Dendrobium Stardust 'Choyomi' in flower at last

[RosieC]

I bought Dendrobium Stardust 'Choyomi' in bloom in March 2010 and never managed to get it to rebloom. It grew keikis like mad but didn't bloom.

It started to deteriorate a lot in Sep 2012 and the following May I finally realised that it was absolutely covered in spider mites In September last year I finally decided it was beyond saving HOWEVER I had already taken two keikis off before it got the mites, and I saved a further 17 keikis when I threw it away but those keikis were barely more than tiny patches of green on otherwise dead looking canes.

Miracale of Miracles, I seemed to finally beat the mites and those 17 keikis grew like mad in the last bit of last year. So I now have 19 of these, 10 of which are a decent size (for a keiki).

A couple of people here in Europe had their name on some keikis however in just the last few weeks I've spotted mites again and I'm not going to share mites with anyone, they will have to be clear a good year before I send them out because they had seemed to be gone for 3 months, then came back.

ANYWAY, the two original keikis I took flowered this year... and I know what I did differently... no fertiliser since the end of August! Otherwise treated just the same, watered regularly all winter and kept in the house. These are a primary hybrid of unicum but don't seem to want to be deciduous (parent didn't do at all well when I tried a dry winter).

Here after my rambling are the flowers

[Bud]

Such adorable flowers, Rosie! Its a primary hybrid so watering must be maintained = the rest period maybe every 10 days watering and not really withholding water entirely for the winter= holding fertilizer is a tricky move but maybe switching it to a lower nitrogen is best. Once that plant gets mites it will return even how you managed to eradicate it; you just need to be vigilant. Does it smell like crayons like the unicum parent?

[RosieC]

Now you say Crayons, yes that is what the fragrance is like. It's only faint though.

These ones that flowered are in Leca (not S/H) and I've actually been watering every 2-3 days over the winter. They seem to have liked staying damp but no fertiliser.

The mites strangely only seem to affect this plant (all the keikis of this plant) and haven't spread to the kingianum keikis I keep with them. I keep washing the leaves when I water them, rubbing my fingers down each leaf. It seems to keep them down.

[nikkik]

Gorgeous! Sorry to hear about the mites.

[WhiteRabbit]

Gorgeous!

[terracotta7]

What a fantastic color! Congrats on your blooms. Must be a very satisfying feeling to have beated those mites!

[RosieC]

Thanks everyone