Good afternoon,
I was hoping for some bit of advice regarding an orchid I purchased about 2 years ago: Cynorkis purpurascens (lowiana)
I read it was very challenging to grow and since I am a hard head; I somehow convinced myself to find one...and I did
It had one big pretty leaf coming out of the middle of mostly good healthy sphag in a 4" clay pot. I was told about 2-3 years from blooming. I had looked up the plant and of course the pics are gorgeous when you find them and the pic plants all have many many leaves with them too. So I realized this will take a while with me starting only with one leaf as I mentioned.
I was instructed to keep it wet, warm, and bright.
I have yet to find any really decent info on culture.
After being very, very diligent doing this, the leaf eventually rotted away, similar to me like an Oncidium with Erwinia...and I was left a pot of sphag with this weird hairy root thing.
My neighbor offered to repot the root and keep it in her plastic tent type seed house she pops up for spring tomato seeds. I felt like, $100 in the seed house is better than the trash!
She potted it in typical Phal mix.
In 3 months she began to grow another leaf, we were both dumbfounded! In another three months it was pretty like before
Rinse repeat the above.
I was pissed. I let the dam thing sit there for two months and dry out almost completely before I could look at it. I went to throw it out and in dumping the media there was the same big hairy root thing (it's like the size of a man's index finger)
It was calling to me, kinda laughing like it won
So I decided to repot myself this time in a combination sphag/diatomite mixture in a clear plastic 4" pot.
I put it under lights next to a warm air humidifier etc.
It's been another three months...
Low and behold!
I have another pretty leaf coming out!
NOW WHAT? HELP!
can't seem to kill or bloom Cynorkis purpurascens (lowiana)
Seems to be growing like a typical Cynorkis to me.
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