Bulb. gracillimum

[Hawaiian Sunshine]

Originally Posted by gnathaniel

Wow, great picture Mel! I love this species but I've found it hard to photograph. Have you found this one to always be a winter bloomer?

--Nat

Hi Nat. Thank you for your comment. Like you indicated, it is a challenge to photograph these, especially if you want to show the inflorescence and the plant in one shot. This is the first time that the plant has bloomed since I got it. Hopefully, it will bloom more than once per year. The plant is an extremely slow grower.

[gnathaniel]

Originally Posted by Hawaiian Sunshine

Hi Nat. Thank you for your comment. Like you indicated, it is a challenge to photograph these, especially if you want to show the inflorescence and the plant in one shot. This is the first time that the plant has bloomed since I got it. Hopefully, it will bloom more than once per year. The plant is an extremely slow grower.

My biggest challenge in photographing these blooms has been simultaneously getting the detail, color, depth of field, and exposure to come out looking right. Your picture is definitely one of the better photographic representations I've seen of this species.

My larger gracillimum has bloomed several times for me during the fall and winter, and it's only got 8 pseudobulbs so far. It just finished the most recent bloom a few weeks ago. I'm suspecting it's primarily a fall-winter bloomer, but I'm holding out hope that it will throw another spike in time for my orchid society's spring show at the end of March. What could be the blooming cue if these follow a similar schedule in both HI and NC? Day length? Nighttime temperature drop? I wonder if these bloom during southern hemisphere winter when they're grown there? This species has a fairly wide natural geographic range that I think is trans-equatorial (though tropical enough that day length probably stays fairly constant year-round); it would be interesting to find out if they all tend to bloom in the same months in the wild... Anyway, thanks for posting your picture!

--Nat

[calvin_orchidL]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but my b. gracillimum is spiking now, except one of the 2 spikes essentially shriveled before fully opening. Not sure if these are very transient bloomers, or my humidity was just too low, but I'm hoping to be able to catch the second spike before it dies!

[gnathaniel]

Originally Posted by calvin_orchidL

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but my b. gracillimum is spiking now, except one of the 2 spikes essentially shriveled before fully opening. Not sure if these are very transient bloomers, or my humidity was just too low, but I'm hoping to be able to catch the second spike before it dies!

Hi Calvin, I sometimes have the same problem with cirrho-type bulbos. Spikes will start strong and then wither about halfway to blooming. I haven't really been able to pinpoint a cause, though it happens more often with certain plants than others.

I suspect that some combination of cool temps, too much or too little water, or some other stress to the plant is involved. Some species also seem sensitive to the spike getting wet as it develops. Ultimately I don't really know, though, and gracillimum isn't one that's been problematic this way for me... Sorry I can't be of more help!

--Nat