How to grow Dracula spp.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by TexasTim

Can you share some of the sources you used for your research? Thanks in advance.

You mean the elevations and temperatures?

The elevations and basic collection info you can look up on sites such as Jay's Internet Orchid Encyclopedia, (Internet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia), or Epidendra, (THE GLOBAL ORCHID TAXONOMIC NETWORK). I believe OrchidWiz has them too, but you have to purchase the computer database. You may also purchase Charles and Margaret Baker's Culture Sheets, (Orchid Culture -- Charles and Margaret Baker). The Bakers have since passed on, but Troy Meyers from the Meyers Conservatory still keeps that up and running.

Books…I don't own a lot of them, but I know they're out there. Some of them will have the collection info, (these books are hard to find, but they're around).

You can then research the country and region, (if any of the sources I mentioned reveals the specific regions the plants come from), and/or do an elevation search and you'll get your temperatures and rainfall in some instances. The search can be done on your favorite search engine such as Google or Yahoo, it doesn't matter.

If you're somehow able to pull up info on the orchids themselves through random scientifically published journal articles, that's also a good way to learn. I just wouldn't count on a whole lot of these being available. If you do find one, it'll have absolutely nothing tying it to cultivation techniques whatsoever. It'll most likely be some basic collection info, nothing terribly detailed sometimes. Sometimes, they're ok with the details.

The humidity, I measured with my own meter. I know it drops to 50% outdoors at times, and sometimes during the night, it can also climb up to 90%.

I also have thermometers where the orchids are growing.

Cultivational techniques were pulled from the nursery grower's experience, and from personal experience. Oh, and one thing about some of these nursery people/orchid vendors…they either used to collect from the wild when times and laws were very different from what they are now, and/or they have visited the orchids in their natural habitats at one point in their lives. Some of them know what they're talking about, they just don't always make it known they do. I know Andy Phillips from Andy's Orchids has been to these wilds before.

Look on Flickr for people's photos of orchids in the wild. Sometimes they mention the countries and/or regions these orchids are found in along with the elevations. Plus you get to see how they grow in the wild. Here's an example for Dracula lafluerii: https://www.flickr.com/photos/weissa...-62e4fS-62e3Sd.

Btw, the Flickr account for the example of a Dracula lafluerii growing in-situ…that's Gary Meyer's account. If I'm not mistaken, that's probably the same Gary Meyers from Hawk Hill Orchids/Colombian Orchid Imports - see what I mean?

If you can get a hold of the person who collected the orchid from the wild, in some cases, even better! You never know, sometimes it happens, and they might just tell you, (and hopefully, it's the truth).

So, it's really a combo of looking things up, finding stuff out from other growers/collectors, and playing around with the plants.

I've grown Dracula sodiroi ssp. erythrocodon 3 times now. I know how they behave. I may have grown it 3 different times, but the longest I've had one for was for about 6 - 8 months. You'll know a ton about the orchid by that time.

I've grown orchids for a very long time, so I kinda already know what's going on with the plants I like to collect. But for someone who doesn't know about the plants they want to grow, I just told you how I'd do it for plants I'm researching.

Btw, I like to cross-reference info to make sure I got it pretty close.

---------- Post added at 07:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:48 PM ----------

Oh, and some of the international sellers also sell orchid tours. If you got the dough, spend it on an orchid tour on your next vacation. Both Ecuagenera, (www.ecuagenera.com), and Orquideas del Valle, (Orquídeas del Valle - Cali, Colombia), have orchid tours in Ecuador and Colombia respectively, and hopefully you can see the Draculas for yourself.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Photo of Dracula lafleurii spike growing. It is a pendulous bloomer, so the spike will grow through the potting media and out through the net pot/wood slat basket. It is difficult to distinguish between the roots, but with some experience you can tell which are roots and which are spikes. Spikes on smaller Dracula species can be more difficult to distinguish from the roots than their larger species counterparts, however, again, over time, telling the roots apart from the spikes will get easier and easier.

The green tendril in the foreground, that's a root, the growth in center frame, that's the spike.

For anyone wondering, I bought and received Dracula lafleurii prior to buying and receiving Dracula sodiroi ssp erythrocodon, (Dracula lafleurii was amongst the first few Draculas I purchased in the past few weeks). This spike was not visible when I first got the plant. It had just appeared out from the potting medium about a few days ago.

As promised, this is what a pendulous spike on a Dracula will look like.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Thanks for the pic.

[ddivey36]

I recently bought 3 Dracs, Transylvania, Tsubolae, Amaliae

I have them in a terrarium keeping a slight breeze and 70% humidity. They get late morning sun from my eastern window, there are other orchids in front of them so they get filtered light.
The temp is 66-70 F.

Hoping that my conditions will make these babies bloom, the leaves seem the correct shade of green and I do have some new growth....
they are in tiny little basket pots and wondering how long the flower spike is because my tank is not that deep and a little unsure of how to hang them....

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by ddivey36

I recently bought 3 Dracs, Transylvania, Tsubolae, Amaliae

I have them in a terrarium keeping a slight breeze and 70% humidity. They get late morning sun from my eastern window, there are other orchids in front of them so they get filtered light.
The temp is 66-70 F.

Hoping that my conditions will make these babies bloom, the leaves seem the correct shade of green and I do have some new growth....
they are in tiny little basket pots and wondering how long the flower spike is because my tank is not that deep and a little unsure of how to hang them....

Those conditions should be fine for growing and blooming them.

I've never grown the 3 Draculas you mentioned, so I can't tell you a great deal about them, but I do wish you well in growing them. Dracula Transylvania is an artificially bred/"man-made" hybrid. Dracula tsubotae and Dracula amaliae are both species.

The Dracula sodiroi ssp erythrocodon, (in some literature, apparently, this plant has full species status and is known simply as Dracula erythrocodon), is for the most part in full bloom already. I can post pics in a bit.

I've been examining photos of Dracula sodiroi and Dracula sodiroi ssp erythrocodon, (aka Dracula erythrocodon), and I feel that the plant should really be addressed as a separate species from the true Dracula sodiroi. There are far too many differences to even consider this plant a subspecies.

Noticeable differences are as follows…

Dracula erythrocodon:

- Exterior surface of the sepals are red.
- Interior surface of the sepals are white.
- The petals are noticeably different. I cannot figure out how to describe it, but Jay Pfahl describes the differences on his website. There is also no closeup photographs with the petals of both plants next to each other to make a good comparison, but I hope to figure out how to get this photographed one day.
- The petals are white with a wide black band running down the middle of the median side.
- There is only 1 flower per spike.
- This orchid naturally grows as an epiphyte

Dracula sodiroi:

- The exterior surface of the sepals are orange.
- The interior surface of the sepals are a lighter orange.
- The petals are orange.
- There are around 2 - 4 flowers per spike.
- This orchid naturally grows as a lithophyte/terrestrial.

I'm not certain about whether the lip on both plants have differences or not, but I think that if there are, the differences might be minute. I feel inclined to one day take a photo comparison photo of the lips to both plants as well.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Dracula sodiroi ssp erythrocodon, (Dracula erythrocodon), in bloom.

I don't have special camera lenses, so I used a jeweler's loupe to take a photo with, that's why the head-on photo is so out of focus.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Another photo. Again, it's tough to get a crisp shot without special lenses.

[Tindomul]

Great stuff, I vote this should be a sticky too. No reason it should be lost in that annals of Orchidboard.

[Tindomul]

Turning it into a sticky.

[Bthomas1441]

My Dracula Vampira still looks fine but my Dracula Fulginosa looks very sickly. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?