Car ride = bud blast? (Phrag. Fritz Schomburg)

[Noah Arthur]

Hey everyone! I know car rides aren't a phrag's favorite thing in the world, and I'm concerned about bud/bloom blast on a long trip... My magnificent Fritz Schomburg has a huge bud that started to open up last night. It's going to be the first phrag I've ever bloomed myself; I'm so excited! BUT, I was planning to leave on a month-long trip to Ventura (7 hours' drive from Oakland) tomorrow, taking the plant with me. Would a 7-hour car trip, with all the changes in temperature and humidity that might entail, be likely to cause the bud to drop before it fully opens? If so, I can easily postpone the trip by a few days.

See attached photo of the bud, showing what stage it's at.

Thanks! --Noah

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

I thought only about 4 1/2 hours if you don't stop and you avoid rush hour?

It should be fine if it's not wobbling around to break the stem. Consider putting it in a box and filling around it with foam peanuts.

[DirtyCoconuts]

i echo the above- if you box it in cardboard with a decent fill it will mitigate the temp and movement issues and i doubt the humidity will be too hard if it is out of direct sun.

treat it like you were mailing it and it will be fine

[Roberta]

The main enemy of orchids on a car trip (after falling over...) is heat. Fortunately, I think that the weather this week is in your favor. Do protect it from direct sun. Maybe wrap the pot with some wet cloths (since sitting it in water is likely to be an issue in the car) and don't make long stops (which are an opportunity for the car to get too hot). You should be able to get the time down on the trip... unless there's a really bad accident. (Hwy 101 is slow but not THAT slow usually)

[DeaC]

I've gotten budded orchids in the mail and the really good vendors will wrap the bud(s) and stem in a cottony material as an added protection. Try this with all the other great suggestions.

[Roberta]

Also, if all the efforts fail on this bud, there are at least two more that I can see that will start opening about the time that the first one drops. (Phrag flowers tend to drop when they still look perfect...)

[Optimist]

I was thinking that maybe you shoul dpack it as though it was going to be shipped. In bubble wrap, and wrap the roots and even the flower in barely damp papertowels. I saw an orchid video where a person in one country received phrags from another country in a box like that and the phrag (Grande) had both a full flower and a bud and both survived the shipping intact.