Good for a laugh

[Dollythehun]

I really wanted to post this in the Off Topic Forum but, it is about orchids, after all.

Three years ago I acquired a Den. Spectabile as a bag baby. Heavens did that plant grow! I inquired about it here a couple of times as it was getting so darned big. OW told me that it was close to blooming size last year...but, nary a bud.

So, its been outside and was nearly 3' tall and half as wide. Frankly, I had given up and was a little negligent in it's care. It got sunburned and had some blackened leaves. At that size, there was no room here at the inn. It had to be re-homed.

I was going to send it to SaraJean but, couldn't find a box big enough. So, my friend Mary down the road said she would take it. So I loaded it in the truck, drove it into town set it down and discovered...wait for it...TWO bud nubs! TWO! Crud!

So, now my friend Mary will enjoy the flowers. Here's my question: Isn't there a hybrid of this that is equally weird but, shorter? Give me ideas and Roberta always says "orchids teach patience." How true!

[estación seca]

I know people in Hawaii have been breeding them to get them smaller. Maybe give H&R a call and talk to them.

[Mountaineer370]

It just figures, doesn't it?!! As Walter Cronkite would have said, "And that's the way it is." I think not only do orchids teach us patience, but they just may have a wicked sense of humor, too.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Mine bloomed - only once - on a 6-inch pseudobulb. It is still with me, but has not bloomed again (yet) on pseudobulbs which are now closer to 14 inches.

[Dollythehun]

14" seems pint sized. I had a choice between my cybm and epi radicans, both bloom faithfully.

[Orchid Whisperer]

A friend has a D. spectabile which blooms pretty reliably on 2 ft long canes.

[Jeff214]

Mine's topped off around 14 inches for the last 6 canes or so. I keep getting nubs appearing but nothing ever actually grows into a spike. I've had this for 5 years now?

I also have the 'shorty' clone from H&R nurseries and that's topped off at ~8 inches. I dropped it... a couple of times... and it's suffered some massive p-bulb damage. I've had this one for 6-7 years now... and nothin.

The plants are getting a little sun burned, so I assume it's getting enough light. In the adjacent window, I have a Den. Spectabile hybrid that's flowering non-stop since April... but the mother plant... nothin.

Perhaps I need to give it away too... maybe then, it'll finally decide to spike like yours!

[Leafmite]

I love it when someone from our Orchid Society brings in an orchid I gave them that is in bloom. It happened at the last meeting.

[Paul]

3ft is nothiing. At the local shows there is one that often pops up in displays ... it is about 5ft or more -- without the spikes.

[Leafmite]

Wow. I could mount most of my orchid collection on something that large (After giving the collection another look, all of it!)