Maxillaria tenuifolia (Project 11 - Summer 2010)

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by nenella

News
It's finally got 15 + blooms! I need to re-count them properly and take some photos...
Super scent between mid morning to mid afternoon

Congrats!!
Yes, photos, please, I'm curious to see how large yours has gotten over the years.

Mine is also blooming, but I'm not sure how many blooms yet. Everytime I count them there are new buds popping up, and this year it's about 15 so far, which is a record for me. And it smells so heavenly!!!

[nenella]

just re counted 18, but as you rightly say flowers appear without my having even seen the buds....
here are a couple pics I just took.
Would love to see yours too Camille!

[camille1585]

Our plants are quite similar! I've also counted 18 buds/blooms, a few more snuck up on me and I won't be surprised if there are a few more still to come.

I'm happy that I found the trick to get blooms: outside in full sun the entire growing season, then a south facing window the rest of the year. And plenty of water and fertilizer all year.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Well done girls.

[RJSquirrel]

yes well done..mine its still alive after all these years but after seeing them beauties Ill keep my flowers to myself..

I suffered the cold of winter the last 2 years and lost a lot of plants to 19 deg nights..plus moved 3 times...My poor orchids have racked up more miles on them than the Michelin man

Im comin back..slowly this time.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Originally Posted by RJSquirrel

yes well done..mine its still alive after all these years but after seeing them beauties Ill keep my flowers to myself..

I suffered the cold of winter the last 2 years and lost a lot of plants to 19 deg nights..plus moved 3 times...My poor orchids have racked up more miles on them than the Michelin man

Im comin back..slowly this time.

That's rough RJ, sorry about the loss. There are times I wish I would cut down on about half of mine. But then I would just lose the ones I really want.

[camille1585]

This project started 12 years ago, but I thought it was worth posting an update!! I'm fairly sure Max tenuifolia is the only project plant I haven't ended up killing (knocking on wood) and the one that was most successful for me once I figured out what it wanted.

It's a monster of a plant, currently in a 14cm pot. It's due for a repot (last one was maybe 7 years ago?) and the pot is literally bulging due to the huge amount of roots. For scale, the plant is roughly 2ft/70cm high (including pot) and close to 4ft/130cm wide (leaf tip to leaf tip).

This year I counted around 50 blooms; less than usual and mostly on one side for some reason.






I recently found the photos I took back when I got the plant. This is how small it was when it arrived!

[Roberta]

Why repot? The pot is likely irrelevant. IF you can hang it up, it will turn into a ball. Beautiful!

[WaterWitchin]

And now I understand why you keep saying you have limited growing room. You own a beast!!

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Why repot? The pot is likely irrelevant. IF you can hang it up, it will turn into a ball. Beautiful!

Iguess it could stay in the pot. Medium is long degraded so if it was a problem, the plant would have shown signs of it by now. If I repot it means going up a size, and this thing is heavy enough as it is! (7 lbs last I stuck on a scale)

Originally Posted by WaterWitchin

And now I understand why you keep saying you have limited growing room. You own a beast!!

I was a young and inexperienced grower when I got it, and had no freakin clue what I was getting myself into! And I was fully expecting to kill it before size got to be an issue. I was very very wrong about that. I'm glad I have a large apartment and balcony!