Cym goeringii x ensifolium

[Cym Ladye]

This may be a challenge to bloom as well as to keep happy but enjoy it for the foliage. The vendor would have been the best source of what to pot it up in if you do not want to keep it in the NZ moss and have never grown one of these before. I pot mine in Orchiata bark with 10% coarse perlite in tall Asian pots and top the pot with NZ moss. I am sure there are other media to use as our members will contribute.

[AnonYMouse]

I don't think the vendor cultivates them, its not their specialty.

Really can't find useful info, I did manage to find a couple of Japanese blog references and some auctions (one seller, all about the same size as mine). They mention that these plants showed up at a 2013 show (the grand prix?). According to the blogs, they are imported into Japan from Korea. Unfortunately, I don't have any Korean name to plug into Google for a Korean search.

I did repot into LECA and Kanuma. Kanuma seems widely used for goeringii in Japan. I'll keep a close eye on it and if need be, switch to orchiata and perlite.

[Call_Me_Bob]

I'm sure you can pot it in LECA and be fine. You'll just have to find out a good time frame for watering so you get he right amount of drying. I say go for it! goeringii and ensifolium both like to stay on the wet side, at least for most of the year, so just make sure you give it enough water in the LECA...semi-hydro might even work!

At Fishing Creek, we grow goeringii in a mix of small fit bark, small charcoal, and small perlite. I've also seen them grown in straight fir bark or straight orchiata. You could really pot it in anything, just adjust your water accordingly.

Good luck!!

[AnonYMouse]

If they like moist, then Kanuma makes sense.

[RosieC]

Cute little plant!

[stonedragonfarms]

I wouldn't know why you couldn't use kanuma; I grow the bulk of my goeringii in equal parts of milled coconut fiber, perlite and turface; when I lived in Japan I would often encounter them in the bamboo groves on the hills behind my house; they were usually growing in decomposed bamboo leaves, rotted wood & whatever scree ran down the hillside (probably limestone). I just mimic our weather patterns there for watering and chilling, and let the plants do the rest; ie moist spring, wet warm summer and fall, occasional water in the winter and quite cool; they would bloom through the snow near my home there--bear in mind though, the ground never freezes where I lived, we would just get a heavy wet snow about mid february, mostly due to elevation.
Adam

[AnonYMouse]

A question for anyone growing either parents or similar hybrids:

Can I forgo the cool, dry, hungry winters for a couple of years? I'd like to focus on vegetative growth. Or does it not work that way?

As it is, I might not be able to provide the consistent cool part of the equation, living where I do. I could look into building a chiller enclosure (I'm just geeky enough with even geekier friends).

[stonedragonfarms]

I grow both ensifolium and goeringii; ensifolium will definitely take a "warmer" winter than goeringii will; being as you are not shooting for flowers, rather for vegetative growth, I don't think it would hurt anything to simply reduce the watering frequency over the winter and not chill down the plant. Don't let your media get dry, just don't water as often as you would if the plant were in active growth.
As an aside, (goeringii x ensifolium) is a registered hybrid; it is called Memoria Sophia Gouveia and was registered by Orchids Ltd. in 1993. It is also a naturally occurring hybrid which bears the moniker tortisepalum I have had this one on my benches in the past, it was a slow grower and the slugs loved it...

[AnonYMouse]

I'm curious about how they accomplished this cross as it does not resemble the two hybrids mentioned. GMO? Spontaneous mutated clone? Odd seedling?

Maybe info will be available in a few years. Or they may be a freak of nature not meant to be.

[stonedragonfarms]

I'd conjecture that they used two of the short leaved forms of goeringii and ensifolium; there is great variation among the cultivars of these plants. IE if you were to cross goeringii 'Fujikan' (very short wide variegated leaves) with sinense 'Da Mo' (one of the rabbit-ear types) I can see where you might get something similar to your plant; the cross would still be Mem. Sophia Gouveia so far as I know, as that is what the primary cross is registered as. I don't remember if variegation will breed reliably with cymbidiums though, I don't think that it will; hopefully CL will chime in, her knowledge on these things far surpasses mine. I'd say no to the GMO, I suspect these were just made using two of the myriad of weird and wonderful varieties of goeringii & ensifolium.
Adam