My three bargain Bulbos

[voyager]

These are the three I mentioned awhile back in another post in another forum here.


Left to Right:
Bulb. dearei
Bulb. lobbii Kathy's Gold
Bulb. grandiflora Keith's Gift

I have mounted them on 8" rafts.

I covered the rafts with sphagnum moss, and the plants' "rhizomes" also, leaving the leafs of the new growths sticking out of the moss.

Two of the leaves on the new growths of B. grandiflora turned "watery", dried up and died!

One of the leafs on B. lobbii began to do the same, turning "watery" where it exited the moss.

I must be doing something wrong!

I remounted them.
This time placing them on top of the moss with the "rhizome" uncovered.
The "watery" leaf on B. lobbii is still a bit discolored, but has dried out and appears to be saved.
Confirmation will be if it's still alive tomorrow.

B. dearei and B. lobbii have several new growths started.
B. grandiflora has just one left that I can find.
I'm hoping for more to show in the near future.
It may be the skunk of the family, but I still want to see it flower.
Any advise on Bulbo cultivation?

[katrina]

Nice!

I don't grow too many of them anymore...simply because most got way too large for my space...but I still love them.

As for culture...IME, they love their water. I grew the majority of my larger ones in net baskets, lined w/sphag, leca filler in the bottom, and a chunky mix that included CHC...and I sat them in saucers of water. Some just had the leca in the bottom and only sphag and sat in saucers of water. It was sort of a play on semi-hydro. I grew a few mounted because they liked it a bit drier but most were water hogs.

Also, I found that most appreciate quite a bit more light than I originally thought when I first started growing them. The ones that you picked up should be very happy w/ the low end of catt light...good air flow and frequent watering.

Great looking plants you chose and in time I would expect them to completely envelop those plaques.

It's a fun group and many actually smell really nice. Of course, the stinkers can be even more fun when you can surprise an unsuspecting friend..."here, smell this one". XD

[voyager]

Thanks katrina.
They were in 4" wood baskets that were pretty rotted out.
These 8" rafts have 4X the surface area yet look almost as if they're getting overgrown and need to be remounted soon.
Maybe I'll have to move them up to 12" rafts before too long.

[katrina]

I wouldn't worry about removing them...some of the prettiest bulbos I've ever seen were allowed to completely cover the basket/mount. Many seem to bloom better when they get to be a massive clump of a plant.

[Brooke]

Follow Katrina's advice. All three of the Bulbos you purchased enjoy as much light as your Catts and they love being wet.

Here is my lobbii 'Highjack' CCE.

Bulb lobbii 'Highjack' CCE-AOS LUR_4443 by kentucky4, on Flickr

Eventually it was divided with an electric saw, divided into five pieces, and it never missed a beat. Root disturbance did not offend this plant because it is this same size again.

Here is my grandiflorum as a youngster. Another easy to grow and bloom Bulbo.

Bulb grandiflorum LUR_5335 by kentucky4, on Flickr

Here is my dearei - I no longer have it because it was outgrowing a 12" and the distance between the pbulbs made for a very hard to deal with plant. Growing it where you live wouldn't be a problem.

Bulb dearei LUR_5229 by kentucky4, on Flickr

Brooke

[katrina]

Originally Posted by Brooke

Follow Katrina's advice. All three of the Bulbos you purchased enjoy as much light as your Catts and they love being wet.

Here is my lobbii 'Highjack' CCE.

Bulb lobbii 'Highjack' CCE-AOS LUR_4443 by kentucky4, on Flickr

Eventually it was divided with an electric saw, divided into five pieces, and it never missed a beat. Root disturbance did not offend this plant because it is this same size again.

Here is my grandiflorum as a youngster. Another easy to grow and bloom Bulbo.

Bulb grandiflorum LUR_5335 by kentucky4, on Flickr

Here is my dearei - I no longer have it because it was outgrowing a 12" and the distance between the pbulbs made for a very hard to deal with plant. Growing it where you live wouldn't be a problem.

Bulb dearei LUR_5229 by kentucky4, on Flickr

Brooke

See what I mean...Brooke's bulbos are massive and DROP DEAD gorgeous!

Brooke...
BTW - I can see why you got a Cultural award on that lobbii- stunning!

[voyager]

Brooke, you have turned my mild curiosity about the Bulbos into a burning flame!

So, another question:
Recently, I've read that some orchids like to grow vertically while others prefer to grow horizontally.
Growing vertically never seemed to be a problem for any of the orchids I kept before now.
Anyway, I've tried to mount most of my Oncidium and Odonto types so they can grow horizontally in the trees, as that looked to be their preferred orientation.
I've noticed that mine were in baskets [horizontal], Brooke's B.lobbii is in a basket, Katrina's description also implied a horizontal orientation.
Is it likely these Bulbos might resent being mounted vertically?

[Brooke]

Some Bulbos do grow vertically and the lobbii pictured is a good example of it growing vertical and horizontal at the same time. You can see at the top of the growth are many leaves and spikes but you can also see on the two sides there is new growth there too.

The grandiflorum and the dearei both grow horizontal.

I can't give you a blanket answer for all Bulbo but when you receive a plant, if the pbulbs are on top of each other you have your answer.

For me the hardest to contain are the ones that send blooms from the rhizome because the pbulbs grow very far apart.

Brooke