alone, the anticipation is wonderful. New growths are too but a spike is more promising! I can only hope that mine will be so fruitful. What have you done differently that you can think of that made this plant more happy with you (versus the last 4 years)? My plant arrived in spike but also with these new growths that were very tiny. In fact there were 4 but I well, I accidentally killed it...moving right along, so while I take credit for their continued growth (& that of new roots) I can't take full credit for their existence. I'd like to believe my plant is happy but it never hurts to hear from the experiences of others, successful & otherwise.

Great job getting it to bloom for you & for not giving up!!! Yes they do smell great, mine smells wonderful for the first half of the day and that's with one bloom!!

Thanks!

[Flower Fool]

The only thing that was done different was that we did not turn on any heat in the sunroom this past winter. Although some heat does get in from the rest of the house. Normally there is an electric fireplace turned on for the winter, but this past winter it was not turned on. So all the plants experienced a much cooler winter. My Christmas cactus even bloomed, and it had not bloomed in over 20 + years. I had even forgotten what color it was. (It was red by the way) So I can only assume that is was the few months of cooler temperatures. Needless to say the fireplace won't be turned on this next winter either.