Masdevallia Sunset Jaguar 'Night Breed' AM/AOS
 

Great plant. It has been in bloom constantly since March, with up to seven blooms at a time. The flower I photographed is a little past its prime, but it gives the general idea. Got this one from Mountain Orchids.

That bloom is awesome. What sort of conditions do you provide such that it's in constant bloom for months?

- J

oh my! what a wonderful bloom!

I have it in a terrarium. 70+% humidity. Tops of the leaves are about 4-5" from the bottoms of the bulbs (100W Equivalent compact fluorescents). Temps in the 60s most of the time, probably up to 70 or so midday. It's in sphagnum moss in a net pot. I water it thoroughly every 2-3 days and I fertilize after every watering with very dilute Dyna-Gro. The terrarium has a small muffin fan inside, so the air is constantly moving. I have a layer of plexiglass over the top of the terrarium between the plants and the lights. All that said, this is a really easy hybrid. I'd bet that it would tolerate temps up to 80 for short periods - if it were going to get up to 80 regularly I'd pot it in clay to keep the roots cool. I would recommend trying Sunset Jaguar if you want to grow a Masdevallia. They are real performers. Hope this helps!

Oh wow, I love that!

One trick for "cool growing" orchids is to keep the roots cool. This can give you a much wider latitude in terms of air temperature. Potting in clay helps. Another trick is to pot in plastic and then set the plastic pot inside a clay pot that is big enough to leave at least an inch of space all around the plastic pot. Put sphagnum moss between the two pots. As the clay draws water out of the sphagnum, the moss cools down. This cools the roots. I saw Masdevallias growing in full sun in Ecuador. They were growing terrestrially, and their roots were cool and moist even though their leaves were getting a lot of harsh sun. It was really eye-opening!

Hey yeah, what a great idea. I'm thinking of how I can impliment that idea. Thanks for the tip.

I have mine growing in moss anyway, with this method do you use moss on the inner pot?