Anguloa clowesii in Phoenix

[estación seca]

I previously grew a small seedling of this plant in a 2 quart/liter semi-hydro container, set in front of an evaporative cooler.



One can find information on the Internet from people growing it much warmer than it is said to like; they report it is important to give it very high humidity and good air circulation. Mine did very well despite my summer growing room temperatures routinely in the mid to upper 80s F / 27-30C, not much cooler at night. Then a rat ate it.

In July of this year I bought one from Ecuagenera. It arrived very much larger than I expected, with two very large leaves (almost 3 feet/1 meter long) on the most recent pseudobulb, but they were damaged by heat in transit. The extensive roots system looked fine, much like Cymbidium roots (it is in the Cymbidium tribe.)

I potted it into a 5-gallon standard nursery container with 90% extra-large chunk perlite and 10% potting soil. I set it in front of the evaporative cooler, and watered well. The leaves slowly turned brown, and dropped off in early September.



I watered the plant when a chopstick inserted in the medium came out mostly dry.

This morning I had a surprise. These were not visible yesterday morning. Believe me, I've been checking.



According to IOSPE, it begins growing in late winter to early spring, and makes inflorescences at the same time as the new growth. I guess my plant is a little confused.

Those of you with space for this plant, don't be afraid of the supposed temperature requirement, so long as you can give excellent air circulation and high humidity.