Den lindleyi
 

This guy is blooming too fast...we want it to wait for the orchid show on the 18th. Trying to slow it down with some extra shade cloth. It has 12 spikes and hoping it will get pulled for judging. The flowers are very nice.

It's a long shot but you never know.

Oh my goodness! Its a magnificent display of blooms ! I am sure this will have a ribbon or two...good growing !

Ooooo yeah!! Thats nice! :bowing

Where do the spikes originate from? The top of the bulb or beside it? Beautiful specimen by the way.

THANKS!
 

The spikes originate from the side of the PBulb which makes it very difficult to see when they start. These guys like heavy watering and then heavy feeding after a long winter rest but not until about March.

It gets starved starting in October or November depending on the fall weather. We did not water it except for a spritz once every 2 weeks. In March we had an early spring so we gave it a heavy watering and then a dose of Dyna-Gro bloom booster 3-12-6 on March 1 and then again on March 20.

Then we saw the first spikes probably 1st week of April and hit it with a dose of MSU.

Last year we had 12 spikes. This year 12 spikes again. Next year it will probably take off.

These guys do NOT like to be re-potted/mounted. We put it on this mount in 2009 after blooming with 10 spikes and it sulked. 2010 it put out ONE spike...JUST ONE.

We are going for a specimen plant culture award. The 93 CCE awarded in 2011 had over 4,000 flowers on 175 inflorescences. There was a CCM awarded with 17 inflorescences and over 400 flowers.

Obviously we have a ways to go, but this is a great way to learn about the species growth habit. Each year we learn something new about it and it is a joy to see the beautiful blooms.

FYI these don't like cold water on the leaves in the spring. It causes little black spots so we water directly on the roots with tepid water. It's spoiled. :rofl:

Thanks for all the info I have an aggregatum and that answers lots of questions about it too.

Spectacular! good luck at the show!

Wow, that is impressive!! I really hope for you that the blooms will still be pristine on the 18th, it stands a ood chance of getting some sort of award!
Thanks for the culture info. Do you keep it cool in the winter?

aggregatum is now lindleyi as FYI. :biggrin:

Hi Camille,

No cooler than 55 degrees but it is next to the shadehouse wall. We use 8 mil Visqueen in the winter and this mount is in the top of the shadehouse. We did have one heater incident and the temp dropped to 49 for a couple of hours before we discovered it.

No damage to this guy but our warm lover orchids protested with a bit of leaf damage.