Dendrobium victoria-reginae: all around care
 

Hey everyone, i’m new to the board! I’ve been growing orchids for about 3 years now and have about 20 species with a wide range from your typical Phalaenopsis from the grocery store, to Ascocentrum pumilum, to Dendrophylax fawcettii.

My question, though, concerns my Dendrobium victoria-reginae: a beautiful orchid but somewhat tricky.

I purchased this orchid from Andy’s about a year and a half ago, it was mounted and had one leafless canes and two other canes with a few leaves (5 or 6). It looked sort of straggly but still on the healthy side. A few months later, it developed some orange spots, circles, on some of the leaves. I tried all sorts of stuff, I even put cinnamon on the leaves for about a month because that was said to help. I also repotted it: it was in sphagnum, and since it wasn’t doing well in that (obviously) I took it out and put it in a bark mix. I noticed it had a new cane starting to come out, and a few months later it flowered. Anyway, then I sort of neglected it slightly because it was just so tricky! Recently, though, I’ve started keeping a closer eye on it, the spots have disappeared and it was looking a little better. So yesterday I separated the nice new cane from the rest of the plant: I potted it up in one of those fancy ceramic orchid pots with the holes/designs on the sides, so it is now in there with a mix of half orchid bark with charcoal and some white little pellet things and half sphagnum.

Anyway, long story short, does anyone have any suggestions/tricks for this chid? I see them online and they look BEAUTIFUL, but mine isn’t nearly as full and vigorous.

Also, what makes the canes turn purple? I find it so intriguing when they’re like that, but none of my canes have any purple.

:welcome: to the Orchid Board! Sorry I can't help, but there are other OB members that will supply the info you need.

I've not kept this species and don't have books to hand, but most purple pigments in leaves and flowers tend to be "sunscreen" from exposure to high light levels (for that species). Hopefully someone else will weigh in with experience soon. I've seen pics and would also like one :D

I grow my vic-reg in medium light, always moist but not soppy wet but never dry, and I grow it cooler.

The spotty leaves are the old leaves getting ready to die. You probably should have left the new cane with the old canes to let the new cane receive energy from the older ones. Unless the older canes are very old you will also get future blooms from the leafless canes.

Brooke

Pretty easy grower for me - like Brooke said, they like to be moist - can be just a bit dry in winter, but shouldn't remain dry for long. Medium to even lower light .

The purple canes ... Maybe what you see is when canes are new, covered with the purple sheathy material, which later turns brown as the leaves drop ...

These are deciduous - the leaves don't stay very long after canes have matured. Leafless canes are alive, and do bloom, as well as support the plant still.