Outdoor Epiphytic Orchids for Temperate/Mediterranean Climates

[Diane56Victor]

Im really late to the party and not a very experienced grower but Im happy to add the plants I grow.

I live in South Australia, an hour South of Adelaide in a coastal town called Victor Harbor (yes the USA way of spelling harbour)

We don't get the extreme temperature highs experienced by Adelaide. They can get 37C to 45C (98.6f to 113f) sometimes for a week at a time and this is a very dry heat.

Here we get the occasional day with the high temps with the dry heat just like Adelaide but in general temps here are mid to high 20s (75f to 84f) in Summer and probably 5 to 7C (41f to 44f) in Winter.

I found a reference that said the climate here is classed as Csb by the Koppen-Geiger system, if anyone else has knowledge of this weather scale. I will look more into this K-G system myself.

I live a klm from the sea facing open hills where the prevailing wind comes from.
I grow outside under a verandah.
I grow mostly hybrids, Cyms, Dendrobium, got a couple of speciosum growing from cuttings, but they are very slow.
Cattleya, Oncidium Alliance, Sarcochilus, Epidendrum and Tolumnia.
My Sarcs are in a Leca type media which Im planning to change as I feel they dry out too quickly. The rest of the above are in either medium or small bark.
Apart from the Cattleya, which are not big enough to flower yet, everything else has flowered outside.
I have deflasked Tolumnia, mounted them and they are hanging outside. Last night was 9C overnight. So far Im really happy with the way they are growing, they have new fans so hopefully there are new roots behind the moss.

[Fredmax]

Originally Posted by Diane56Victor

I have deflasked Tolumnia, mounted them and they are hanging outside. Last night was 9C overnight. So far Im really happy with the way they are growing, they have new fans so hopefully there are new roots behind the moss.

I'm happy to hear a Tolumnia can handle the SA outdoors, I thought our cool nights wouldn't agree with them. I might try popping one of mine in the shadehouse and see how it goes along with the Onc intergenerics I'm experimenting with.

I'm actually doing the opposite in moving my Sarc's into leca after seeing Kevin Western's nursery and all of his growing in that media (and nearly losing one I bought at a show to root rot).