Gongora catilligera culture in Singapore

[boonboon]

Hi everyone, this is my first post in Orchid Board and I am very impressed with the quality of information found in this forum. Kudos to all.

Some self introduction. I am from Singapore and My first name is Boon Kiat. You can address me Boon in short if you find it too cumbersome to address me in full. Kiat is not my last name as it is common for Chinese to have two names as our first name. My last name is Tan and to confuse you further, our last name or commonly known as the family name is placed in front. Thus my full name is Tan Boon Kiat.

Recently the 20th World Orchid Conference was held in Singapore at Marina Bay Sands during the period 13th - 20th Nov 2011 and I bought myself an early Christmas present consisting of a Gongora catilligera, a Coryanthes macrantha, Coryanthes leucocorys and a Stanhopea annulata. These orchid genera are hard to come by in this part of the globe and we are usually swarmed with the common ones like Dendrobium, Vanda, Phalaenopsis and Cattleya.

I have a query on Gongora catilligera. Queries on other genera will come shortly. It is labelled as warm growing and I learned from this forum that Gongoras adores very high humidity in shade. As the daily temperatures of Singapore fluctuate between 24-33 deg C and the night temperature will never go below 23 C for the past 40 years, do you think I could grow and even bloom it in Singapore? I have a friend who manage to bloom Gongora quinquenervis in apartments. The relative humidity of my balcony is around 74% and with the monsoon rains lately, it has spiked to 95% for the past few days. Are the cultural requirements of catilligera similar to quinquenervis?

Thank you for your kind attention and advice.

[Bud]

Welcome and Hello ! Sit back, relax and read postings from some of our members where you can glean precious knowledge on how to care for your orchids based on their wealth of experience...post pictures of some of your blooms...and give joy to others
Be thankful your name is not in latin as orchids have...its even harder to spell...

[Paul Mc]

I am not sure about your particular Gongora, but I know mine stays inside year round except for those rare days and nights when the temperatures are not very mild (stay between 60 and 75 degrees F). It seems to be very sensitive to extreme temperatures outside of that range.

Again, this is for my particular Gongora and not for yours.

I would suggest that you research online using the full name of your Gongora to see what other websites have to say about this particular orchid. Of particular interest might be the Kew Garden's in Europe and IOSPE listings.

If you can at least find where people say it is found in nature, then you can do some research on the weather for where it is found naturally. Based on that research, you will need to simulate the environment to the best of your ability.

[WhiteRabbit]

Glad you found us!

[Zoi2]

Hello and welcome!
Your Gongora catilligera has a cool flower and I hope you get it to bloom for you. I didn't find much about it on the internet but Ecuagenera has a bit of info here:
Gongora catilligera -
Joann

[Manfred Busche]

Hi Boon.

I have been to Singapore many times, and I have grown Stanhopeinae under Singaporean conditions in Indonesia,
not on a balcony though ...

The Coryanthes plants you have bought need more light than the others, and I remember a query placed on this
forum by a country-man of your's titled 'Understanding Coryanthes' ... you might look that up for starters.

All Stanhopeinae plants need much more fertiliser than Dendrobium and Phalaenopsis plants.

Are the plants you have bought seedlings or adults ?

Cheers , Manfred.

[euplusia]

Hello Boon,
Mario Portilla from ecuagenera gave me a plant of Gongora catilligera two decades ago. It is easy to grow. Now I have several divisions that flower year round. The given temperature range seems suitable.
I give bright indirect light and place them besides my cattleyas. And your humidity is high enough, do not enhance it. To my experience a rest period is not needed.
I also grow the Andean Stanhopea annulata over the years. It likes to stand cooler, 14 to 20 degrees Celsius, but never flowered again. Now I´ll try to fertilize more in the next summer.
I have much more success with Stanhopea grandiflora, which comes from Barlovento, the Caribbean coast of Venezuela. This plants want higher temperatures, same like you mentioned. There is only one point: If you water too much, they go on growing and the flower spikes dry out.