Sophronitis cernua (Project 14 - Spring 2012)

[The Mutant]

Woot! By pure accident since I got home earlier than expected from work, I was at home when the delivery from DHL came! So I now have my little project plant and a rather sad looking Phal stuartiana (man, I'm not supposed to have one, am I?). They both came mounted so I'll have to get them off their mounts and into pots today. At the moment they're both taking a little Superthrive bath so they'll come lose from the mounts easier.

Both of them have ugly looking spots and mechanical damages - especially the stuartiana so I don't think I'll order from Orchids & More in the future. Besides the spots the cernua looks okay I suppose, I've NO idea how they're supposed to look after all.


The leaves are firm and it has some new roots growing too.

Here they are before repotting (I'll up some pics later when they're repotted):

[camille1585]

Nice ones! I'm no Soph expert, but either you have a plant with unusually large growths, or that's not Soph cernua. The plant looks rather more like a Soph wittigiana or coccinea for instance....

[The Mutant]

Originally Posted by camille1585

Nice ones! I'm no Soph expert, but either you have a plant with unusually large growths, or that's not Soph cernua. The plant looks rather more like a Soph wittigiana or coccinea for instance....

Whut?! I don't have the project plant???? Which are the growths? The bulbs or the leaves or both?

Hmm, they're not really nice - I had to cut off four leaves of the Soph whateveritis sue to them having these nasty looking spots on them, and the newest leaf on the stuartiana has a very nasty spot too, which I really can't do anything about.

[camille1585]

I'm not saying with certainty that it's not the project plant, but the growths (=bulb +leaf) seem uncharacteristically large to me. But it could equally be that the rest of us have somewhat young plants (and they are known to bloom on quite small plants), while yours may be a division of a very mature plant.
Like I said, don't take my word for it!

[Wynn Dee13]

Mutant- your cernua looks fine. I wouldn't of cut any leaves off. Just because a plant has a blemish on it doesn't mean it needs to be cut off. The spots I see don't look bad. They still need the leaves. It is not a coccinea or a wittigiana. I have two of each and they don't look like that. If you pull it off the mount it might take a while to establish. I would put it in a clay pot with sphagnum moss untill it gets good roots. But I guess if it has enough active roots it might be okay. It is a nice size plant. It is also growing in quite a few directions. It will be pretty when it blooms!

[The Mutant]

Originally Posted by camille1585

I'm not saying with certainty that it's not the project plant, but the growths (=bulb +leaf) seem uncharacteristically large to me. But it could equally be that the rest of us have somewhat young plants (and they are known to bloom on quite small plants), while yours may be a division of a very mature plant.
Like I said, don't take my word for it!

Okidoki! Mine is definitely not a youngster, it has bloomed for instance and it also has nine bulbs and three growths (?) I think.

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by The Mutant

Okidoki! Mine is definitely not a youngster, it has bloomed for instance and it also has nine bulbs and three growths (?) I think.

A lot of other peoples small plants have also bloomed. What I meant is that there is a difference in size between a say, 5 bulb plant grown from seed or meristem culture, and a 5 bulb plant which is a division of a very old, large, mature plant.

[The Mutant]

Originally Posted by Wynn Dee13

Mutant- your cernua looks fine. I wouldn't of cut any leaves off. Just because a plant has a blemish on it doesn't mean it needs to be cut off. The spots I see don't look bad. They still need the leaves. It is not a coccinea or a wittigiana. I have two of each and they don't look like that. If you pull it off the mount it might take a while to establish. I would put it in a clay pot with sphagnum moss untill it gets good roots. But I guess if it has enough active roots it might be okay.

Oh, it's too late now, the leaves are already gone (it wasn't one or two spots - they had several large, sunken in and dried out spots, but on the underside of the leaves. To be honest, I think both plants are infected with something, what I don't know yet, but I don't want it on the rest of the gang. These guys are going into extreme quarantine... I'm NOT happy with them.

I don't think it's necessary to put it in a clay pot, it has plenty of roots left (I removed a bunch of old dried out or mushy ones) and several new roots growing (except those I accidentally removed when tearing up the cork mount, which had started to deteriorate).

[The Mutant]

Originally Posted by camille1585

A lot of other peoples small plants have also bloomed. What I meant is that there is a difference in size between a say, 5 bulb plant grown from seed or meristem culture, and a 5 bulb plant which is a division of a very old, large, mature plant.

Oh, I see, now I'm with you.

[camille1585]

Sorry for having freaked you out about your Soph!

The spots on it don't look bad though, unless you cut them off before the photo shoot. I'm surprised you got such banged up plants, I had heard that this was a good place to shop.