Peristeria elata, where to find one?

[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

[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 !