Maxillaria Sanguinea

[Roberta]

For a warm-growing Maxillaria (that lends itself to growing indoors) check out Max. richii. Blooms multiple times a year, flowers are a sort of dusty rose color, with bright-yellow lip. fairly unusual color. Flower size about 2 cm. I have found it to be really robust (in my GH)

[Clawhammer]

Originally Posted by avian

Check out Maxillaria gracilis (cerifera). It's one of the small Maxillaria. It does well outdoors at least for me in So. CA. Range of temperatures for this one is cool to hot and can generally tolerate extremes. Last year it bloomed with one flower but this year there were eight little flowers.

Is gracilis fragrant?

---------- Post added at 12:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:47 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Roberta

For a warm-growing Maxillaria (that lends itself to growing indoors) check out Max. richii. Blooms multiple times a year, flowers are a sort of dusty rose color, with bright-yellow lip. fairly unusual color. Flower size about 2 cm. I have found it to be really robust (in my GH)

I ordered one of these from Ecuagenera last week Glad to see your endorsement

[avian]

Originally Posted by Clawhammer

Is gracilis fragrant?


---------- Post added at 12:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:47 PM ----------



I ordered one of these from Ecuagenera last week Glad to see your endorsement

It is supposed to be but I didn't smell anything.

I have a richii but mine is not doing very well. It's indoors but not in a greenhouse. Maybe it would do better in one?

[Roberta]

I would expect it to do OK in the house. Maybe it doesn't like the lower humidity, temperature and light should be about right - it is a fairly low-light plant. I grow mine in a plastic basket with sphagnum, it gets watered every other day so stays pretty wet,

[avian]

Originally Posted by Roberta

I would expect it to do OK in the house. Maybe it doesn't like the lower humidity, temperature and light should be about right - it is a fairly low-light plant. I grow mine in a plastic basket with sphagnum, it gets watered every other day so stays pretty wet,

Mine is in a plastic pot with sphagnum. I actually reduced the number of times I was watering per week because I felt it was being overwatered. I was considering moving it into a bark mixture but maybe I should just leave it as is.

[SG in CR]

From what I understand it grows wild on the east side of Costa Rica at low to mid elevations. So in nature it would have a 2-3 month period (feb-april) with reduced humidity and rainfall. That dry season is variable there with neither a month or two of no rain nor occasional rains all year long not being unheard of. I have one in my garden that gets watered whenever my potted plants seem to need water and it's doing fairly well blooming more with each year.

Even with M. tenufolia I don't think a strict dry rest is necessary as I just got a big plant this year from a lady who waters all her orchids whenever more than 2 days without rain pass. When I asked her if she had the Maxillaria that smelled like coconut she gave me a huge chunk just because it's growing so fast for her that she need to make some space.