Happy clowesias (at least I like to think so)
 

Our spring was much warmer than usual, with more 90+ degree Fahrenheit days than I'm comfortable with. One of the few orchid groups I have that apparently have appreciated the unseasonably excessive heat and humidity levels is clowesia. Over the last couple of months it appears as if someone flipped their power switch to the "on" position.

The first three photos is Clowesia russelliana, with two spikes and roots that have completely replaced the potting mix I've been growing them in for the last few years. The last two photos are Clowesia warscewiczii, with fourteen new growths (and hopefully a great flower show to follow sometime this fall). This is an easy genus to grow and bloom--and they obligingly lose all of their leaves during the winter months and can be placed in a cool, dark closet and forgotten about until the early spring.

14 new leads!!? Awesome! They look really happy!

Don't forget to hit us with those flowers too!

Wow, that's amazing!! Great growing!

Wow! Can we get a side view of those 14 leads with the leaves moved out of the way? Must look like a jungle with all those new bulbs

Here are both sides and the back of the plant. It's definitely not the most beautiful plant, but it will look a whole lot more tidy once winter arrives and the leaves disappear.

Its a mess, but a beautiful mess. I hope you post all those flowers when it blooms! I believe thats whats called a "specimen" level plant now.

Yes, I sure will post flower pictures. Thanks for your comments.

what a growing machine!, Clowesia can explode to specimen size fairly quickly with optimum culture.
Excellent growing!, look forward to seeing the full wraparound cascade of flowers

Thanks, Ben! It's still growing very well. So hopefully I'll be able to share some bloom pictures later this fall or early winter.

Steve

The plant looks great. I got a Clowesia too, but this years bulb looks like it going to be similar in size to last years. Which is better than smaller, but I'd rather have results similar to yours. What sort of light is yours growing in. The guy I got mine from said they burn in full sun, so it's in light/medium shade, the type of light my Mormodes thrive in. though now I wondering if it wants more light.

I give mine lots of light. It receives direct sunlight from around 7 AM until noon, with dappled sunlight (maybe 70% sunlight and 30% shade, approximately) for the rest of the day. The only time I give it more shade is when the temperatures climb above 85 F (29 C).

The foliage will start looking like it's taken a beating by the time Fall arrives. But of course the nice thing about this group of orchids is that the foliage falls off during the dry season and keeps me from looking like I don't love my plants!

Here are some updated photos that I just took. From above, it's kind of hard to see the pseudobulbs beneath all of the leaves. But viewing them from below confirms that most of them this year are larger than last year. Oh, and I also water and fertilize a lot during the growing season. The plant basically never drys out completely during the summer.

Lookin good!

Mine would probably appreciate more light then. It's growing mounted in an orange tree. I might just cut some branches to let more light in.

I can only dream of what it would be like to live in an environment that allowed me to grow my orchids in a tree. It's starting to get cold here, and I already have a small electric space heater in the sunroom to keep the night time temperature from falling below 60 F. So I do envy you.

It has it's benefits and difficulties. On one side, yeah, I would need an enormous greenhouse to grow the plants that I do now if I were still in Michigan. And getting orchids to germinate without a lab is pretty cool.
But the down side of living where orchids are native is that there are a lot of pests and diseases that become a problem when you start accumulating a lot of orchids in the same area. Seems like I discover a new orchid pest every few months from caterpillars that eat the tips of growing orchid roots to insect larva that develop inside Encyclia seed pods. I try to use as little pesticides as possible, but the more orchids I have the more I need to use them.

First, I'm glad, having spent some time in Michigan, you can understand my pain. Second, it really didn't occur to me--and I feel a little stupid for admitting this--that growing orchids in their native habitats might also involve having to deal with the insects who see the orchids as a natural source of food or lodging. I only really have to worry about grasshoppers here, and only toward the end of the summer when they get to be the size of small geckos. So apparently growing orchids in paradise does have its potential pitfalls. Thanks for making me feel a little better! :-)

Although growing orchids promotes patience, I recently discovered that our hobby can also give (sometimes painful) lessons about the laws of physics. There were originally ten spikes of flowers, but that was before I tripped over the bathroom rug and was reminded that gravity is not always my friend. So now there are only two spikes that survived the fall. Still, there's an excellent fragrance of lemon (in fact, they smell exactly like the blooms of Rhyncholaelia digbyana).

Ugh, sorry to read about the snapped spikes! Still a good looking show, though!

Bummer! Still looks great to me!