Rescuing my very large Cymbidium suave

[greengarden]

I have a very large Cymbidium suave that we rescued from under a bulldozer about 8 months ago when they were clearing my neighbour's suburban block. It's on a very rotten piece of eucalypt that was previously also infested with termites. Once my land has been revegetated a little more I'll pop it over the back, essentially returning it to the bush habitat from whence it came however in the mean time I need to try to solve the issue of it's fast deteriorating mount. The wood is literally falling apart and it isn't going to last much longer but I'm not sure what the best way is to rescue a plant of this size that is designed to live within as opposed to on timber? (It is atleast 1.5 metres wide with about 15 well established 'snakes', many new leads and atleast 19 new flower spikes forming at the moment!)

My current line of thinking is to leave it on as much of the current mount as possible and place the whole lot into a bed of coarse bark. However I worry about the potential for the wood to break down and rot the roots, or is this less of an issue given this species is adapted to living in rotten timber? Much of the outer wood has rotted leaving the roots quite exposed so I need to remedy this before the heat arrives...

[orchidsarefun]

it seems rotting eucalypt heart wood is the ingredient to success.
You should try and grow it yourself, unless there is a conservatory/gardens that you could donate it to.

Cymbidium Orchid Society of Victoria - Growing Tips > Growing Cymbidium Suave > Growing Cymbidium Suave

[greengarden]

There's plenty of that around here, my area has lots of regional housing developments going in so I'm rescuing a lot of (mostly terrestrial) orchids at the moment.

It's kind of iffy that I have it at all because it doesn't really fit the private salvage guidelines(which include terrestrials but not epiphytic species) but given the choice between watching it bulldozed and simply picking it up from the neighbours and moving it into my yard I went with the option that saved the plant and I'll be having a chat with weeds and seeds about getting proper permission to rescue epiphytic species as well (I have another one that I rescued from a tree that blew down in the wind and was being cut up for firewood too) I'm a qualified botanist/ecologist so I shouldn't have any issue getting the permits I wouldn't think.

I'd like to keep it going here so that I can keep it within it's original provenance.

Oh and an official count gives me 24 flower spikes at this stage although a couple of the more advances ones got chewed by snails before I realised it was getting spikes. Should still get a good 20 flower spikes on it!

[orchidsarefun]

please post photos, it sounds like a gem of a plant.
I suppose its an occupational "hazard" of being a botanist - always being aware and conservation-minded. The story of someone finding a tree that was thought extinct -growing in the middle of a highway - comes to mind. It happened on the West Coast of the USA.

[greengarden]

Here are some photos of my Cym suave. My solution was a black plastic 'fruit box' that the Aussie supermarkets get their fruit and veg delivered in. It has plenty of drainage and was just big enough for me to sit the log into and fill with fine orchid mix deep enough to sit at the base if the leaves. Perfect size really





And to show you just how big it is, with my 3 yr old:

[RosieC]

Wow great Cym!