Renanthera monachica bloom distorted?

[u bada]

Originally Posted by fishmom

Oh, those cowboys!

hilarious!

i concur, looks normal to me... beautiful... if the species blooms 2x year I'm so getting one... how are you growing it?

[fishmom]

ubada, I got this partly because I loved the red spots, and partly because it stays small enough for a windowsill, unlike many renanthera that get huge. I don't have a greenhouse so I am limited in what I can have. I bought it in February and kept it inside until the night temps reached 50-55. Then it went out to a shade house where it got morning sun, noon-afternoon 70% shade. I brought it back inside when the second spike was almost ready to open.

The blooms seem long lasting; it has been about a month already and the last bloom on the spike is just opening, while the early ones are still nice. The plant is about 8" high, the spike is twice that with 19 blossoms. It is in a medium chunky bark mix, and I try to keep it a bit moist.

[u bada]

I have limited space as well and no gh, so I get it... and renanthera on the most part are soooooo big. I've been considering even citrina then I saw a huge one one day!... but monachica does well with you with your conditions/ growing area than this is promising. Folk have often said they don't like media much around the roots, so it's interesting yours is potted with media, do you water sparingly?

I got neofinetia x rananthera imschootiana hybrid earlier in the ear, basically a dwarf imschoot, it's pretty cool. And very dwarf. about 8" tall at moment.

[fishmom]

I have an Ascocenda that I have grown in chunky bark for several years, so I'm hoping this plant will do as well. The bark is chunky enough so it gets plenty of air, I think. I do repot annually or if I think it is staying too wet, but no, I don't hesitate to water whenever I am watering my phals.

I feel like since the humidity is less here than in vanda climates, I need to compensate. But I'm not going to be dunking my plants on a daily basis, so I think of the slightly-moist bark as a substitute.

[u bada]

Yeah, I'm going to experiment more with potting vandaceous plants... funny I almost always see renanthera in pots at sales anyway... and well it can be softly dry in much of CA... although it seems like you're not that inland, so you're probably more humid than i am... what asco do you have? if it's happy might be worth getting for myself as well hehe

[fishmom]

My asco is Princess 'Mikasa Blue'; I've had it for more than ten years now and it blooms faithfully. It is my avatar. It spends the summer outside, except when blooming, and the winter in a south-facing window.

Our humidity here is wonderful during the night, usually 80% or even higher. Lower on warm days, of course. In my house it is usually 50% during the day, or a bit lower. We are very near the water, but it gets hot in summer, so the humidity is not like being on the ocean.