Dendrobiums blooming, spiking, and growing

[NYCorchidman]

Good to know! I wish I had a garden or seperate sun room just for growing plants. oh, well...

Yeah, I like that book you mentioned. I saw it at the botanical garden here in New York. It's worth the money because it's got lots of info with color pictures plus thick cover! but I just read it through at the store.
maybe I will get a used one from amazon or something.

My OSF got so tall and I accidently knocked it over a few times, so I ended up trimming off the top a little.
All my other nobiles grow to be around 20''

Dendrobiums are said to be a heavy feeder, so I'm guessing feeding everyweek is fine.

For nobiles, it is very important to stop ALL fertilizer once the growth stops (not when they mature) which is around late July to August. Just to make sure all fertilizer has been washed away by August, it is recommended to stop fertilizing earlier around early July or early August at the lastest. Stopping earlier doesn't hurt at all while stopping later may be risky.

You will end up with tons of keikis instead of flowers if you forget to follow this very important factor so might as well go ahead and mark on your calendar now.

[MJSK]

I did make a note of that important point in my 'orchid journal'. I found it useful to keep a record of when I fertilized my orchids, when they grew new pseudobulbs and when the flowered for comparison from year to year.

[NYCorchidman]

Wow~ that is a great habit to get into.

[MJSK]

I have also started to take pictures each time any of the orchids I have flower as sometimes I have bought orchids that are in bud and when I get them to flower again, the color sometimes seems different. I had a beautiful bright blue breaded Iris that bloomed blue its first year but now blooms more of a purple.

I have an Epilaeliocattleya Butterfly Kisses that I have had for many years. It bloomed twice for me and finally last fall it started to bloom and through out flowers over the next several months. The flowers also seemed to be more orange than before, but I hadn't taken a picture of the flowers before.

[NYCorchidman]

Originally Posted by MJSK

I have also started to take pictures each time any of the orchids I have flower as sometimes I have bought orchids that are in bud and when I get them to flower again, the color sometimes seems different. I had a beautiful bright blue breaded Iris that bloomed blue its first year but now blooms more of a purple.

I have an Epilaeliocattleya Butterfly Kisses that I have had for many years. It bloomed twice for me and finally last fall it started to bloom and through out flowers over the next several months. The flowers also seemed to be more orange than before, but I hadn't taken a picture of the flowers before.

Different environmental factors affect diiferent plants as far as flower color change is concerned. I noticed my dendrodiums (all except for all white flowers) bloom much much darker in my new apartment. I was told it could be high light or high temperature, or maybe both that cause this darker color.
All other orchids I have are blooming in their normal color.

I'm not sure about the iris. definitely not the light or temperature as beared iris requires high light and heat to do well. maybe chemical makeup in the soil or mutation?

[flexdc]

Hey Orchidman, I just saw your dens. How beautiful and a bit envious as I can't grow hard cane dens. Well, I need to correct myself, I can grow them, I just can't make them flower LOL. The nobiles are easy, but the tropical ones are so hard for me. I think it is because it isn't hot and humid enough around here.
Anyways, yours are beautiful!
Andrew

[NYCorchidman]

Andrew- Thank you!
You are in L.A. Hard canes are just about as easy as nobiles except they don't take cool winter rest to flower. You must grow your plants outside where the winter is too cold for them then?
Just bring them inside and keep them warm all year around. Mines are all by the south window. It is rather dry here as well but they flower when the new cane matures or whenever they want to off the old canes.
so I don't think they mind low humidity that much.

I'm sure they will grow multiple canes at a time and the flower counts per spike will increase with high humidity like in South Florida.

[Anyuta]

Hi Guys!! I am reading this thread and I am so amazed by the beautiful dendrobiums photos shared... How do you guys grow them so happily blooming? Maybe you could help me figure out what is happening to my dendrobiums as it seems like I am so bad at growing them

Here is one, trigonopus, and it's flowering right now. It had 3 flowers, now left only 1. I bought it blooming from orchid show. Now this baby appears to be totally dead, and if there wasn't a flower hanging on it, I would have concluded that it made its way to heaven. But the flower is still there and I hope that maybe it's just sleeping or something? I water it once in while, letting it to go quite dry between waterings, but I don't see any new bulbs developing at all. I see some roots down there, everything else seems hollow. How can it be dormant at this time of the year?

I can't seem to post the photo here, it's not letting me... How do you post photos here? I couldn't use attachment either...

[Anyuta]

I think I was able to attach one here...

[NYCorchidman]

Originally Posted by Anyuta

Hi Guys!! I am reading this thread and I am so amazed by the beautiful dendrobiums photos shared... How do you guys grow them so happily blooming? Maybe you could help me figure out what is happening to my dendrobiums as it seems like I am so bad at growing them

Here is one, trigonopus, and it's flowering right now. It had 3 flowers, now left only 1. I bought it blooming from orchid show. Now this baby appears to be totally dead, and if there wasn't a flower hanging on it, I would have concluded that it made its way to heaven. But the flower is still there and I hope that maybe it's just sleeping or something? I water it once in while, letting it to go quite dry between waterings, but I don't see any new bulbs developing at all. I see some roots down there, everything else seems hollow. How can it be dormant at this time of the year?

I can't seem to post the photo here, it's not letting me... How do you post photos here? I couldn't use attachment either...

Hi, Anyuta,

I suggest you start a new thread your plant name and pictures so other people can easily locate it and jump in to help you out.
Dendrobiums are very diverse group with thousands of different kinds belonging to the group.
I am not familiar with your plant.
All mines are either nobile hybrid or the typical hard cane types (mostly biggibum and spatulata hybrids).