Angraecum superbum

[Roy]

Not sure how much work Jay is putting into IOSPE these days. With the dumb changes its full time job. I look at the Kew list to be someway close. Its somewhere near accurate.

[Roy]

For reference, here are pics of my plants, Ang. eburneum, the one with the keiki, Ang. eburneum subsp superbum & Ang. leonis ( 2 spikes coming )

[AussieVanda]

They look fantastic. My superbum is quite large, about 75cm from tip to tip but looking at leaf colour has been kept in a bit too much shade. Monday arvo it will get re potted. It's far too wet and looking at what roots I can see no where near as happy as yours.

[AussieVanda]

Now re potted into a 10in square vanda pot with volcanic rock and charcoal. Has been moved into the vanda house.

[smweaver]

This species likes heat (but in my conditions it's proven to be tolerant of intermediate-to-cool winter temps), high humidity, and lots of water and fertilizer during the growing season. Your plant is a good size, but be forewarned that it has the potential to become much bigger--and like the tribbles in the old Star Trek series, it will also reproduce itself with basal growths at an almost alarming rate if you keep it happy.

My plants only receive direct sunlight in the morning (from around 7 AM until 11 AM). After that they get bright indirect light throughout the rest of the day. Growth will slow down in the fall and winter, but this species doesn't actually experience a true winter dormancy (at least in my experience), so I never let it dry out completely between waterings. And you can grow it in just about any medium. I have two plants that are in coarse bark since that was the only thing available in the garage when they last got repotted. The big colony (from which the other two adults got chopped a couple of years ago) is in a large pot that contains pretty much nothing but the massive root system.

Good luck with your plant. When it blooms in the fall-to-winter period, you'll be rewarded with a fantastic honey-like scent that permeates a large area during the evening.

[Roy]

Beg to differ about the heat Steve. AussieVanda will have a lot more than I do in winter particularly & you can see what mine are doing.
The one I forgot was sesquipedale & its doing nearly as well. They all flower ok too.

[AussieVanda]

Thanks lads....yep don't really get much of a winter here, in fact the wet season still seems to be going strong although last year for a few days it did get down to 14 degrees. .....centigrade.

[smweaver]

I was only speaking to my own experience with the species, Roy. All of the species in the Angraecum superbum group are robust and tolerant plants. I imagine that the plant will do fantastic in the tropical (sub-tropical?) conditions of northern Queensland. And 14 C shouldn't cause any problems for it (I only wish that was the lowest temperature that I ever have to worry about).