I received a bare-root Peristeria elata in late July from Ecuagenera. It cost $22 before handling and shipping. It was the tallest plant in the very long box, with two leaves more than a meter long. The largest pseudobulb is the diameter of a tennis ball. It has the stump of a spent inflorescence.
Unfortunately the box got hot in transit. This and other plants showed heat stress. The two leaves rapidly browned and dropped.
I have grown this before. It is a very sturdy, hard-to-kill plant. It is normally deciduous each winter during its dry season. Several people have written in various blogs that the plant will not flower without a completely dry winter. However, if watered all year, it will continue to grow all year. I would recommend people water smaller, not-blooming-size plant all year, so they get to blooming size faster. Then you can give them a dry winter, let leaves drop, and wait for spring flowers.
It grows to be very large, very rapidly, and doesn't do well underpotted. It requires a proportionally larger pot at each stage of its growth than its relatives, standard Cymbidiums. I would not expect flowers until the pot is, at a minimum, 8"-10" / 20-25cm in diameter, and very much larger is better.
I planted it into a standard 5 gallon / 19 liter nursery container. The mix contains mostly #4 size (extra large) perlite, with a little potting soil. You can't see the large perlite in the photo. I topped it with a layer of 50:50 small horticultural perlite and potting soil. The largest pseudobulb is the oldest, so I potted the plant with the newer pseudobulbs toward the center. The root mass prevented me from nestling the old pseudobulb against the pot.
Peristeria elata is a tough plant
Linear Mode
