Pleione formosana!!! :):):)
 

Mwahhahahahah!!!!!!!

It has arrived!!! :banana: :bananaslide: (/udb) :llama:

Pleione formosana, in all it's bulbous glory!!!

Congrats! I love that feeling when your package that you've been looking forward to receiving finally arrives.

Are there any signs of flower buds? I'm thinking of ordering them too...so let me know if they flower for you.

Where did you purchase yours?

T

Ha ha! I take it you're excited ;) I love these, so pretty and yet quite simple plants (if that makes sense!). Can't wait for mine to flower this year :)

No buds. I don't expect it to bloom this season, but maybe it will, idk.

There is that huge dormant "eye" with the brown sheath you see in front of it. I don't know if that's a potential new shoot or a potential new bloom.

Jennyfleur, I've been asking about Pleiones for years. All I get is that depressing - "You're too warm for it." talk. This time I said - "Screw it all! 'Cuz I'm a rebel like that!" :llama:

I looked up most of the Pleione species on the IOSPE, and based on the listed elevations as well as my experience with certain species of Cypripediums, I think I can grow a good majority of them!


Tanlu, go to:

Hirts Gardens

So, to hell with being too warm to grow Pleiones!

lmao i glad you got what your are looking for i have wanted a pleione maculata for a while now and cant find anyone here in the usa that has one!:( i am happy you got what you were looking for!:)

Pleione maculata will come around to being for sale again.

I saw some for sale at Oak Hill Gardens a few years ago. I never really thought much of them though. It "didn't speak to me". Maybe it was because of their photo...

That sheath is both a new growth and flower you will see it grow as the old pseudobulb shrinks and you should see the flower and leaves grow and the new pseudobulb will put out roots and grow. If you take care of it should produce some little pseudobulbs on top of it so you will have more of them or it may have two sheathes next time.

thanks i will keep that in mind next time i go searching for one again, lol it totally spoke to me!:)

You don't think that shoot is a little too pointy to flower? I find flowering shoots to be more rounded at the tip than the one in the photo.

I know it's probably based with English growers in mind, but the Pleione website does say you can keep bulbs in the fridge over winter if the natural temps aren't cold enough:
The Pleione Website

Also, our Easy Orchids site has a great comparison picture for leaf vs flower growths:
https://www.easyorchids.co.uk/site/pleione-orchids.html

Just in case anyone's interested!

Thank you, that was infomative. :)

For Pleione formosana, I may not need to put it in a fridge during dormancy. If that temperature guide for Easy Orchids is correct, then I'd say, it can stay right where it is and it'll go dormant all on it's own.

When the new growth starts to grow it will be clearer just what is going to happen. That picture looks like the plant is still in a dormant state. I am guessing that the pseudobulb is large enough to produce a flower.

I'll post more when it breaks dormancy. It should do so very soon. My Bletilla striata is starting up again, and so is the Cyp. plectrochilum.

Congrats on the new baby. I recently got one of these as well, three bulbs with starter leads, and have it outside to benefit from our cold nights. Only thing I worry about now is that it'll get rained on - or misted by the fog!

Looking forward to seeing what happens with yours.

-Tristan

Tristan, I honestly don't think fog will kill your Pleiones during dormancy. If anything, I think it'll help you out.

The mountains they come from are frequently misty from what I've seen on tv (on those touristy shows) and in photos.

Congrats on your new acquisition, King. I hear pleiones are pretty hard to come by. :)

Thanks Carl.

Pleione species other than Pleione formosana are difficult to find. Those are the ones that I hope to be able to grow later down the line.

In the meantime, this one will keep me company.

Very nice. Congrats on your new bulb. I got 4 bulbs and one bloomed early (my landlord watered it by mistake in January). But early or not, it exciting to see it open up more and more each day.

Did you add any limestone/calcium in the mix??

Yes. It's on the bottom.

The top layer is mostly wood chips and perlite, with a little potting soil. This top layer is not all that thick, it only covers the dead roots and a little bit of the lower portion of the bulb.

There is a little shoot growing from the base, but other than that, for some reason, it is moderately slow growing.

No roots yet.

Why thank you! That'd be great right about now. :)

This is the worst part. All you can do wait.

One of my Pleiones is just growing slowly as well. I bought a formosana in bud in March which has now flowered and gone. A hybrid Pleione I bought last year though is growing but soooo slowly.

Yeah, I feel ya Rosie.

Still waiting for mine to grooooow. ;)

The new shoot is finally peaking out of the potting media though.

well its been munts and munts and the suspense?

I think I can grow these too.. but of course I think much more than I can do, but thank goodness its not the other way around

The particular individual specimen of Pleoine formosana doesn't seem like it has enough energy to pull through.

The new shoot did grow, but it is incredibly weak and grows ridiculously slow for some reason.

I'm chucking this one up for a loss.

Had a few of them write off plants myself lately..will have a few more no doubt in my future. I think we consider it experience. Now you are an experienced Pleoine formosana grower. I really wanted to see you bloom this one. You must try again.

;) thanks philip

ATTABOY PHILIP ! Go get that plant to grow leaves and bloom for you...What does it mean its too warm to grow it??!! I am too cold to grow vandas...and did that deter me??! NOOOOO!

I don't think it's too warm. I think it didn't have enough reserves to make a new bulb for whatever reasons. I have a hunch that the bulb I got was one of the smaller ones out of the bunch.

If Pleione formosana is found in Taiwan and southern China, those are not super cold places. They are subtropical/tropical areas.

It's such a shame it didn't make it :(

Having bought a formosana in the spring, and looking back at your pic, I can say it is pretty small compared to both the bulb from last year, and the new one that has now formed on mine.

Mine has produced keikis this year yours looks only a little bigger than those (and I don't expect those to necessarily make it on their own next year).

Some of my other pleione's are this sort of size, but formosana seems to be one of the larger growing ones from what I can tell.

I've just got to try and get them through the winter now, as neither of the two I had last year did very well this year, so I'm hoping this one and the other I bought in the spring will do OK.

Thanks Rosie. That puts me in a better position to get them going when I try again later. :)