Peristeria elata, where to find one?

[peeweelovesbooks]

I'm wondering the same thing. Mine is out in the front porch and came potted in what looks like fern, but I'm not sure that this is the best thing for it. Moss goes really bad really quickly where I live (SW Miami, near Homestead) So I hesitate to pot it in moss. Thanks for all of the information.

BTW, efg orchids had one on ebay last week and I know orchidweb.com sells them, but really expensive.

[vmax3000]

Originally Posted by peeweelovesbooks

I... I know orchidweb.com sells them, but really expensive.

Everything at orchid web is expensive...... I can't afford them, but they have a couple of plants I might compromise something for....

[cb977]

Per elata is a terrestrial orchid...when I finally get one, I plan on potting it in my regular terrestrial mix which is potting soil with extra perlite and charcoal added to it.

[peeweelovesbooks]

Originally Posted by vmax3000

Everything at orchid web is expensive...... I can't afford them, but they have a couple of plants I might compromise something for....

Sadly, I agree. However, I have been very lucky lately because a lot of the plants I liked I have found on e-bay. For example, I just bought from e-bay a gongora that was selling for 45.00 @ orchidweb for 20.00 on e-bay.

Having said that, you are right. They have some things that no one else seems to have.... So I'm saving for those. I'm actually planning on directing my friends/relatives to my wish list for b-day and christmas.

[Chococatte]

I got to have it

Ebayers look out

[nancy]

Hi Vanessa -
The vendor who still had these, wow!, was efgorchids - or e.f. gorchids, I guess. Theirs were about $45, but were certainly large, multi-bulb, brawny plants, and looked very good for the price, considering how seldom this plant appears.
I had gotten one several years ago, seedling-size I suppose. Largest p'bulb is now close to baseball-sized. I asked the 'gorchids' guys when they bloom in Florida, and they said "now" so I guess I'll hope for flowers again next year. Still, a pretty plant, at least.Very gothic.
Don't know how correct it is, but I grow mine in a pretty loose potting mix - peat-based, with fine fir shreds. It gets big, fat white roots with each new growth that creep across the surface before sinking in.
Wish it had bloomed this year, though. I've seen them in flower at shows, and the actual flowers are smaller than photos would imply, but no less fragile and arresting. They look carved from alabaster, very lovely.
Let us all know (brag, brag) when you get some flowers!
The New Orleans Society show is just beautiful!
Regards - Nancy

[nancy]

p.s. for all of you other greedy folks:
EFG Orchids, orchids for hobby and commercial growers - Welcome
Their two guys who were at the N.O. show were quite easy on the eye (as if it matters!).

[vmax3000]

Originally Posted by nancy

...
Don't know how correct it is, but I grow mine in a pretty loose potting mix - peat-based, with fine fir shreds. It gets big, fat white roots with each new growth that creep across the surface before sinking in...
Regards - Nancy

Hi Nancy,
Thanks for the update. Yeah, the EFG guys were really nice at WOC back in January. They also had a really impressive display with a volcano and some very soothing music...I always tried to plan my breaks near the volcano! They had brought a mess of P. elata to the show and they weren't cheap. I decided to wait until I got home and I ordered mine from them. The bulbs, as you say, are baseball sized. There are five crowded into this pot with three new growths coming on very strongly. It came potted in sphagnum moss. It's in the middle of my greenhouse on the floor on an upturned pot as a "stand". The leaves are 3.5 to 4 feet in length. I fell in love with them (and every other orchid on the planet.... ) when I first started growing. Made a major investment with Orchids, Limited of orchidweb and got a seedling. Learned the hard way what they didn't like. Several years have passed and my "killing spree" is significantly less, so, seeing them tempting me at WOC, I ordered one. I live in Waco, so I am half way between Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin. As you can imagine, it gets a little warm here in the summer and the humidity tends to stay high. I am a native of the Texas panhandle, where even when it's 100 degrees, one could always find shade that was pleasant and in the evenings, it would cool down to the high 60's...not so in central Texas. It's lush with greenery, compared to where I grew up, but the "heat-index" is something I still have to shake my head at. It has taken a while for me to get adjusted to the weather, but my orchid collection tended to thrive without so much of my intervention (sometimes to the point of the "black-mushy-death" syndrome setting in)! Now I have this huge P. elata, growing like a weed in the middle of my gh and I was thinking of repotting, but....do they prefer tighter growing conditions? Do they prefer moisture-retentive media? This one appears to be thriving..no wrinkled p. bulbs. If it's about to bloom, I want to leave it be...or should I...meddler that I secretly am ! Oops, long post. I will tie it up...more later !

[Tropic]

At times I think it is necessary to give the orchid plant a bit of a shock, a rest and a reason for it to feel a bit insecure to bring out the flowering urge and need to produce flowers and eventually seed. So here we have a definite dry season with some of the hazards that this brings... like fire, foraging animals and bugs desperately searching for moisture and delighted to find big shiny green Peristeria bulbs. But in the comfort of a greenhouse, they happily continue growing their yearly bulbs and spread with little or no flowering. So from November to March ... my Peristeria are subjected to the same weather pattern and seasonal changes of their wild relatives growing nearby and do flower with regularity and abundance.

[ludwig]

Originally Posted by vmax3000

Does anyone know of a good and REASONABLE source that sells P. elata? The only place I have found wants upwards of $200 for a plant....um, I love my orchids, but that's a lot of money in my world. Thank you for any leads!

The source for you depends on what country you live in to avoid Governent regulations pertaining to CITIES. Many of the paranoid ignoramus idiots who are in charge of enforcing CITIES think that just about everybody collects orchids from the Jungles or wilds even if you have nursery grown plants from seed. A friend of mine, who is a Belgium National, filled an order for Paph. vietnamese to someone in New Jersey, USA.

When the plants arrived at JFK airport in New York, they were seized and attemps were made to return them to Viet Nam even though these were plants grown from seed legally. Viet Nam did not want them "back" and refused to take them back. They were then sent to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden where they live today. Meanwhile she was arrested and brought to the United States for trial. She was found guilty and was fined 250,000 dollars aside from going through the horrors of being arrested. She refuses to ship any plants to the United States today. The person who ordered them also was arrested but got off much more lightly than she did.

The other source is from seed that you can get from Hicks or anyone in Panama who can send you Greenpod or ripened seed from which you may or may not get germinaton. Seed is legal to send and purchase. The main problem here is that law enforcement, at least in the US, may think you are doing drugs or making them and pull a raid on your home---leaving it in a total disaster pig pen once they leave (--that may take you a month or so to repair the damage and clean back up). Then haul you off to jail on fraudulent drug charges, and put you on trial only to be found innocent. Meanwhile these guys get off scott free since they are not usually sued or are able to hide behind some legal mechanism that protects them. This is no joke. It has actually happened in the United States. Susan Orleans semi-fictional novel ----The Orchid Thief--has a great deal of truth in it about the way CITIES enforcement folks operate.

In the United States, Angelstreet Orchid and Carter and Holmes sell these plants at more reasonable prices. Just look them up on the web. Angelstreet's plants are selling for 10.00 US but I do not know if these are seedlings or adult plants. Fred usually ships things in bloom.

These plants need bright sun and grow in rocky fields in Panama. Put them in a good medium that stays moist but with very good drainage.