Ascocenda Princess Mikasa 'Select' Finally a bud!!!

[EDDIE]

Hey everyone,

I have waited two years for this princess to spike and was pleasantly surprised to find a scape forming after a lot of neglect over the past couple of months. I wondor how many buds I can expect? Will it develop more or is there just one for now?

[WhiteRabbit]

Awesome!

[silken]

Congrats! I think you will have more than 1 bud. My Vanda bloomed for the first time recently and the spike looked like that and it keeps growing leaving a bud on the stem and continuing on thru that round tip. In the end I had 7 buds!

[AussieVanda]

Nice! Yep, you will start to see individual buds form as the spike grows over the next week or two.

[Mokeck]

Originally Posted by EDDIE

Hey everyone,

I have waited two years for this princess to spike and was pleasantly surprised to find a scape forming after a lot of neglect over the past couple of months.

They say if you stare at water it won't boil. A little benign neglect - meaning, taking care of your life! - and bam!, flowers. That's an important cultural tip few people talk about, but there are times it's good sense to ignore your orchids. Now that your princess has spiked, be careful not to baby and potentially injure her. Water well and let her dry nicely. Don't add more fertilizer than you've used, a fine way to stunt the spike and burn roots.

You're in for a big treat and your healthy spike will have many flowers. Princess Mikasa is an international favorite because the flowers are big and round. The color will knock you out. It's one of my favorite and really triggered my love of Vanda/Ascocenda back in 2006. So be careful... you could end up with dozens of them in all shades of the rainbow.

[RosieC]

[cbuchman]

Woo hoo! Can't wait to see pics of the flowers!

[nenella]

Excellent! Well done now it's started spiking you will see it spike and re-spike basically all year round. I have a purple (blue) one and it is in flower most of the time. Sometimes it has 2 spikes nearly at the same time or anyway spikes one side and as soon as that dies off, I always have an other one on the opposite side start to grow.
I agree these are addictive as always in bloom.
My guess is you should have about 6 flowers on this if not more...
Keep us posted will love to see a pic of it in flower.

[Tommyr]

CONGRATS! I just got my first vanda this past Friday!

[Paphluvr]

Mine generally gets 8-10 flowers/spike. I've never had more than one spike at a time, but it does bloom more than once per year. Good luck and please post pictures when it blooms.