I have a very hard time with this genus and its hybrids. I always find these plants to be very hard to grow and flower, and not very rewarding for the effort I put into them. I'll admit that I get jealous when I see tall, healthy vandas in pictures and books. I keep hearing that vandas are fast-growing and reliable plants, but I haven't seen this side of them. I'm embarrassed by the fact that I live in Florida and I can't grow vandaceous plants. I like the big, spectacular vandas, the ones that have huge blue and purple flowers and beautiful criscrossing foliage, but all I get out of them is disappointment.
I always start off with healthy plants that have may leaves and roots, but within six months, either the roots shrivel up or the plants decide to drop all their leaves and die. I also have a hard time getting them to bloom. I give them all the light in the world short of direct sunlight, but they seldom bloom. I also make sure they're well-watered and fed, but they grow, like, an eight of an inch a year. When my sanderiana was still alive, I got lucky one time and it put out a short spike with three flowers. After that, it never bloomed again, and it slowly declined until the cold front finished it off. My vasco lost all of its roots, and never put out any roots again. It, like the sanderiana, it weakend until the cold front put it out of its misery. Then there's the young Doctor Anek plant that I had for a while. It just faded away gradually until it turned into a lifeless collection of leaf stumps. As with the angraecoids, well, both of my late angraecums grew like weeds the first few months I had them, but then died suddenly, for no apparent reason (The roots stayed healthy, but the leaves turned brown at the axils and dropped off). The only vandaceous plant I have ever grown successfully is Rhynchostylis gigantea. At least that one made an attempt to stay alive for the time I had it.
Right now, I have a seedling that isn't really doing anything. I water it every day, I feed it during the growing season, and I make sure it gets good light, but it's growing
very slowly. It hasn't put new roots out since January of last year, and it hasn't put out an apical leaf in eight months. At this rate, it won't be of blooming size for a very, very long time. While a part of me wants to try again with fresh plants, I'm this close to just giving up on them. These are very expensive plants, and I always end up finding that they aren't worth the money or the effort I invest in them.
If anybody has any suggestions on how to grow these plants, I'd appreciate them. I'd also appreciate any suggestions for hybrids and species that aren't going to die out within a few months.
Note: The plant in the picture is not mine. It would already be deader than yesterday's news if I even touched it.
Vandas: I feel like giving up
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