what's the hardest orchid you've grown?

[TOMMYMIAMI]

Kevinator, try Coryanthes macrantha, it grows for me like crazy, bloomed 3 times since I got it in January, and survived all the cold fronts even when temps were few mornings in low 50s!

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Terrestrials in general, I am still BAD with them, even I was able to get back to live my tubers from the last winter rest, they grew little and than nearly all died, never bloomed. Than I took out tubers, looking at least good, and than some of them dead within few weeks or months. I had not one Habenaria blooming this year except repens, always died with small growths! I love terrestrials, so I am still trying I have some Orchis and Ophrys in active growth now and with our extreme cold unusual weather this year I hope I can make them maybe bloom :-). I am somehow weird, I am growing probably orchids others have a hard time to grow, especially in Florida, blooming here Masdevallias, starting to even see some spikes on Draculas, growing Telipogons and some even forming buds (none did bloom yet though), however I killed many Cattleyas, basic Dendros, and I HATE my Brassavola that grows like crazy and gets all the care it needs, but has never ever bloomed for me in 6 years!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Is your Brassavola getting enough light? They can take a lot of light without any problems.

Terrestrials are tricky because of their dormancies. I am only somewhat successful with a few species.

The easiest one being Bletilla striata.

[weederwoman]

This is like a who's who of legendary difficult orchids. As a newer grower who would never dare to try a disa or a dracula, my hardest orchid to grow is paph armeniacum, but I started with a small weak plant. Buy the best genes you can afford, is my advice. I need to go to shows and find one with more vigor one of these days.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Paphs can offer a challenge of their own.

[Nepenthesguy]

Tolumnia's are the only genus that seems to have a love hate relationship with me when they come in for winter.

Dracula's can be tough, I'm trying my second attempt with them and so far have gotten D. Mantissa to produce another spike while under my care (came with a small spike) and it is continuing to develop! My focus with care has been to keep the roots and rhizomes cool and humid, most of the leaves are in warmer temps with lower humidity but have not shriveled like the last time I kept dracula's (I didn't keep the roots cool and humid last time).

[Kevinator]

Actually tommymiami, the only surviving Coryanthes I have now IS macrantha. Despite its poor condition, it actually tried to bloom this year again but blasted its bud after hitting a name tag.

Also, king of orchid growing. How do you grow Dracs in LA? Do you have a cool-house or large vivarium for them? And btw, I did have a cool mist ultrasonic humidifier when growing the Dracs. Its broken now so I can't use it for my growing area anymore.

[TOMMYMIAMI]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

Is your Brassavola getting enough light? They can take a lot of light without any problems.

Terrestrials are tricky because of their dormancies. I am only somewhat successful with a few species.

The easiest one being Bletilla striata.

Philip, full sun, whole year, reddish leaves, fertilizer, watering, everything you can imagine. EVERYONE in Florida has them neglected blooming like crazy, but mine plant grew to monster in 5 years, and never did bloom! With terrestrials, yeah, the issue was not even dormancy, since all did wake up, but than when in active growth, they all died, mostly rot, even I did try to be very careful with watering etc. So they are for sure the hard once for me!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

What kind of Brassavola are we talking about?

[Kevinator]

On the topic of Brassavola, regardless of type, lots of light is required to bloom them. I moved my nodosa from a southwest exposure to a glass sinktop extension thingy (I think that's how you call it). Before, it usually only had one spike per year. It gets full sun in the entire morning and noon along with partial shade in the afternoon and full sunlight at dusk. although some of the leaves did yellow, the leaves are now bright green with pink spots all over the edges and the plant put out three spikes a week after I moved it there. I'll post pics once the first one starts opening.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

With regard to asking about Brassavola type, it is because the follow-up question would be the plant's size…

Maybe the Brassavola is not blooming sized yet, idk. That will depend on the size of the plant and what kind of Brassavola it is.

For example, Brassavola cucullata is a pretty large Brassavola. Blooming sized growths are anywhere between 12" (30.5 cm) - 15" (38 cm) long.

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Originally Posted by Kevinator

Also, king of orchid growing. How do you grow Dracs in LA? Do you have a cool-house or large vivarium for them? And btw, I did have a cool mist ultrasonic humidifier when growing the Dracs. Its broken now so I can't use it for my growing area anymore.

It is rather cool here during our falls, winters, and springs. The temperature at night right now is hovering somewhere in the 50's F (around 10 C). During the day it is somewhere in the mid 70's F (around 21 C).

I also try to pick Draculas that come from elevations that range between 800 m - 2,000 m. Anything that is found above, 2,000 m in the wild is questionable as to whether I'd be able to grow them or not. Pretty much anything that grows beyond 2,200 m is not growable without a special setup here.

So something like Dracula lotax would do well here. These are lower elevation Draculas, and are actually warmth tolerant.

I've grown Dracula sodiroi ssp erythrocodon here in the past. They grow and bloom pretty well down here without any extra humidity. These also tolerate a little bit more heat than many Draculas can. These bloom randomly throughout the year, even during the summer. I just got a new one right now, after several years of not growing one. Hopefully, everything will work out this time around, (I love the bright red bell-like flowers with the small scrunched up monkey faces inside the bell).

The only downfall to growing Draculas is their inability to tolerate high levels of dissolved minerals in the water. If the water is high in TDS, they will start dropping dead really fast, (yes, I'm prone to bouts of laziness too, and I found out the hard way that there is no way around having to use water low in TDS, it is an absolute necessity when growing Draculas - so, no using tap water).