Schoenorchis fragrans

[Dirtmonkey]

Another favorite miniature species. This one bloomed twice last year, a month or two apart. Two spikes the second time. It survived absolute neglect in a dark dry place for several months with a "plantsitter", and only lost a few lower leaves. It was completely shrivelled, but plumped right back up after a good soak. I expect it to look like these pictures from last year again, soon.

Like all my other miniature species, it's grown under overdriven fluorescent shoplights in a plastic storage box, left slightly open. They did best about 6-8" under the tubes, with a translucent plastic lid over them. I had it set to 12 hour days.

These were just pictures for my own records, I wasn't careful about staging or cleaning off old leaves first... unfortunately these are the best focus I got that time.

I don't remember ever catching any fragrance

Vincent

[Marissa]

Wow, definitely new addition to my wishlist. May I know where you got this little beauty?

[Dirtmonkey]

Hi Marissa;

One great thing about growing under lights is that the tags are still readable years later... but the grower didn't put their name on this one.

I'm almost sure that it was an eBay purchase. I remember it came as a young NBS with tags and mounting identical to Oak Hill's, but without any vendor ID on it.

I'll be looking for more myself soon, I want to have a natural looking display with a small group of them.

[cowboy51278]

I would like to say that it was probably an ebay vendor with the screen name shermantp. He has the same tags as Oak Hill and has some nice stuff on ebay and has some odd species on a regular basis. He has gotten lots of my paychecks. Great guy to deal with!

[Becca]

Wow those blooms are soooo tiny! Congratulations!

Marrisa, You can purchase this cutie through Andy's Orchids at Andy's Orchids - Orchid Species - Orchids - Species Specialist - Orchids on a stick. That is where I purchased mine, I have had it for a year and no blooms, just a lot of new leaf growth, and a new fan, so I guess I can't complain....I just wish I new what I could do to get it to bloom. I grow in a terrarium with T5 lights and I have it hanging about 6 inches from the lights. The tag reads that it likes to be dry for watering, it is mounted, perhaps I am giving it to much water?

[calvin_orchidL]

Really cute! I have the same situation as Becca - mine is under a lot of light (purple leaves...moved it a little lower recently) with lots of new leaf and root growth, but no flowers. Becca - mine gets bone dry in between watering, so I don't think moisture or lack of it is a cause for no blooms. Any ideas?

[camille1585]

That is such a little cutsie!! And it is unbelievably small, it makes the hand holding it look gigantic!
Do the flowers last a long time?

[Dirtmonkey]

I wouldn't say the flowers last a very long time, but since this one re-bloomed almost immediately, I had flowers for probably 6-8 weeks.

The only thing I can think of I do very differently is that I rarely and irregularly fertilize, using very dilute solutions, and my watering habits were/are spotty at best.

Even though my orchids dry out pretty often, I do hang them in a vented plastic storage box, so the humidity stays higher than open air most of the time.

Vincent

[cb977]

Very nice, Vincent!

This is one of my favorite minis...it's just adorable

[Becca]

Originally Posted by Dirtmonkey

I wouldn't say the flowers last a very long time, but since this one re-bloomed almost immediately, I had flowers for probably 6-8 weeks.

The only thing I can think of I do very differently is that I rarely and irregularly fertilize, using very dilute solutions, and my watering habits were/are spotty at best.

Even though my orchids dry out pretty often, I do hang them in a vented plastic storage box, so the humidity stays higher than open air most of the time.

Vincent

Mine dries out completely by the end of the day and is in high humidity as well. Perhaps I will try to fertilize it less.