Specimen size orchids - Orchid Board

Plodde · #1 03-17-2015, 01:09 AM

Hello everyone!
It is my goal, with all of my orchids, that as they age and i age they grow healthy and large. I like to see the bulbs and canes pile up, root balls get bigger and bigger and the vandaceous' stems getting taller and taller. I hope to have all my orchids be specimen size in the future years to come.
It seems like most orchid collectors divide their orchids once they get a certain size. Some do this to give divisions to friends and others do it to save space.
Do any of you have specimen size plants?
What are your reasons for dividing your orchids?

astrid · #2 03-17-2015, 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Plodde

Hello everyone!
It is my goal, with all of my orchids, that as they age and i age they grow healthy and large. I like to see the bulbs and canes pile up, root balls get bigger and bigger and the vandaceous' stems getting taller and taller. I hope to have all my orchids be specimen size in the future years to come.
It seems like most orchid collectors divide their orchids once they get a certain size. Some do this to give divisions to friends and others do it to save space.
Do any of you have specimen size plants?
What are your reasons for dividing your orchids?

I divide my orchids because I am obsessed with digging and picking out every last little bit of dirt and old media out of the roots, and this inevitably works the plant a bit apart.

I just divide somewhere sensible and pot up two plants! I find it easier to not rot the roots when my pots have a smaller diameter, too.
I'm going to let most of my orchids go wild now, though, because they all need to plump up and get massive!

silken · #3 03-17-2015, 04:24 AM

I have several larger plants now. And that is my goal too, to grow specimens out of most of them. But the many I have divided have been to share or trade plants with friends. I am hoping to let a lot of them get larger now. However space will likely become an issue unless I can also start culling the ones that don't thrill me a lot when in bloom.

Plodde · #4 03-17-2015, 04:27 AM

i counted yesterday and i have just around 50 orchids. As long as i get a greenhouse before too many years pass i should have room for 50 specimens. ; )

vjo · #5 03-17-2015, 06:20 AM

Yes but what will you do with the 50 you get between now and when you get the greenhouse?lol ...Jean

bil · #6 03-17-2015, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Plodde

It seems like most orchid collectors divide their orchids once they get a certain size. Some do this to give divisions to friends and others do it to save space.
Do any of you have specimen size plants?
What are your reasons for dividing your orchids?

I don't like the collections that seen to be of lots of small pots crammed together. A lot of orchids look (to me) way better as larger specimen plants.

Daethen · #7 03-17-2015, 08:46 AM

Before my recent disaster I had a couple approaching specimen size. I am hoping to get many of them to that size in the future once I restock. My B. nodosa had over 50 growths and it was mounted. It had given me 11 spikes last year but is now in orchid heaven.

tucker85 · #8 03-17-2015, 09:26 AM

Here in South Florida most of us grow orchids outdoors or in shade-houses. Specimen plants are very common here. Not all orchids make good specimen plants but many do. I grow mostly cattleyas and I look for those will self-supporting flower spikes and a rhizomes that tend to branch. I also like the pseudo-bulbs to grow fairly close together. Most growers use inorganic media so they don't need to remove old media and disturb the roots. I grow almost exclusively in wood baskets with large chunks of cork or rock as media.

camille1585 · #9 03-17-2015, 09:56 AM

I alsp prefer to grow my plants to specimen size rather than divide. Anyone can have a small plant, and besides, larger plants often means more blooms!
I do divide some plants, but it's usually because there are too many backbulbs, the plant naturally divided itself when I'm repotting, or I want to have a back up of the orchids that I'd really hate to lose.

RandomGemini · #10 03-17-2015, 10:59 AM

I haven't found a need to divide anything yet. I have a Miltassia that's in a 7 inch pot. The most recent blooming gave me about 20 flowers on 4 spikes. It was quite a show! If it outgrows its current pot, I will have to invent a pot for it, maybe a bucket with some holes drilled in the sides... I have no intention of dividing it on purpose, but sometimes, I have found that plants will kind of divide themselves. When my B. Nodosa got knocked over by the dog, I went to repot it and it came apart into two healthy pieces that are now both throwing out new growths.