Help! Den. Nobile how to give proper winter rest and Break the Ice!

[emg53]

I bought 8 den nobiles in dec 2014. They came with lots of buds and flowered beautifully. All of them are full of buds now and a few are starting to bloom. For what it's worth here is what I did with them this past summer. They were grown outdoors in almost full sun and watered twice a day. It does get to 95F here everyday for 4 months. I stopped watering in late Aug but they still got rained on. I also stopped fertilizing. They starting putting out their buds long before the temps got below 60F. This really surprised me. I make sure they get well watered once a week. They will be blooming for months since some canes have buds ready to open while others are just forming even on the same plant. I have one plant that has the buds just forming and 7 new canes starting.

My best grower is Country Girl. Last year after it bloomed I divided it into three plants. Each has grown into full size plants. One is blooming now, another has good size buds and the third has young buds. All from the same plant, all grown under the exact same conditions but all will be blooming at a different time. Thats the great thing about orchids they do what they want.

[NYCorchidman]

Well, these are hybrids, not nobile technically, but what make up their genetic background are mostly those species that take "chilling" as a cue to make flowers.
While there can always be some odd individuals among the group, this is not your typical "nobile" behavior at all.

I find the flowering habit of your Country Girl or whatever the other 8 varieties are, very odd.

Do you have names of those other varities you have?
There are a few that does flower well over 60s, Fancy Angel 'Lycee' being one of them.

You mentioned that they bloom for months.
How many months?
Typically once open, and unless temperature is too warm, these flowers can last good two months and over.
The fact that they are flowering continuously over some months as you say, something is definitely not right.
They will grow during the hot rainy summers, and then once the temperature cools off, they shed their leaves and get ready for "winter". Depending on the hybrids, either during the winter or near the end of the winter when the temperature begins to rise, they make buds.
Once it is warm enough for the type, the buds develop into flowers.

Given the temperature swing in the late fall and during the winter in Florida, certain varieties might behave strangely?

Whatever is the case, this is very not normal.
but it is good that you get to enjoy the flowers.

My Dendrobium Oriental Smile 'Fantasy' kinda does this strange thing. I think it is due to the improper temperature cues confusing the plant.
Here's why.
When I had this plant in the unheated cold room in the winter where both the day and night temperature was only slightly warmer than the temperature outside, which made it an ideal wintering locations for this plant, they would always bloom in the early spring. Only once but a spectacular show as these plants should.

Then now this poor plant is living on my windowsill where the winter lowest at night is barely 65F if lucky. Then the day time temperature is even worse. Simply too warm when the sun is out.
This plant will bloom any time other then the heat of summer now.
I have noticed it still sort of responds to the temperature fall, but since the day temp is too high all year around, and the night time low is not maintained long enough, the flowering is just not good.
It usually blooms around late fall with just a few flower here and there, and once again in the dead of winter or spring.
It is not in bloom with five spikes spread over three different canes.
I miss the old glorious day of this plant, but I'm happy to see some flowers.

[emg53]

NYCorchidman, I have read a lot of your posts about the den nobiles over the past year and I learned quite a bit from them. So I thank you for that. I know my den nobiles are acting strangely. I really think it has to do with the 6 months of temps up into the 90's. Here is the list of the hybrids I have:
Den. Comet King ‘Akatsuki’
Den. Love Memory ‘Fizz’
Den. Fancy Yellow
Den. Lucky Angel ‘Smash’
Den. Wave King ‘Akebono’
Den. Fancy Angel ‘Lycee’
Den. Country Girl ‘Warabeuta’
Den. Yellow Paney ‘March’

These all came from Yamamoto in Dec 2014. They had all their leaves on them and a lot of buds. I transplanted them all after they finished blooming. The country girl was the first to bloom in early Jan and was one of the first to bloom this year too.

My oriental smile was bought from a local nursery and and it is not doing too well. It didn't grow any new canes this past year and has given me a lot of keikis. It has two flowers open right now and will have some more open soon. I'm afraid the constant growing here in Florida may be detrimental to the plant.

The fancy yellow is starting to put up 9 new canes plus all the new buds on the older canes. I'm not sure these plants can sustain that kind of growth. Only time will tell. In the mean time I will enjoy all the flowers.