Stanhopea tigrina nigroviolacea 'The Predator' FCC/AOS arrived!
 

Got this plant today, and it is HUGE! I got it from Orchid Design, and they were great. Very friendly and helpful. They say that this is an actual division of the original awarded plant. I don't know if that is true or not, but I have no reason to think she would lie about that, and for what I paid for it, it makes sense. It had 5 spikes, but when they moved it to take pictures for the listing, she didn't put it back where it was before, and she thinks it got too much sun and not enough water and all the buds blasted, but the Orchid Design lady (I don't think I ever caught her name) was very kind. The list price was 200. She sold it to me for 150 because of the bud blast. I don't consider that necessary. The way I see it, I'm buying an orchid PLANT. It it has buds on it, great! An added bonus! But I don't expect plants to be budded (unless I order from someplace like Akatsuka who specialized in budded plants for the gift market). But anyway, that was super nice of her to give me a price break and I really appreciate it. She said it is still early in the blooming season, and I may get blooms later on anyway.

As you can see, the plant is huge, growing in all directions, over the side of the basket and then down the basket. I have no idea how to repot such a plant. Do I just drop the whole thing into a bigger basket? Do I just leave it and let it do its thing? I have no idea. My issue with the latter example is humidity. I don't have high humidity in the winter, and I'm afraid that if the roots are totally exposed, they won't grow, or maybe even dry up and die.

Anyway, it's a great plant and I feel lucky to have it. You should all check out Orchid Designs.

What a gorgeous plant, and in superb condition!

I would suggest not even thinking about repotting... let it do its thing. If spikes look crimped by the basked, just clip the offending parts to make bigger holes... it's unpredictable where they'll come out. It's well-established in all directions and that's what it wants. Just water it frequently... I water my Stahopeas pretty much daily (even more when it's hot/dry), all year around. You can't overwater them. With that much root mass, it'll be fine with whatever humidity it gets if adequately watered. And yes, based on what I know of its history (local knowledge of the cast of characters back to when it was actually awarded), that is a piece of the awarded plant. (If it was mericloned, it wasn't that long ago and the resultant plants would still be fairly small... )

Also knowing where it was originally grown (when it got awarded), it's quite temperature tolerant... in its original home, it was sufficiently inland that it got highs above 100 deg F., and lows near freezing, periods with single-digit humidity on occasion. And city water. So it's not fragile. You got a gem!

Thanks for the tips! If it can handle that kind of heat (its 97 degrees now and it's 2:40pm here) would it do better outside? The humidity is better outside. I'd have to water more often, but I don't mind. I go out there and water some of them daily anyway. I take it that it's practically impossible to overwater? I have a good tree I could hang it from where it would get filtered light. So should it go outside? It really is a spectacular plant, and I feel honored to have such a fine plant. Most of my plants are nothing special. Mericlones and unproven seedlings, and the like. This is the first plant I've ever bought that was actually something special. It makes me a little nervous, but also excited haha. My other Stanhopea has done great tho, so I'm sure if I can grow that one, I can grow this one too.

Keep in mind that our days are in the 90s, sometimes approaching 100, but nights rarely get below 75, if that make a difference.

Beautiful beast!

It certainly is a beast. I had no idea what I was getting into hahahahaha

I think it'll be fine outside... keep on the shady side and water the heck out of it. I don't think it particularly cares about cool nights, will happily tolerate them but doubt that it requires them. For the whole genus, they resent underwatering (tend to defoliate, probably a mechanism for conserving water in droughts...) but I don't think that overwatering is possible. (I have one in particular, that is on the soggy side, and is doing the best of all) Remember, they are in baskets, so get plenty of air no matter how wet they are.

Hi Scott, Roberta is 100% right with all that she has written ...

However, your plant has *REALLY* outgrown it's basket (see photo) ...

When one of my 80 Stanhopea plants has come to this, I cut the wire basket slowly and carefully into small pieces
and remove them from the plant ...

Then I take a sufficiently lager wire basket, line it with loose coconut fiber and place the plant higher up, securing it
in place to the rim of the basket, so that the plant does not wobble. The rootball is not to be disturbed.

Then I fill up all spaces between the lining and the rootball with ordinary moss , not Sphagnum.

On top of it all goes NUTRICOTE, because Stanhopea plants need
*MUCH* fertilizer and much water.

The process may take an hour or so :):) ...

If you repot and a piece falls off, let me know! I'd love to help you recoup the cost of this plant. ;);)

Plastic pots like this one are a lot easier to "deconstruct" than wire ones or wood ones. it's pretty easy to clip away enough of the plastic, a bit at a time, to slide the pieces out. (If some pieces of basket get left behind, no problem, the goal is simply to let the plant expand) A diagonal cutter works very well. Then the plant can go into a LARGE, shallow wire basket, as Manfred describes. If you don't have coconut fiber (or it still falls out of the holes), a few layers of newspaper can be used - over a year or so it will disintegrate, but by that time the moss and roots will have molded to the shape of the basket so that they'll more or less stay put.

Great advice about the newspaper. I have also used brown paper bags