Oops I won a Tolumnia Genting Pink Lady.

[PaphMadMan]

Originally Posted by snowflake311

Ok thank I have a good place for it. My only concern is my house is not that warm in winter time.

It will be an experiment .

Assuming your house doesn't usually fall below 50F at night I don't think you have to worry about not being warm enough. Any day the sun shines the plant itself will get warm even f the air is a little cool. And be especially careful about watering when it is cool and cloudy.

[snowflake311]

Originally Posted by PaphMadMan

Assuming your house doesn't usually fall below 50F at night I don't think you have to worry about not being warm enough. Any day the sun shines the plant itself will get warm even f the air is a little cool. And be especially careful about watering when it is cool and cloudy.

Awesome to hear. Your right the sun will warm them. It should be ok. I was freaking out about temp because I might have bought two. I made a bid on another one but still have a few days left on that auction.

I have learned to be careful about watering orchids. I think I will keep it in clay with little to no media. Drying out is never a problem for me when I use clay pots.

[snowflake311]

I got my plant today. It sat outside a little longer then I would have liked because my husband did not see it out there. The plant was in nice shape and the blooms looked great.

Here is the plant. I can not decide how to pot it. Here it is now. I live where our summers are dry and our winters are more humid. In the photo of the blooms you can see a chunk of wood behind it. I was thinking of mounting it on the wood with moss round most of the roots.

I have a tiny humidify right next to the plant for now and will keep it there. You can see it in the photo of the plant. I figure I can't water till morning might as well try and give it some humidity.

[terracotta7]

What a cutie! Good luck with it...I am sure with all the above advice it will fit seamlessly into your "Orchid-life" !

[katrina]

I think it'll be perfectly happy in that tiny clay for another year...maybe even two. If it were me...I'd leave it be for now.

BTW - I loved growing these but found them very difficult to bloom. Super bright light required.

[No-Pro-mwa]

So cute.

[snowflake311]

OK I got some better photos. I have one more on it's way It should be here on monday. It is in spike no blooms yet. I really hope I can keep these tiny plants happy. I just love them they are so cute.

Tolumnia_Genting_Pink_Lady by snowflake311, on Flickr

Tolumnia Genting Pink Lady1 by snowflake311, on Flickr

TolumniaGentingPinkLadyPLANT by snowflake311, on Flickr

[NYCorchidman]

I have a bunch of them, including the same hybrid you won, and mine happens to be quite fragrant, which is not a typical feature of this plant.

Anyways, some of the things I add here might be a repeat, so bear with me.

I have had tolumnias all the time but usually just for flowers and then you know. hehe

BUT! I did have a handful of the same plants for a number of years in the past and bloomed them very nicely every year (sometimes more than once a year), so I think I can say a few words with confidence.

Tolumnias are nothing different than other epiphytes.
So good drainage is a must. This goes the same for other orchids. Cattleyas, phals, paphs....
I don't understand about so much emphasis on dry by the night or they will die sort of thing people talk about on Tolumnias. From what I've seen, people kill them or do badly with them by drying them too much.

Considering most people buy Tolumnia in super tiny little clay pot which in the greenhouse gets misted throughout the day everyday. Then all of sudden, they are brought in dry home and then left to dry too much too long. the delicne of the plant quickly starts.
Small pots dry out very fast.

What I do is to keep the plant well hydrated with regular watering. This is a must or flowers and buds will dry up. Under good light, (I grow these by south facing window with sheer curtain) and good watering, plants are happy and the spent spikes will often shoot up some more flowers.
Once all the flowers are all gone, I repot them into a much larger pot. These tiny pots are usually overflown with roots all over the place and these are usually dead in dry home conditions. You can test by gently pinching them. Any dead ones will easily break off.

Anyways, I use clear plastic pots of about 3.5 in diameter and either coconut husk chips or bark chips (medium grade is what I used).

Remember water and water and water! plants are all basically water. During the warm growing season, you want to water well and grow them as big and healthy as possible. From this comes a nice large spike with many flowers.

Once they are established, they form a nice clump with mutilple spikes at a time.

I highly recommend repot the plant after flowers are gone because with the way it is (as I have already mentioned earlier and your photo is a perfect example already with all the roots all over, most of them die unless you have a greenhouse or some other way to keep the humidity high at all times , then yeah, go for it)
If you grow at home, then you will have much better luck by repotting this plant into a larger pot and allow the roots to grow stronger in enough space.


Enjoy~

[snowflake311]

Thank you for that info. I don't like the way the plant sits so low in the clay pots when there is no bark or anything. I will repot this one when it is done blooming.

I just got 2 others. I took them out of the clay pots and mounted one on Manzanita wood with Spagnum moss all around the roots. It's my first mounted plant I water it daily and have a humidifier right next to these little plants. The other one I got I planted in a small clay pot with extra room for growth. I used bark Chunks in it I am watering it daily too.

So for now I water them daily and spritz 2 or 3 times a day. I keep a humidifier on next to them too. They seem to be doing ok so far.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Thanks NY. I also find that I have to water allot of my orchids more than most people do. I have a noID phal that I water almost every day. It's in a 4 inch clay with coconut hull chips and I have been doing this for a while. It is not rotting not by a long shot.

So once again it just depends on your growing conditions.