Angraecum sesquipedale four buds on one spike

[smweaver]

How well does your Lemforde grow in the leca medium? My Lemforde was in a really airy mix (mostly Aliflor) when I got it last year, but it wasn't making many roots and I couldn't get it to flower (even though I figured it was flowering size). I repotted it in a mix of 75% NZ sphagnum and 25% charcoal last spring and it's since grown lots of roots, has gotten much bigger, and flowered twice this year, once during the summer and again about a month ago. I'd be curious to learn how your plant performs with the semi-hydroponic treatment, if you wouldn't mind sharing. Also, what kind of temperatures does your plant experience? I thought, being that half of Lemforde's genes come from magdalenae, that it would enjoy intermediate temperatures, but so far it seems to prefer the same temperatures (warm to hot) that sesquipedale appreciates.

Steve

[Sun rm.N.E.]

Steve

I am happy to hear that your Lemforde is such a good bloomer. I don't think mine is mature enough to bloom yet. I got it because it has the reputation of not getting as large as sesquipedale and scent resembling magdalena more. What do you think?

I got this young plant last year from Hoosier before they closed. It is growing into a beautiful plant with 3 new and bigger leaves after a year. My passive hydro setup is similar to S/H except I use 2 containers the inner one with bottom holes which makes frequent and thorough flushing much easier in the house and the outer container can be easily scrubbed. I also put a net hair curler in the center of the pot underneath the plant for air space, similar to the way people use net pots in the center of large pots to keep the bottom of specimen plants dry. I wanted to start with a bigger pot to cut down on the need to transplant. I use tap water that passes through a chlorine shower filter with constant fertilizer 100-120 ppm N. It grows in the house with supplemental compact fluorescents, only in the Winter, and seems to tolerate the forced air heat, low humdity, temperatures briefly up to 90 in the Summer and down to the upper 50's on some Winter nights.

[smweaver]

Yes, it definitely stays smaller than sesquipedale (at least mine has so far), and the scent (thankfully) isn't dominated by the sesquipedale parent.

I think Hoosier got their plants from Oak Hill (when I visited their nursery before they closed, someone had forgotten to remove one of the old Oak Hill tags from one of the Lemfordes). It's a pretty nice hybrid, and it sounds like your plant seems to enjoy the set-up you have it in. I made the mistake of leaving mine out during the fall when the night temperatures dipped to the mid 40s. Again, I assumed it would (like its magdalenae parent) have enjoyed this. But a couple of the leaves started to develop black spots, so I quickly moved it back inside. No more black spots--so hopefully I learned my lesson.

Good luck with your Lemforde. I think you'll really like the blooms (especially their scent, which reminds me of gardenia).

[Tindomul]

OMG, what a gorgeous beauty!!! Wonderful bloom.