Fredclarkeara After Dark 'SVO' spike watch

[Dalachin]

Gorgeous!

[Jeff214]

oh gosh, these things are huge! looks fantastic.

Do they need to get to this size to flower? I had no luck with catasetums and I gave them all away this year. They did very well during winter, but rotted during summer. Snails ate all new growths and spikes... sigh. Didn't know what to do with them.

I'm just going enjoy them at the SVO open houses near by

[JScott]

The spikes are coming along nicely on mine, although mine is quite a bit behind yours, so we will keep waiting. Yours looks amazing!

My Fdk After Dark started blooming when the pseudobulbs were about 5 inches high, so I would say no, they don't need to be particularly massive to bloom.

[Roberta]

My Fredclarkearas seem to need to get big to bloom for me. Fred Clarke seems to be able to get them to bloom on young plants... My 'Black Pearl' bloomed the first year I got it, and then skipped several years before blooming again, then skipped a bunch of years (and got large), finally in spike this year, a "coming attraction". A lot of the other Catasetinae bloom on much smaller plants.