Appendicula Elegans blooming

[CourtneyT]

The Appendicula Elegans I received from a Thai nursery in February 2018 is blooming right now. After I got it, I placed it on the shelf by a north facing window (the biggest and brightest light source at home) and gave 7 hours of additional light with a LED growing light in the winter and extended to 8 hours in April.

In February and March, the humidity in that room was about 70% because I didn’t open any window. The temperature was around 57F at night and 63F during the day. I watered about once a week or when the moss started to get dry. It started to lose a bunch of leaves, especially at the tip of each branch. I thought it was caused by the stress during long shipping and the not so good growing environment I provided.

After daylight saving time was changed and the weather finally got warmer, I kept the window open and the humidity dropped to 50%. The temperature is around 70F during the day and 65F at night now. I water about twice a week.

The plant is in an one inch plastic pot. I placed it in a two inch clay pot to stabilize it and keep it from drying out too fast. It started to bloom in May. The flowers are very tiny. Each flower is about 6mm tall. The opening of the flower is about 3mm wide and faces down. More buds are forming now on the tip of each branch where the leaves were lost.

I don’t see much information about this species on the Internet. So hope my experience can help someone in the future.

Also, my Dendrobium hancockii from Andy’s Orchids is blooming for the third year. Very tough plant. It experienced two moves with me and can bloom when I growed it by a south facing window, by a west facing window, and by a north facing window (with some supplemental light).