I agree with Ron's comment. It's an attractive plant even without blooms. A friend of mine grows one here in the Midwest, where our winters are definitely not to the liking of any species from this genus. And he grows it indoors during the winter. His blooms ever couple of years and the spikes are amazing.
The key to success for my friend has been putting it outdoors in very bright (almost full) sunlight as soon as the day temperatures warm up above 60 F in the spring (this is lower than ideal, but as long his plant is in sunlight it does quite nicely) and try to maximize its growth throughout the summer without applying any fertilizer.
I know the idea of increasing growth without fertilizer sounds counter intuitive, but he claims that for years the plant--when fed regularly--didn't do anything but get larger. As soon as he left it in someone else's care for a full summer when his work took him overseas, that individual forgot to give the plant any food (and, from the looks of some of its leaves, probably gave it more sunlight than it was used to). When my buddy came back, the plant was showing the signs of its first spike. Ever since then he hasn't given it anything to eat, which does make me feel a little sorry for it, but it's a nice-looking plant in spite of this, so I assume its obtaining nutrients as it probably does in nature, with a base of spiky roots that capture leaves and bits of other organic debris that get trapped around its base when it's summering outdoors.
In the winter he puts it in a south-facing window and lets it dry out between waterings. He says that although the species has a reputation for needing year-round heat, his plant has done fine as long as night temperatures don't drop below 50 F (although he tries to keep it closer to the 60 to 65 F mark).
Interestingly, Hoosier Orchid (which is no longer in business) had a Grammatophyllum speciosum in its warm greenhouse for many years that was huge, with canes around seven to eight feet in height. But I never saw it in bloom. That's not to say that it didn't flower, but I went there regularly to shop for plants, and during a span of a decade I didn't ever see it in bloom, which leads me to wonder whether they may have been fertilizing it too much, or it may not have been getting as much light as it required to produce spikes.
Good luck with your new plant. It's quite nice looking as it currently is in the pot you placed it in.
Steve
Last edited by smweaver; 12-16-2013 at 09:15 AM..
|
Linear Mode
