How long do Tolumnia flowers last?
 

Since I'm new to Tolumnia and I realize that things might move quickly with them if they do not get enough nutrients/water, I would like to know generally how long I should expect the blooms to last.

My first tolumnia which I bought back in mid to late February did not have any blooms open when I purchased it. Within a few days they opened. Now the flowers look as though they are spent and wilting. We recently experienced an extreme cold snap (snow for 2 days) after the temperatures had been in the 60's to 70's for several weeks. I'm wondering if it could be temperature related or if it's just their time to go.

Luckily, it appears that another branch of flowers is getting ready to shoot off from the flowering spike! However, it hasn't done much of anything since I first noticed it about 2 or 3 weeks ago.

Tolumnia flowers last 2 weeks to one to two months. Most of mine last just around a month , but it depends on the plant.

Don't cut spikes, either... They will very often rebloom on the spike.

Thanks! Nice to know!
I only have one (for now & have never cut the spikes off till they all went brown.) I knew about this for Oncs.. One learns something every day.. Thanks!

Thanks for asking the question, Paul. I was wondering that myself!! How funny...

Beth

Not an oncidium... They are their own genus now (Tolumnia). While there are a few crosses with oncidiums, Tolumnia don't breed well with them. That makes it a good split in my opinion. I can't think of any 'true' oncidiums that rebloom on the spike. Might be a few, I just can't think of any.

They do breed well with rodriguezia. And another thing that used to be an oncidium, Zelenkoa onustum. I used to spit tacks about splitting off Zelenkoa as well, but the fact that it breeds well with tolumnia makes it a lot easier to swallow.

I get flowers to last for a month and a half sometimes. Especially in the spring. Less long in the summer.

WOW, the flowers last longer than I thought then. I did know about not cutting the spike, and actually have a branch of new flowers attempting to come off of one of the old one's now. But it's been trying to form for the last 2 or 3 weeks now with little progress.

So, I guess that leads me to another question. When do they bloom? I was under the impression that they bloomed generally from late winter until early summer. Is that true?

Off and on... Fall is the low point for tolumnias in my greenhouse, April is probably the high point. Probably get the most spikes and flowers in spring. There are always flowers in the summer too, often on secondary spikes.

Thank you!

OK, can I just clarify? Do I understand correctly, little frog, that Tolumnias are recurrent bloomers? How do they bloom in a year in your experience? (I'm now thinking I should have and will buy MORE if this is the case :)

Little Frog is right, that most tolumnia bloom in the spring / early summer months. There's a lot of variability, though. I have a plant that bloomed back in December which surprised me this week by putting out a new spike! I've got another that started blooming at the same time in December and is still going strong! Still another plant bloomed last month or so, had flowers for about 2 weeks, and was done.

I'd say close to a month is average.

My experience has been that something like a cold snap can definitely shorten bloom longevity. Also, not enough humidity or too much heat. The flowers seem to last longest if they stay in an intermediate temperature at 50%- 70% humidity. Even moving them out of my growing case to enjoy on a countertop will often shorten the bloom life. I also seem to recall having read somewhere that fading blooms release chemical signals that can trigger other flowers nearby to also drop off. Because of that, I tend to remove fading / faded flowers right away, instead of letting them finish up on the plant. Maybe that helps, maybe not. But it helps the plants look nice! :)

Bear in mind, too, that plants which have been "forced" to spike / bloom in any way will often have a shorter bloom period.

Oh! And tolumnia seem to go through a mini-sulk when they change to new environments. So if your plant came from a greenhouse and is now living on a windowsill, it may take it a couple months to completely adjust to the new surroundings. You may find that next year's blooms are stupendous!