Dendrobium Victoria Reginae

[Shawna]

Has anyone tried to grow the above in s/h? I did 1 about a week ago and all the leaves fell off the mature cane. It looks like that cane has some buds coming at the top. Maybe it is normal to lose the leaves?

[Ordphien]

I believe this orchid loses all its leaves once a year.

[mtorchid]

It's normal in winter (shorter daylight hours, cooler night temps) for the leaves to drop off, and in spring for buds to form. Do you mean this happened immediately after putting your Den into SH? A signal that the cane is done producing leaves for the season is a leaf will form at the very tip of the cane, instead of along the sides of the cane. Buds would form on the cane where leaves previously were. Do you see little nodes on the sides of the canes? I have two deciduous types in SH: anosmum and unicum which do very well.

[katrina]

Den vic-reg does lose it's leaves but it doesn't usually happen all at once in a week's time. I wouldn't say it's out of the realm of possibilities though. If the leaves were already starting to go and if it only had a few then I don't think I'd be worried.

To give you the run down...this particular Den grows new canes...which then mature...and then the leaves will begin to turn a purple/y color and eventually drop off. This one blooms on older leafless canes...only. And it can rebloom on those older canes again and again...until the cane dies. This process is on-going throughout the year and it can bloom on and off throughout the year but if my memory serves me the biggest flush of blooms is in the winter sometime. As the plant matures...you will find it's in bloom more than out of bloom. It's a fun one to grow but it does eventually get quite large and it's growth habit can sometimes be hard to accommodate.

S/H might be difficult w/this one mainly because it's so pendulous in it's growth habit that eventually it will be difficult to keep it from tipping over from it's own weight. It does like a lot of moisture though...so if you can figure out a way to keep it from falling over, I'm sure it would be very happy once it's acclimated to the new set up.

[Shawna]

Yes. It did drop the leaves immediately but their was a leaf at the top of the cane that was already yellowing and getting ready to drop. I think I just must have speeded up the process. I looked at it closer this morning and their is 4 buds at the top of the cane. I believe it will be ok as the leaves on the new cane are still looking fine right now.

---------- Post added at 08:49 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:46 AM ----------

Thanks Katrina for all the info on this. I do have the canes staked to try to keep them more upright. I am not use to growing dends that lose their leaves.