Restrepia cuprea 'Eichenfels'
I bought this from J and L Orchids a few months ago. I'm growing it in a warm greenhouse - not ideal, but it seems to be doing all right. I have it potted in a 2.5" clay pot. Top 2/3 of the pot is sphagnum, bottom 1/3 is styrofoam. I keep the pot inside a 4" clay pot, surrounded by sphagnum. This keeps the small pot cool and moist, so at least the roots of the plant stay cool.
It was tough to get the color right in the photographs, so I've attached a whole stack to give some idea of what it actually looks like...
Restrepias are some of the most forgiving pleurothallids - I would recommend them highly to anyone who's interested in dipping their toes into the vast pool of pleurothallidinae.
They're easy to propogate, too. Just cut off an old leaf, stem and all. Pot the stem of the leaf in sphagnum so that the base of the leaf is right at the level of the top of the sphagnum. Water the sphagnum with distilled water, rain water or RO water. Allow it to dry out just a little (1 day). Put the whole thing, pot and all, into a zipper-closed bag. Zip it shut. Keep it in bright light but out of direct sun (don't want to cook it!). Frequently, you'll get a nice new plant pretty quickly - usually up to blooming size in a year or so.
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