Squishy pseudobulbs on heaven scent…

[lambo1972]

Hello all! I am new to oncidiums but after reading about them I’m pretty sure I know the answer to this question but here goes…So I just got a new Heaven Scent Redolence in the mail and all pseudobulbs are soft and squishy. The entire bottom of the plant is soft and squishy. Is this plant going to die or will it perk up? Thank you for your input. Feeling frustrated that I got an orchid in the condition. Is this a result of getting frozen during shipping or how does this happen? Thanks again!

[sweta]

Could you please post some pictures? Healthy Onc pseudobulbs arent supposed to be squishy. They could turn wrinkly due to lack of water/humidity but not squishy.

[Roberta]

Freezing during shipping could certainly do that. (Where do you live? Where is the vendor located?) Either that or there is a nasty infection. Notify the seller... you need a refund or replacement. A vendor should never ship into a winter blizzard... and if temps are below freezing, at the very least the plants should be shipped with heat packs this time of year unless both you and the vendor are in frost-free areas.

[lambo1972]

I live in Alabama. The vendor in California, I think. As you can see, all pseudobulbs are shriveled. The entire plant has a sickly looking yellowish/brownish timt to it. The base of the plant and the pseudobulbs are all squishy like the consistency of a damp sponge. I have already notified the vendor by email. Thank you all again for your input…

[dbarron]

It's not immediately obvious but yes, I'd think freeze damage.
The fact that most of the US between the shipper and you have been in the deep freeze this week....yep.
I hope this doesn't scare you away from Oncidiums, I'm quite pleased with that group.

[Leafmite]

If all the pseudobulbs were frozen, it is not going to survive. Being winter, if the package was going to travel through the northern part of the US, the vendor should have included a heat pack and sent it in a way that it would have arrived before the heat pack cooled. If they did not want to risk mailing it in this weather, they should have held it until temperatures warmed. It was just stupid to ship it in any other way. Sorry for your disappointment.

I just received some orchids from Hausermann's in Chicago. There was some delay and the heat pack was barely warm but it and all the newspaper had done its job and the orchids are fine.

[Roberta]

This package didn't go north unless there was some strange routing...the vendor was in California, the OP is in Alabama. Question is, what happened in between?