Cym. Regal Flames 'Queen of Hearts'

[SouthPark]

Hats off to the previous owner of this orchid. Definitely and obviously a Cymbidium growing expert.

I may never get this orchid (or my other 'standard' cymbidiums) to put out flower spikes due to my very tropical climate.

But will see what happens! I'll just grow this one and others like regular house plants, and give lots of sun.

Some bulbs of this plant here are quite large too. Previously growing in bark or bark/scoria mix when it arrived in the post. Now potted in scoria.

I've only seen photos of the flowers of this cultivar. It can get a nice colour - quite beautiful flowers! The cultivar is a really nice aussie hybridising accomplishment.

Also - with some luck - or maybe even some brute force strategies - I may in the future be able to post photos of flowers from this plant here. Fingers and toes crossed!






Above: A couple of nice sized onion bulbs.

[SouthPark]

I forgot to mention - the scoria is super wet due to the rain getting into the scoria bag! A substantial dry-out of this potted orchid is needed.

[Cym Ladye]

This is an outdoor plant and will NOT do well for you if treated as a house plant. It will grow soft green leaves but will never bloom. Hot tropical temps will make it even worse however. This is not considered a heat tolerant plant, meaning it will take a cool temp to instigate bloom. This may be why you are not getting blooms from your other cyms.

I am curious where you got this plant but I see you are in Australia so access to the original growers there is relatively easy for you. You are so lucky!!!

[SouthPark]

C.L. ...... thanks for your comments. I think you're right about the tropical temperatures will make it difficult (maybe even impossible) for initiating flower spikes for these sort of Cymbidium.

I purchased most of my orchids online (mainly ebay - but I make educated choices about which sellers to trust, and also fortunate that the people I purchased from are sort of well-known in the orchid communities over here - but being cautious is still a good thing for sure).

C.L. ------ fortunately for three cyms --- two Cym. Barrita Princess 'Princess' orchids, and one Cym. Valley Olympic 'Pink Perfection' (----- interesting name hahaha) .... the Princess came with flower buds and appear to almost being ready to open up their flowers - almost! Anytime now. And the 'Pink Perfection' has two confirmed spikes currently developing. So hopefully at least I'll be able to take some photos of flowers to share, even if it is a once-off thing.

Maybe in future, I can see what happens if I purposely use some carefully controlled refrigeration cycling on these orchids - just as it gets into the cool months, and see what happens. Some testing.

But definitely ----- I think that without some kind of intervening, and if these ones are just left to grow here, then chances may be slim for flower spike initiation.

I even did some google searches for standard cymbidium flowering in the tropics.

It is so 'promising' (actually very unpromising) to see absolutely zero photos of standard cymbidium flowers captured in tropical conditions ----- that's just flowers themselves, which really says something not-too-good (or pretty bad!) about the conditions for standard cymbidiums over here in my region heheh.

I envy you C.L. and others - as it looks like your conditions are favourable for these sorts of orchids! I'm new to growing Cymbidium, and was originally searching for a particular pink coloured one (LINK) and the closest one to that was mentioned by Roberta ----- along the lines of a Cym. Claude Pepper.

I think there will be Claude Pepper in Australia, but maybe elusive!

Thanks for your post C.L.!!

[Cym Ladye]

I know this is an old post, but the Claude Peppers are not known to be pink. Most are in the red shades but predominantly in what used to be called "polychrome", meaning color over color.