Masd. Highland Fling, finally a bloom!

[silken]

Finally I have succeeded in getting a bloom from this plant. Actually this is the 2nd one but the first is finished and it bloomed in the greenhouse in hot weather so it wasn't at its best.

This has thrown over 30 spikes for me that have always blasted. The buds seem to be enclosed in a heavy casing that they cannot get out of on their own. So finally after trying misting and different environments, I have started surgically removing the sheath myself with a set of very fine, sharp cuticle scissors. As the spike grows I often have to remove a 2nd sheath as well. This has resulted in a few blooms and a few more that are nearly open. Klutz that I am I accidentally lopped off the 2nd one that would have bloomed Oh well, I get to see it.

After all the fuss, I am not sure what to think. They don't look as nice as the OrchidWiz photos. But I am hoping to grow this in a cooler more humid area eventually so I won't judge these first few blooms too harshly! It is not getting a lot of humidity now and that may be the blasting problem although I have a couple other Masdies that don't have this problem. The plant itself is robust and very much wants to bloom. It would be an awesome specimen if I could succeed with every spike. For now here is Masdevallia Highland Fling! I'll take a picture of the entire plant in a day or two when I have more time. Maybe another bloom will open by then!

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[WhiteRabbit]

Congrats! That's got to be very frustrating - hope you can get that blasting issue resolved

[silken]

Thanks! It makes me wonder why this one plant is like this. It doesn't get any special nutrients or anything.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who grows this hybrid how theirs performs.

[billc]

I don't have this particular hybrid, but I was having the same sort of issues with buds blasting. I have them in an enclosed shelving area and put a humidifier in on a timer. I have it set to run for 15 minutes every hour or so and the lowest the humidity now goes is about 70-75%. The last round of blooming was much better with very few blasts.
While you can cheat a bit on temps, I think you really need to keep your masdies at a high relative humidity. You must have excellent hand to eye co-ordination to perform the surgery you described. I can barely hold the wavering stalks still enough to squish the stray mealy bugs that occasionally wander onto them.

Bill

[camille1585]

I see a lot of potential for some really spectacular blooms if you manage to sort out the problems! The color is very nice.

[silken]

Thanks Bill and Camille. When this plant first started trying to bloom it was in one of those little enclosed greenhouses with two shelves. I had cut ventilation openings in the roof and had a large pan of water and a small fan running. My humidity gauge showed 60 to 70% humidity most of the time. I wonder at that time if the air movement was helping dessicate the bud a bit. I do grow these on the edge of their tolerance for warmth and low humidity I think so once I can arrange a better micro climate I am hoping for this problem to stop. And I hope the blooms will have a bit 'fresher' look to them!

Bill, I need reading glasses to do the 'surgery' and the odd one still blasts so I likely nick the bloom or something in the process Funny what we will do to try and get our orchids to bloom!

[silken]

I thought I would update this as the plant now has several blooms and a few more to come. There are also some shorter spikes that aren't above the foliage yet. The latest bloom is looking nicer and I see some potential for this plant. The blooms turn more orange as they age!

[ezil]

This seems to be very much a plant "with an attitude". I have a few of those myself, and I wonder if it is mainly the night time temps. that throw them off. Mine seem to be fine until we get warmer days, and in an apartment the night temps. don't fall enough. Just a thought.

[silken]

I agree-it has attitude! I have several others and because they grow in a greenhouse, they do get a good diurnal range. They should really have what I think are ideal conditions in the winter when this one was trying to bloom and failed. If anything I think it's humidity but it was getting pretty good humidity in winter in it's little house. Since then I have managed to bloom my Masd. Machu Picchu and Masd. mendozae and my caudata has 3 spikes which are getting large. All without surgical help like this one! I'm almost tempted to buy another of the same cross just to see if it acts the same! Oh well, it is doing pretty good at the moment so long as I manually free the blooms.

[camille1585]

It's looking better and better, the new pics are a huge improvement! Did you also have to do surgery to get that nice bloom?