When will my Brassavola Digbyana be blooming size?
 

I recently purchased a Brassavola Digbyana "Palmer's Pink" at a show from Seattle Orchid. It still has all its tiny baby growths on it and appears not to have bloomed.

The listing online says that they are not blooming size yet.

For those of you who have these orchids, can you tell me how big they were before they bloomed?
I will include a picture of mine. I am hoping that their next growths will give me some blooms, but I am worried I may have to wait 2-3 more years for a bloom.

Thanks for sharing what you know!

PS I know it's called something like rhyncolaelia or whatever now, but I can't be arsed to remember all these name changes!!

Yours looks like a large seedling. I would imagine you have a year or two at least before blooming. These guys need sun, lots of sun.
Good luck.
Joann

That's a seedling? Wow! So these won't bloom at a smaller size like some cattleya alliance plants will?

I keep looking at those on there sight, glad to see the plant it looks good, now it makes me want it more. Thanks a bunch Astrid........NOT.

I agree with Joann - two or three years to bloom, maybe longer. Double ditto on the sun, lots of sun and then more sun.

An easy way to remember the name change is to write it down on the back of your original tag.

Brooke

Noooo!!
Darnit. That said, I've noticed these are pretty hard to find and so getting a seedling for $30 is probably a lot nicer than getting a full sized plant for the cost of an arm and a leg.

Thanks for telling me. :)

---------- Post added at 02:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:12 PM ----------

Haha I'm just bitter toward name changes. Like changing miltassia to bratonia? Can we calm down please? Maybe there should be some release of name changes on a yearly basis instead of being haphazardly like this.
It also makes it harder to find orchids at times because some people might call it the new name, others call it the old name... I digress!

I've got this growing directly in the window with just a thin bit of plastic in the middle to diffuse the light and I hope it will bloom next year. XD
But if wishes were fishes, we'd all have a big fry...

Well, I disagree.
I used to grow this species, and mine was very small.
Your plant looks to me like a flowering size or near flowering size.
With good care (as mentioned above, a lot of strong light is very important), I wouldn't be surprised to see flowers on this new growth or the next.
Then, again, even with good care, individual plant can exhibit differences, so who knows?

By the way, I am very curious to see the flowers on this because of the name pink.
I have only seen whitish green flowers.

Aww, well thank you! Seattle Orchid's website said this was "not blooming size" but they don't say anything else after that. :dunno:

I hope that the plant blooms for me soon! I'm feeding all my plants once a month with a balanced fertilizer and some maxicrop, and the digbyana is sitting right up next to the window, and it has a pretty solid wet/dry cycle on its mount. I've also been opening my window and turning a fan on at night so everyone can get a temperature change and some ventilation. I'm trying!!

I guess I just worry because I'm at the point in my life where I could graduate from college soon and may have to move and I worry that maybe I'll never see a particular orchid bloom if I leave it behind, haha.

I've looked up pictures of this variety and they seem to have a slight peachy tinge to their outer petals and sepals, and a white lip. We will see (hopefully!).

Whhaaaa?! Why would you leave them behind?:shock:

Imagine if I move somewhere very hot and dry- it would be hard for me to keep the miltoniopsis orchids with me. Or imagine if I moved to Hawaii or somewhere with strong importing rules... it'd be hard!

Or imagine if I move to another country (which is a real dream of mine!!) with my partner, then it would be extremely expensive to get papers to transport all my orchids with me, and maybe I wouldn't live there forever so I'd have to take my collection with me again??? Also if I went somewhere like New Zealand, they have extremely protective biosecurity laws (they sprayed the airplane before we deboarded with bug spray inside the cabin) and I couldn't take them with me there, either.

It's the same reason I won't get a dog right away after I get a job and graduate- I don't know if I'll be in the same country in 10 years!!

I have to ask... So, how old were you in 1918 when the name changed?

It has been rhyncholaelia for quite some time now. One of the few cattleya type things that wasn't lumped back into cattleya.

I'd say that mine don't get huge in the height direction. They do get to be multiple growth plants pretty quickly, I might have twenty growths in an 8" basket? Just a guess, I haven't counted. I used to have dozens when I had the greenhouse, down to just a few now that I'm growing under lights in the winter. They are outside now, and will stay out deep into the fall. Tough as nails once established.

I have the same fear.
In my case, I am definitely leaving out of this country, but not any time very soon.
Thinking of how to get my plants legally already makes my head hurt. I try not to think about it, but you are graduating soon, so I see your pain.
The good news is that R. digbyana is rather small that you can easily smuggle in in your luggage.
Oops, did I say that out loud? :lol:

Hopefully you will end up somewhere with good weather and good orchid society.

I was 298 years old at the time, I believe. I'm like, "Victorian Era is over, ho hum, stop changing names, life is such a tire when you're near 300."

---------- Post added at 11:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:52 PM ----------

I've smuggled a kilo of cheese out of Europe. I am sure I could smuggle some plants into it! Or who knows where else... hah!

I believe you mentioned the plant was near a window, with a diffuser. You will never get it to be reliably blooming unless - as has been stated several times - it gets "sun, lots of sun, then more sun."


Ray Barkalow
firstrays.com

I guess I'm more of the mind, Enjoy life, worry later. You're smarter for thinking ahead lol. I just go with the flow. Hubby and I have talked about moving to England or New Zealand. I'd just smuggle my stuff in. I have a dog too and being prior military he was happy as a clam moving around with me to my different duty stations.

It's about 2 inches from the glass with a plastic "paper holder" in front of it.

I have to be careful with orchids here because we go through so much cloudy time that when the sun comes out it is sudden and it is harsh!
Actually, my favorite game to play after the first sunny and warm days of the year is "Spot the Lobster"
...people burn all the time here because we don't know what to do with ourselves with sudden sun.

If you don't believe me, watch this actually 100% true documentary about my city:

It is in the same position as my brassavola nodosa, who regularly gets dark purple spots (that, of course, fade when it gets cloudy again).

Thanks for the tip. Once we get to constant sunny weather, I'll probably feel confident enough to pop them into full sun, but I'm holding back just a little for now.

I used my light meter and I think that the plastic sheets make a 200ish fc difference in the light.

---------- Post added at 09:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:19 PM ----------

I'm a worrier. I am such a future-worrier that I already have wedding rings I want picked out, and I spend time wondering how I will decorate my future house. I can't just leave things to chance haha!

A dog would be easier as that would be just one friend to bring along, but being a fledgling adult I would worry about barring myself from more affordable apartments if I had a dog already.
I love your dog, though, too presh!!

I would like a tinier, oranger version - aka a corgi!

Ooh, definitely travel first, plants later! Do the JET Program in Japan, or the North American Language and Culture Assistants program in Spain, for example. You can have a plant or two while you live abroad! Plus you will get to check out garden centers overseas which in my experience can be pretty interesting!

All fantastic ideas! I've gotten to do a 3-month summer in Europe with family friends, and my partner is British Korean, so we'll have plenty of time traveling the world!

But argh!! I just wanna grow some specimen orchids! I don't wanna sell them all when I have to move! Why can't I just be disgustingly rich like Oprah? I could just throw money at people and they would hire workers to hand-carry each of my plants and follow me around in a bizarre orchid-jungle entourage...