Barkeria species
 

Some Barkeria species –

Barkeria whartoniana – I got this as a very ‘barely out of flask’ seedling in ’10 and this is it’s first bloom. Wonderful little plant that continues to push out blooms for weeks and weeks.

http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/p...pseymj299h.jpg


Barkeria scandens (cyclotella)

http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/p...pseoqyntc4.jpg
http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/p...pstry02vde.jpg

Barkeria lindleyana ssp vanneriana

http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/p...pstxkzx0it.jpg
http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/p...psgirnxijz.jpg

Barkeria lindelyana v alba – not a great full plant picture but it gives good idea of the growth habit.

http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/p...pswpsifwmc.jpg
http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/p...pssjz1sedo.jpg

They're all beauties!! Wonderful growing!!

Thank you! :)

So pretty. I just love the long roots one the white one. They would so dry out in my house.

Shannon...they actually want to be pretty dry during most of the winter. My space is very dry and I water them only 2 or 3 times a week when they are inside. When outside and growing new growths...that's when they need daily watering.

This is an odd little group that is deciduous. They produce the new growths in the middle/late spring and then bloom in the winter. Some drop their leaves before they bloom and others hold them through the bloom or are losing them while blooming...but they all eventually drop their leaves. Once the growths are mature you want to water only sparingly...hence my 2-3x a week and it's just enough to get them a little drippy but not a real soaking.
High light and intermediate temps.

Some of these guys are really gangly and grow all over the place but they tend to be good bloomers and the blooms last several weeks. Definitely better suited for mounts because of their watering requirement and because they would be very hard to contain in a pot.

You can bloom other catts so you might be surprised how well many of these would do for you.

Thanks for looking and for the comments. :) BTW - the alba is my favorite too. The shape and display on that one is excellent.

Quite lovely! My fave is pix #1. Good growing!

Very nice! You wouldn't know anyone growing B. naevosa would you?

Not a common group to grow! There are some great colors on these guys.

I love barkeria so much, especially their roots... usually people just have one or two... But look at you! great growing, they look amazing! (Wow only 33% humidity in there!)

No, I don't...and I've been looking for it for probably 3 yrs. If I find some I'll let you know and please, I'd very much appreciate it if you'd do the same.

I have 6 total but missed getting pics of 2... the spectablis and obovata. That just reminded me...spectablis is one that blooms at an odd time because it tends to bloom earlier in the new growth development rather than after the growths have matured.

As for my humidity...it can get much lower than 33% in the winter. The space has been known to drop into the low 20% range. If I can get it to 40-44%, I'm thrilled.




Thanks again for all the wonderful comment, everyone. It's very much appreciated.

I wish I had the space to keep as many as you do! It would be a serious space hog in my little orchid world, but I've heard that it's a room filler fragrance wise so I'll break out the crowbar and squeeze it in if I can find one! I will certainly let you know if I come across them. Good to have another set of eyes in the hunt!

The lindleyana is my biggest one and I think the naevosa will stay in that same range or maybe a tad smaller. If I find one...it's coming to live w/me. Even if I have to eliminate something else to make room for it! I had no idea about the fragrance so that's just icing on the cake.
:biggrin:

Yes, it's one of the few if not the only fragrant member of the genus. But I can't find anyone growing it. And the fragrance is supposedly very strong in I believe the afternoon.

Thanks Katrina for the growing tips. Perhaps some day I will try something on a mount.

Splendid!

Thanks for the comments, guys!

Not to get off subject, for your plants are always such beauties, but I noticed your temp/humidity monitors. We have the same ones because they tell the max/ min on both temp and humidity for 24 hour periods. But ours only last about 2-3 months and then the numbers start to disappear. Usually the temp go first and it is hard to tell if Fl means it's been 88 or 61 degrees. I understand that it is labeled indoors and is only ten dollars for one, but we are getting tired of returning them every few months. Do yours do this to? And is there other options out there that do the same thing ( temp/ humidity with max/min with both) that are rated for outdoors or high humidity that will not break the bank or have a whole weather station in the greenhouse. We have moved them around so that they do not get watered or splashed o, hoping that would help but it does not seem to matter. Or should we just keep returning them every few month,because they do what we need them to do. BTW your resent posts of your blooming plants have been so inspiring, thanks for posting and letting all of us, in on your little piece of heaven

Since the numbers are fading out, maybe it is exposed to too much sun. I have the same gauge and it's at least a year and a half old and has never been replaced. Mine is inside under one of my shadier plants and never gets wet.

Thanks wintergirl will try that, we have three of them in different parts of the greenhouse. And it has not mattered there they where located, all of them have the same problem,usually with in a couple of weeks of each other, that is why we thought it was the humidity that did them in. But will try to keep them out of direct sunlight. Will be easier now that we put the shade cloth back on yesterday.

Not sure but if humidity is constantly high then that would be my best guess too. I've had mine for a few yrs and they are fine. None of them give me the same reading so I know they aren't 100÷ accurate...good enough though. I also have one in the garage...exposed to more dampness ...and that one goes bad more often.

For a g/h set up, it might be a good idea to splurge on a model designed for that situation. It would drive me batty to have to always be taking it back. Just a thought.

Thanks for the kind comments.

You can get a home weather station that connects wirelessly to your computer and records the data. They come with outdoor temperature/humidistat, rain gauge, anemometer and display (that has to stay dry.) Costco sells such a thing from time to time, and it's under $100. They are meant to be mounted outside.

Radio Shack also sold base units (not weatherproof) that connected wirelessly to up to 3 small weatherproof digital thermometer/humidistats. This setup didn't connect to the computer, but maybe they do now.

This is very interesting!

Thank you for weather station answer. But I do not want or need a weather station. I do not need to know the wind speed and direction or if it is going to rain, because the barometer is dropping. I just want to know how hot it was and how cold did it get, plus what has the humidity been. This little meter fits the need well but is not quite hardy enough to with stand the environment that we are using it in. Acu-Rite thermometers does not seem to make a outdoor model of this meter. Does someone else?

La Crosse makes all that stuff......

Sorry Katrina, this has gotten way off base, from your lovely barkeria spieces photos. I am soo sorry, I will move this discussion on thermometers to equipment and parts board. Sorry once agian,. but keep on posting your lovely cattleyas and others, We do like what you are doing.

Not a problem...no need to apologize, Selmo. Discussions evolve and grow...it's all good. :Tup:

All of the devices I've used are accurite and all but those kept in the garage hold up nicely. Not being exposed to direct sunlight and/or moisture is likely the reason mine do fine for me.

Selmo, I used to like Accurate hygrometers, but as you said, it doesn't last (mine last about a year) in high humidity (or place where water get splashed). I tried to fix it (I had about 6 broken ones), but the problem seems to be inside of the LCD (not the elastomeric connection between the circuit board and LCD, which is a common cause of LCD problems).

This might be an overkill, but the sensor is outdoor rated, and AcuLink Internet Bridge connects to a website to log all of your data. By adding more $12 sensors, it can monitor up to 3 different zones. So you can see the entire data instead of only min/max from anywhere you can have internet access.
Temperature & Humidity - Web & App Monitoring

If you are handy (and know a little bit of computer programming), you can make something similar with DHT22, ESP8266 (similar to Arduino) and RaspberryPi. I'm pretty happy with this ESP8266 based setup, but this is probably beyond what most people want to do. This page gives details of the procedure:
Meet the Arduino Killer: ESP8266

It probably doesn't matter too much, but by looking at the logger results, Min/Max is a part of the story about the environment.