Haraella retrocalla spike watch

[Shadeflower]

6 week update:

I started getting impatient with the pace considering a sunflower would have grown this in a day and this one is nowhere near ready yet so I overwatered it and that unfortunately made the latest root tip turn completely black.

At least not the flower spike



I know it isn't in focus, it was either the root or the flower spike, my photography skills are not good enough to capture everything in focus. I'm predicting another 6 weeks minimum anyway so strap yourselves in for the next update hopefully before the year is over

[naturalistSean]

It looks good Shadeflower! I also sometimes lack the patience to let orchids develop at their slow pace.

As it happens my plant has recovered remarkably well after the accident. It lost some roots but I remounted it and the flower spike survived, new roots have developed and it looks like it will bloom again soon. It is one tough little plant!

[Shadeflower]

Wow Sean, big congrats, you are definetely treating yours better than mine but I'm happy if this one plods along here. I know it prefers it mounted but I don't lol. I might reevaluate how I grow this one end of the year, I'll wait and see how long mine takes compared to yours.

[naturalistSean]

To be honest, the little plant has done all the work. I don't keep it as humid as it would prefer, the temperatures are all over the place, and it suffers from my general ineptitude. I believe I just got lucky with a particularly strong plant.

[naturalistSean]

It has bloomed again, although it appears the flower is upside down and backwards. Thus far no detectable fragrance.

[Roberta]

It's normal for it to orient the flowers every which way... Well done!

[naturalistSean]

Thanks Roberta! I think I just got lucky with a particularly robust individual plant. Good to know that the damage it endured isn't behind the upside down and backward flower.

The flower has started producing a lemon type scent but only when my nose is right up close to it. I'll try to check if it is more fragrant at night although with two young children most of my plant enjoyment time is early in the morning instead of at night.

[tmoney]

man, i wish i knew what i was doing wrong with this guy after reading your success sean! here’s an admittedly blurry pic of ours in the terrarium. it put out the spike, but the first 2 buds went right up to opening and then fell off . like, literally i would see the petals cracked and spreading before work, then come home and they had disappeared....sooooo frustrating!

from what i read these usually produce up to 3 on an inflorescence, so that means this is our last chance for a minute. i really hope i get to see this last bud go all the way!

[naturalistSean]

The one I have dropped the last flower a couple of days ago. It has suffered every abuse. It was even knocked off the mount again and had to be reattached. Nevertheless it produced 4 flowers sequentially with the first opening around 21 June and the last finishing about 3 November. This makes me think I got lucky with a particularly strong individual plant.

I don't really know what I'm doing but this is how I treated this plant: It came bare rooted from Schwerter and I attached it to cork bark with a bit of moss. At first I misted it regularly but eventually found it easier to just dunk it in a small bucket when needed. I did this when the moss felt dry so it was getting dry (sometimes very dry) between watering. It has mostly just been on the wall. In Germany it was near a ESE facing window, here in Austria it is near the west side of a SSE facing window (I'll attach a photo). In the process of moving it was outside on the north wall of a garage when the weather was still warm. It was twice knocked off the mount but recovered very well both times and continued to bloom. I irregularly gave it weak fertilizer. When it had a flower I tried to not get the actual flower wet but, because I'm lazy, the flowers were also sometimes dunked under water.

Again, I think I just got lucky with the individual plant.

[naturalistSean]

This little one is starting to develop a spike again. It finished flowering on the first spike in early November so bit less than 4 months between then and now.

Because of how it is positioned the whole plant is bending toward the sun. It has attached itself to the bark so the fishing line was removed some time ago.

If it takes the same amount of time as the first spike I'll expect a flower around the 1st of May.

I'll not keep updating this time unless something unexpected happens.