My climate is sub-tropical which they don't like.
Hence the refrigerator trick.

Must be very disappointing if you can’t get it to flower, despite all the effort.
Could it be day length during November|December. Less daylight hours because it was in your fridge? Thinking out loud.

Possible suggesion... try for somewhat drier in fall/winter. I don't dry mine out and they bloom anyway, but I know a grower in my area who claimed that the ones that didn't get hit by the sprinklers bloomed better than the ones that did.

Yup, well Mother Nature did not cooperate this year. We had a wet and cool (for us) fall and winter this year. I grow in a shade house so it's tough to avoid the negatives when they happen. Normally the only water they see from Nov to April is my occasional watering. My plants that prefer a dry season were sorely disappointed this year. Many never bloomed, were subpar or were very late.

C'est la vie. Maybe next year.

Now flowering:

Sarcochilus Kulnura Roundup 'Multi Spot' x Kulnura Secure 'Shapely'

https://i.imgur.com/O4hV1nF.jpeg


https://i.imgur.com/bVGrP14.jpeg

My hartmannii alba "rescue" had a new growth that I thought was a basal growth at end of last year but has turned out to be a definite flower spike. Buds forming but still way immature. Hoping they make it all the way!

That’s awesome! I’m looking forward to see the hartmanii next to the fitzgeraldii.

I gave mine a lot of light, but only have one spike on a big plant this year, lame.

I had to toss that fitzgeraldii because of persistent pests. But I got another pot with the same label which has appeared to remain pest-free so far (fingers crossed). I tried keeping it indoors til end of last year when I moved it outside where all the plants seemed to be doing better. I don't think it got the optimal growing conditions and it's smaller so no spike. Maybe another year?

Your plants look so healthy. Foliage on my hartmannii doesn't look so pretty. I thought by putting it in a planter it wouldn't be in way of the workers but it still got a little rough-handled and caught some spray paint too. But if it was still happy enough to try to flower, I'll take it!

In the SF Bay area, Sarcos should do fine outside. They can even tolerate light frost for a few hours. It'll likely be much happier that way. (It likely didn't much like the warm, even temperatures of indoors) For the record, mine are running late - I'm just now seeing spikes with tight buds so it will be close to another month, I think. I had just 1, a Sarco hartmannii, that gave me one spike about a month ago. So they have found the weather pretty confusing, I think.

My fitzgeraldii looks everything but healthy. The Kulnura’s do. I had them side by side on a bench. The fitzgeraldii suffered from sunburn where the Kulnura’s didn’t.

I had mine outdoors until night temperatures dipped consistently below 10C Apparently that was enough chill to get them blooming.

No posts since March? What’s going on? I was looking forward to seeing the spring blooms.

This thread barely gets updates :-(. That being said, mine are done blooming. I can’t share more pictures.
The most recent acquisitions that I got mid winter didn’t bloom for me this year. I have to wait another 10 months to enjoy their flowers.

I don't know if it's the weird weather patterns that I've had the last couple of years, but this year was pretty "meh" for my Sarcos. I still have some buds, so there may still be some that are presentable. Here is Sarco. Kulnura Symphony, in bloom now. I showed it last year, it was more floriforous then but still nice. On the other hand, Sarco, falcatus gave me one of the best bloomings I have had, back in March. I have had really great blooms from other genera, there was something that the Sarcos didn't like. Maybe too much rain in March and April. No idea...

I do think that I showed Sarco falcatus this year (don't see it in this thread, maybe in Vandaceous). Bur for the record, this bloomed in March.

Just checked, my last post was in January...

My status remains the same. Perhaps I should just update a before and after picture of my little runts? Maybe they just don't like me. :roll:

I bought 2 to start with and they didn't do well. They needed way more water than I thought. They became a bit dehydrated, wrinkled leaves. And the fitzgeraldii suffered some sunburn. Despite it was getting the same amount of light as the cultivar.

I bought 2 more and started watering more often. I have them never dry out, almost water them like a Paphiopedilum and so far they flourish. Even the fitzgeraldii is recovering by giving me new growths.

Mine was still only in bud on Mother's Day (Sunday). Been waiting for more buds to open. For the one that has opened, to see what the blooms look like when the petals are fully open. Here it is this morning. Sarcochilus hartmannii 'alba'.

Never saw a hartmannii 'alba'. It's stunning!

I thank Carla for her generosity sharing the beauties her late husband grew/bred.

Grabbed a couple pics today of my Sarcos from the 2023 project...

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ium/Sarco2.jpg

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ium/Sarco1.jpg

Aaaand, still patiently waiting. Probably at least for another year. :yawn:

Looking really healthy and happy! Next year...:D

Repeating something Mr. Barrie told our society when he spoke to us: They water and fertilize their Sarcochilus hybrids 365 days out of each year. That means they water with fertilizer water every day. The growing area regularly gets down to nearly freezing on nights in the winter.

When I was able to keep a few alive for a while, I watered and fertilized every day. They grew a lot faster than what I'm seeing here. I couldn't keep up with the watering and they dried up and died.

The Barrita Orchids Web page is here:
Barrita Orchids, Kulnura – Barrita Orchids

There is a section on growing Sarcos. Here are extracts:
13C = 55 F.

