Not dead yet - Dendrobium anceps

[Roberta]

This for those who are OCD about making their plants tidy, rushing to cut things. Here is one that, if you cut the dead-looking, leafless growths you'll cut off the source of most of the flowers.

Den. anceps has unusual succulent leaves, looking almost "braided". I grew it for several years in the green house, where it looked great but bloomed very little. It got to where it was taking up too much space, not that attractive, and since it comes from a wide range of elevations in the Himalaya foothills and much of southeast Asia, I decided that it had to go outside... kill or cure. It looks a little rougher... rather yellow (haven't been fertilizing much) but blooming profusely. Here you see some of the weird, green little flowers, on growths that are starting to yellow and lose leaves, to some that are leafless, flat, and really do look dead. Where the flowers are open, the little dark brown things are buds that haven't yet developed, so lots more to come. But you can see that what looks dead isn't... there is only one cane, at the very bottom of the plant, that probably is dead. I'll just wait for it to come loose and fall off. No cutting!!!