Tetratonia Dark Prince
This is a primary hybrid of Broughtonia sanguinea and Tetramica canaliculata, registered in 1965 by W.W.G. Moir of Hawaii.
I managed to accidentally break the spike earlier last month but it managed to branch out a new one and gave me three buds two of which is in bloom. The spike is about 10″ long, with flowers about an inch and a half across. It’s been an easy plant to care for, which I find easier to bloom than my Broughtonia sanguinea. I got this a couple of years ago from Reuben Sauleda of Reuben Orchids
Since the parents are endemic to Jamaica, Northern Caribbean and the Bahamas, this grow in hot mainly arid conditions and are fairly easily cultivated if certain basic environmental factors are provided. In general, they do not grow well in pots as they are very intolerant of overwatering and much prefer mounted on very free draining media such as rafts of tree fern, cork, slabs of coconut husk and hard driftwood. I give this shaded bright light and good air movement. I let it go thoroughly dry before being watered; but I never let it go dry for long periods of time. These plants will quickly rot it kept constantly wet.
Right now this is outside on the fire escape hanging in a plastic basket. This gets the south facing window indoors in winter with electric humidifier with built-in oscillating fan. Weekly weakly fertilizer alternated with seaweed mix and worm tea mix.
This plant got infested with scale which I removed physically with an old toothbrush and washed with dish soap and water.
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