Here it will be December/January to see blooms again.

---------- Post added at 12:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:19 AM ----------

I can confirm this. Learning that the hard way. I had my fitzgeraldii too dry, even leaf wrinkling. It is sulking for 9 months now. Luckily she is growing new keiki’s (?). Is keiki the correct name for the new growths?
I’m about to repot her again but in course bark with moss, as the others.

Indeed roots don’t rot if there is enough air. The course bark will help with that while the moss takes care of humidity.

The other three get watered almost like Paphiopedilums. Maybe even a bit wetter when I water them. They look healthy.

For me, even later - more like April/May. Maybe its the outdoor growing so it's chilly for longer, everything at my house seems to bloom later than everybody else's not just the Sarcos.

I don't think of those basal growths as keikis (which are independent plants with their own root systems). Sarcos do that too, but the basal growths share a root system with the main plant. And even though they're monopodial like Vandas, they do tend to form clumps more than grow much vertically. Or course, those clumps can make GREAT displays.

That well could be. Almost all of my plants come indoors at 10C night temp, i know all of them can take a bit lower but I don’t want to take te risk.

That means the come indoors somewhere mid Oktober/ November. Sarco’s included.

Life is tough in my back yard... but since frost is almost never (and only a few hours on those rare occasions and with warming during the day) , I can get away with it. So it affects the timing of flowering, but everything catches up eventually.

I wondered about that. Getting several basal growths since the very get-go. So this is similar to paphs and phrags, if I understand correctly? Forming a colony like they do?

Paphs and Phrags a bit different, since they grow along a stolon, sympodial growth. In the Vandaceous world, I think of Neof. falcata... definitely monopodial, but they don't grow upward very far, they make clumps instead.

Gracias Roberta. I really don't quite get the difference if they are still all connected to the main plant, but my botany skills are nil. I just knows how to grow stuff. :rofl::blushing:

Nice looking Sarcos!

Mine didn't flower either. I left it outside last fall until temps dropped dangerously close to freezing, but no spikes. Trouble is that if I put it in a sheltered spot on the balcony it sits in the shade all day. I'll have to think of a better solution for this year.

Yeah, I didn't pay enough attention to them needing a bigger temp drop last year than what they received. Thinking of sectioning off a little bit of space by hanging up a curtain so there's a chillier section I can put stuff requiring more chill than some of the others. Still having to tweak conditions almost four years later after moving everything upstairs to the sun porch and all sharing the same space. Still better than schlepping up and down flight of stairs from the former Batcave basement winter retreat!

I had them on my balcony, sheltered from rain. My balcony is on NNE. They only got late evening sun. Left them outside until 10C, then brought all of them in.
My balcony isn't shaded by trees or buildings.
Both plants flowered.

Good to know, thanks! Mine is facing NW. In the summer the covered bit gets evening sun, but in the fall nearly nothing since there's a pillar blocking it. I do have a power outlet outside so could put a waterproof grow light. Or build a mini greenhouse to put the plant in the uncovered portion that gets sun.

I have one of those foil covered "greenhouses" but secured it in case of a heavy storm. They work well. Keeps rain and most if the wind off them.
If I zip close it, I think there still is enough air movement to prevent mold etc.

I have a Netatmo outdoor unit (weather station) in the the tent and it's always about 2° warmer in it than the regular outdoor temp. The outdoor unit is calibrated.

One caveat though, sun will rise the temp in the tent quickly. That might give problems when outdoor temperatures are high already.

My plant looks great but did not bloom. I guess my wine fridge experiment failed. I'm thinking this fall I'll go to the kitchen fridge which is probably closer to the temp I need to get it to.

So educate me on this temp drop thing a little bit. You or anyone else in the know, please? It's obvious I just got them to join the project and did no reading or research. Just plopped them into SH and moved forward.

The grower I got mine from said that in the winter they need night temps around 10-15C (50-60F). Anything higher than that and there are generally few to no blooms, and he couldn't guarantee that leaving them outside just in the fall would be sufficient vernalization. I didn't think to ask him about light levels.

Well, about temperature. After I took mine indoors, I had them close to the window, almost glued them against the window pane . Temperature 14-15°C during the day.
I didn't heat that room.

I got mine from Tim Culbertson. Tim was working with Fred Clarke at the time and has since started his own business, Oceanside Orchids.

Tim advised me that, at a minimum, they needed to get down to 40F every night for at least 2 weeks in November to bloom well. As the temp where I am hardly ever goes below 60F even in the dead of winter, I tried popping it into the white wine (45F) section of my wine fridge every night for a month.
I guess this year I'll go the my regular fridge which I can set to get down to 40 and we'll see if that's what does it.

I just started a bit higher than he suggested because the 40 kind of scared me a little. Plant looks great after spending 30 nights at 45 so I feel safe now going down to 40.

I had also asked him about what to do with it during the day and he said to just put it where I normally grow it during the day. If I was growing it warm, the better temp differential it would provide. Because m winter is warm, that was another reason I wanted to start at a little higher night temp than he suggested. So now the question becomes, is it the bottom temp that matters or is the the total degree drop that matters?

Hey, this project is an experiment, right?