Masdevallia veitchianna - Quick snaps April - October

[Paul]

Gorgeous flower, Rosie! And a truly impressive set of roots!

[Tindomul]

Wow Rosie!!! You know what you are doing with this one. Gorgeous plant. Pics are good I think.

[Bud]

I am envious, I do not have this kind of plant...I am still scared to grow it because I might kill it...but it is a very beautiful flower...dont worry about the spikes...theres more left on the plant and you have cut flowers in a vase...

[RosieC]

Thanks everyone.

Unfortunately the ones in the vase are dying, but the plant still looks wonderful with all those remaining spikes.

I don't feel like I know what I'm doing growing this one. But it seems happy so I have to assume I'm doing something right

[RosieC]

Took some more pics today, but because the flowers have curled back on themselves a lot, and because all the spikes turn different directions, they don't really show how nice it's looking.

The final buds have now opened and it has 7 flowers, although one is on it's way out. It had 11 spikes either in flower or bud at it's height this year. I just love this orchid



The second two pics show it moved back into the newly bubble wrapped greenhouse (part of this weekend's task to get it ready for the winter).

[silken]

Wow, is it ever showy! Great growing.

[greenpassion]

To all of you who grow masdevellias! I want to try these, but I need to know a few things. Will they flower in lower light, as phals do? Do I pot them in a bark mix, or spag moss? And I have limited space, so how tall / big do they get? I'd like a mini, but is there any such thing? The photos are stunning. I do oil paintings from photos of my plants, and I'd sure love to begin one of these beauties!!

[Vanda lover]

I have one called Andean Prince that got it's first flower. The stem broke on it, so I'm really hoping that it gets more soon. The last masdie I owned wasn't such a tall type.

[RosieC]

I grow in sphag and they seem to like it. I grow most other types of orchids in bark or lecca but the plurothalid alliance ones like these seem to prefer moss.

This plant is quite small and compact when not in flower but has very long tall flower spikes. There are other really quite mini masdevallias, but they can have tiny tiny flowers if they are true minis so it all depends what you are looking for.

This can grow in lower light than I grow it in and could probably be the same as Phals. I find it grows more compact in high light and when I first bought it had much longer leaves and I'm told that's from lower light. I probably grow mine too bright but it seems OK with it.

The main culture issue with Masdevallia's is temperature and humidity. In general they like low temps and high humidity. This one likes to go down to 5C in the winter and I aim to keep it no more than 20C at all times but it can be difficult in the summer (15C is better). That's where the clay pots come in as the evaporation helps cool the roots and helps them cope with higher temperatures.

Humidity should be as high as you can get it but with some air movement. Another reason I grow them in the greenhouse not the house.

[Vanda lover]

I'm glad you mentioned the leaf growth. Mine looks very healthy with normal growth, so I guess I have the right light. I agree with you about the sphag in clay pots. I set my plant which is potted in sphag in a clay pot in to a larger clay pot with clay pellets in the bottom. Then I set that in a dish of water. It really works well for increasing humidity while the evaporation drops the temperature considerably.