Having success with Masdevallia veitchiana!

[RosieC]

I can't really believe how much this one seems to like me. This was my first Masdevallia and I also had my greenhouse built just to give this one the best conditions I could. I bought this in August 2009 and it first flowered about a year later in September last year with just one flower at a time. This time it has 4 flowers at once

These are not the best pictures. I like to take them in controlled conditions with a black background but I keep not finding the time and so snapped some quickly in-situ tonight. I am so pleased at how well this one is doing I just had to share despite the quick snaps. There are some more carefully done pictures here from when it flowered in September.



Oh yeah... and I know the humidity on the meter is reading low for Masdevallia, having a bit of a problem with that as we've had a very dry spell here in the UK, but managing to keep it higher than that most of the time.

[RosieC]

Oh yeah... and there is a Masdie amabilis under the left most spike in the first picture... that has a spike too

[Kelo]

Those look stunning!

[Zoi2]

Way to grow Rosie, it's gorgeous.
Joann

[Lana]

Rosie, these flowers look gorgeous! I can't believe the intensity of the color! Congrats!

[Daethen]

Beautiful. How large are the flowers??

[RosieC]

Originally Posted by Daethen

Beautiful. How large are the flowers??

From top to bottom, including the tails, it's about 12cm (4 1/2 inches). The main body of the flower is about 8cm (3 inches) top to bottom.

[silken]

That is just beautiful and looks so healthy. I have one that is 3/4 veitchiana and my first bud just blasted recently. It now has another one and it looks fine so far. Any tips to get it to open? Mine get fairly cool temps and quite high humidity. It seemed like the flower couldn't get out of the sheath last time. Seeing yours makes me have hope!

[RosieC]

Originally Posted by silken

That is just beautiful and looks so healthy. I have one that is 3/4 veitchiana and my first bud just blasted recently. It now has another one and it looks fine so far. Any tips to get it to open? Mine get fairly cool temps and quite high humidity. It seemed like the flower couldn't get out of the sheath last time. Seeing yours makes me have hope!

The first flower on this last year blasted, but I think it got too warm as it was growing the spike through mid summer and the greenhouse was getting warm. I think also letting it dry out to much can make them blast.

I keep them in clay pots in moss. The evaporation from the clay cools the root zone and as veitchanna is a real cool lover they seem to appreciate this. I would never grow something like Phals or Dens in moss, but the Masdies seem to like it. I keep the moss always damp and try and avoid letting it dry out (but a hole in the bottom of the pot means it's always well drained). At this time of year I am watering every couple of days, sometimes every day just to stop the moss drying out.

Humidity is actually something I struggle with, but they do like it high so I do my best to keep that up. The temps over the winter were down between 3C and 10C most of the time and these spikes (and the one on the amabilis) started during that time. Now it's a lot warmer and I was worried that would cause them to blast, but they seem to still be happy

[ronaldhanko]

Beautifully grown and flowered. Next thing you know you won't be growing anything but Masdevallias and Pleuros.