Tolumnia Jairak Firm 'Big Bang'
 

This first photo is the first flower to open on two spikes produced by the plant in the second photo. This plant was potted into the shallow 4" basket and Orchiata bark back in July. It appears to like the bark and basket as the roots are now poking out all four sides.

-Keith

Beautiful colors.:)

Nice! I really like that one.

Thanks!

The second flower looks a bit more solid red. I'll post a picture of the sprays when the flowers are all open.
-Keith

nice flower, the plant looks a bit like a neo though. I would have expected it to have like oncidium type bulbs or something.
Are tolumnia's fragrant?

They used to be called equitant oncidiums. http://www.aos.org/AOS/media/Content...um-Hybrids.pdf

Ironically, I didn't notice, but you're right. It could easily pass for a neofinetia, except the leaves are presented more as a fan without the central stem.

No fragrance. At least not this one.

-Keith

Beautiful flower and interesting pot choice. Do you think this plant could live in this pot indefinitely? With roots growing out the sides, how difficult will refreshing the bark be?

It looks wonderful in the box, and it's growing very well.

These plants like to dry between watering; the bark will last a lot longer than for a plant that needs to stay moister. It will probably be easy to pull out pieces of old bark and put in new bark. Plus, in a good environment, these plants make lots of new roots quickly.

The basket is so shallow that it is always dry in the morning when I water, so it gets watered daily. A gentle breeze from a fan may be contributing to this as well. The drying cycle is a bit longer than the shingle mounted plant I'm also growing, which dries in an hour or so even at 85% RH. I'd expect the bark (Orchiata) to last as long as the basket, but if not, replacing pieces would seem the best strategy -- unless the basket is pretty much enveloped.

-Keith

---------- Post added at 04:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:22 PM ----------

Good question. I'll just have to wait a few years and see.;)
-Keith

Lovely, unique color. I have more than a few of these and they all, though different, look pretty much the same, which is unexpectedly disappointing. ❤️ your tag lines.

This one was doing so well I bought three more, which I also moved to Orchata in small low-profile baskets.

I promised to update this thread when I had a spray to photograph, so here it is. I may post again when both sprays are fully open. I'll take the picture with a macro and SLR rather than my phone.

Thanks. It's encouraging to see that parents are becoming aware that they've been teaching kids to be intolerant judgmental bigots in universities and public schools.

Attachment 157492Second flowering for this winter season.

The 'Big Bang' photographed for my original post just finished flowering after two months in bloom, but just as the flowers faded, new ones from the same spike began opening. It is reasonable to assume it will be in flower another 6-8 weeks.

As can be seen in my original post, the lips for the second flowering are much deeper and uniformly red, possibly because the buds matured in a cooler winter greenhouse - 62F (17C) nights, 72F (22C) days. I can't swear to it, but I think the flowers for this second round are a little larger.

All four of my Tolumnia are growing very well in straight small orchiata bark and shallow 4" cedar baskets. They quickly established and have generous rambling roots. So far, three have spiked, the third just started. The baskets are watered with RO every morning. My winter fertilizer schedule is MSU monthly at the one-scoop label rate. They get early morning and very bright indirect mid-day light.

Incidentally, my phalaenopsis are blooming more abundantly than ever before and show no signs whatsoever that they resent the 62F nights.

-Keith