Restrepia cymbula-OR- its not a IF but HOW you can grow it....
 

and is it worth that trouble?

for me, it was not too much trouble but it was some trial and error.

Pleurothallids are amazing to me but they are too cool loving (generally) for me ..... until recently. thanks to indoor growing in SH i have managed to get the conditions close enough to make at least this one, bloom reasonably well. there are five flowers on it and a few more coming in.


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8b3c41a2_c.jpgUntitled by J Solo, on Flickr

profile

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...87c310e7_c.jpgUntitled by J Solo, on Flickr



the whole little setup

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...31e2de72_c.jpgUntitled by J Solo, on Flickr



I wont break my arm patting myself on the back as i read this guy is easy and likes a bit more warmth soooo..... luck is always my favorite ingredient in success :biggrin:


i have a bunch more of these weirdos in my bathroom thanks to my deadbeat neighbor but now i have some hope since this guy is doing well. This Resp was from a purchase i made last year, so not that recent of a turn - around although a few of that order's plants are spiking

Whatever you're doing, it LIKES that... Congrats! I love the cute little bugs.

Have mine mounted with s/m on a board which seems to be working for me. BTW, cymbula means "boat". Does look canoe-like.

totally a boat!!! lol

here is a new flower today...they just keep poppin'

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...af0baa05_c.jpgUntitled by J Solo, on Flickr

I love the little bugs... and this one seems to be doing very well! Lemonade indeed.

They are absolutely lovely. Congratulations.

I have one on the way too..

https://i.imgur.com/o45hXvM.jpg

Nice!!

I ordered a Restrepia Falgenbergii hoping to put it into semi hydro. Annoyingly it's so pot bound in compact moss I can't actually remove the moss as the roots have just attach themselves completely. Hopefully it will break down over time and I can put it into semi hydro

Shame.

I would not put the moss into sh. Sounds like you know that but in my experience, too much detritus will choke the plant quickly

Yeah it's annoying about the moss but I'll just have to wait. I have it in a small clay pot which has the root ball and moss in the centre surrounded by some very small LECA as I found a mould outbreak with bark.

It seems to be doing ok and I just found a new growth on it so I'm doing something right...

i really liked this little trio and wanted to share---

it reminds me of three goofy dogs all going for the same treat which immediately made me think of Cerberus!!


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...44ba5780_c.jpgUntitled by J Solo, on Flickr

It looks great! My Restrepia is now in my terrarium and has a new flower coming out and doing well. Although semi hydro did WONDERS for the roots, making sure emerging leaves were literally wet every day and still they would crinkle as they opened just showed me my environment isn't suitable for them.

Yours looks great!

They are very active, flowering all the time!....like all the timeeeee :D

Mine wasn't flowering for a very long time, finally put 1 out and stopped. Since I've put it in the terrarium, less than a month later I think it's already putting one out. Are leaves terminal? Do they only flower once or can 1 leaf produce multiple flowers over its time?

I don't that particular species, but I do have have several other Restrepias, and they definitely can produce multiple flowers sequentially from one leaf. (A lot of Pleurothallids do that)

That's good because it's not producing any new leaves! My Lepanthes are making new leaves though so I know something is going right.

Restrepia flowers are really attractive. I wish they were bigger. Maybe like how Paphs produce flowers...

To me, the charm of Restrepias is, in part, their small size. Take a close-up photo and the detail of the "little bug" is amazing The petals are like antennae. The dorsal sepal has see-through windows.

I suppose if I one day I have a large specimen, then I could appreciate the large quantity of the flowers would be quite a spectacle. But so far having just 1 flower leaves me wanting more

Advantage is that a specimen still isn't large... Here is my Restrepia condorensis, which is in bloom much of the time. Sometimes one or two, but a couple of times of year I get a flush bloom. The whole plant is maybe 10 cm/4 inches.

http://orchidcentral.org/Images/Pleu...ondorensis.jpg
http://orchidcentral.org/Images/Pleu...rensis%201.jpg
http://orchidcentral.org/Images/Pleu...rensis%202.jpg

For somewhat bigger flowers, look for Restrepia antennifera or Restrepia sanguinea.

I'm hoping that both my collection space AND collection can expand so when I see specimens I want like the now Restrepia Antennifera, I can accommodate them! It's why I wanted to build a terrarium and now I've filled it I want more.

It's probably a problem

It's a fact of life... no matter how much space you allocate - whether a terrarium or a greenhouse (of any size) or a whole back yard, it WILL fill up. Then you get creative so that there is always room for one more orchid.:biggrin:

Well I had a birthday and was gifted many orchids I wanted to grow... So it filled up very quickly so now I may need another to home new varieties.

Or my Cymbidium will just continue to grow and suffocate me, whichever comes first.