Olympic has a lot of Gramms now

[estación seca]

This is for those of you with space and warmth. And also for those of you who want to grow Cymbidiums but can't provide autumn chilling.

Ellen at Olympic Orchids has a lot of Grammatophyllum and Grammatocymbidium (Gramm. x Cym. = Grcym.) hybrids right now. Gramms. love being warm, sunny and wet. Grcyms. look a lot like Cyms. but don't need cooling in fall to flower.

She also has a lot of Cym. hybrids. Some are warm flowering and others aren't. The listings don't make this clear but you can look up ancestors on Orchidroots.

I bought a few, including Gramm. scriptum x speciosum.

Of course there are lots of other nice things, including lots of intergeneric Oncidiums, and Miltoniopsis. Ellen sells small seedlings or mericlones in 2" / 5cm pots, in very fresh sphagnum moss. For her Oncs., I put the entire undisturbed root ball directly into a semi-hydroponics pot with LECA.

Edit: A few are hiding in the Uncategorized section of the shop. You won't see them in the main listing of All Orchids.

[DirtyCoconuts]

i was tipped off to this and got myself a few as well.

gram/cyms are pretty incredible in most of the examples i have seen. let them get big and watch out

[avian]

Ordered a few from her in the past and would consider ordering more BUT I know that they are many years from blooming size and I am trying to stick with NBS or BS now. The ones I purchased last year haven't grown much so, just out of curiosity, how fast do the cymbidium x gram orchids generally grow?

[estación seca]

They should grow faster than almost all other orchids. Warm to hot, never drying out, more fertilizer than most other orchids.

The Onc. hybrids I've bought as tiny mericlones reach flowering size in 2-3 years. Some of the little Oncs. are flowering size on arrival.

[avian]

The Oncidium Gold Dust I got from Olympic last year arrived in spike and it finally bloomed this year.

[stonedragonfarms]

You can also culture them as per standard Cymbidiums--I grow them *almost exactly the same as standards, with the exception of giving them a HOT, WET summer [ie leave them in the greenhouse instead of benching them outdoors and just water the heck out of them...]; mine throw spikes pretty much any time new bulbs mature, but bloom most heavily late autumn into winter [I've not pulled parentage on the Cyms used in their crosses, but I suspect it probably has something to do with it...]
Fair warning, just like Gramms, they get B-I-G; the largest I have is probably in a 3g pot and takes up about 3' of space in all directions [and is due for an even larger pot this spring...]

[aparnamane]

Originally Posted by estación seca

This is for those of you with space and warmth. And also for those of you who want to grow Cymbidiums but can't provide autumn chilling.

Ellen at Olympic Orchids has a lot of Grammatophyllum and Grammatocymbidium (Gramm. x Cym. = Grcym.) hybrids right now. Gramms. love being warm, sunny and wet. Grcyms. look a lot like Cyms. but don't need cooling in fall to flower.

She also has a lot of Cym. hybrids. Some are warm flowering and others aren't. The listings don't make this clear but you can look up ancestors on Orchidroots.

I bought a few, including Gramm. scriptum x speciosum.

Of course there are lots of other nice things, including lots of intergeneric Oncidiums, and Miltoniopsis. Ellen sells small seedlings or mericlones in 2" / 5cm pots, in very fresh sphagnum moss. For her Oncs., I put the entire undisturbed root ball directly into a semi-hydroponics pot with LECA.

Edit: A few are hiding in the Uncategorized section of the shop. You won't see them in the main listing of All Orchids.

Hi ES,
This is old thread, but I am looking some advice regarding taking care of the seedlings brought from Olympic Orchids, specifically oncidium twinkle types and Howeara Lava Burst , I have bought these couple of times they are really very healthy when received, but I think I am missing something to take care of, last time I repoted them, basically dropped the entire rootball along with moss into small bark mix, they did well for some time but died after couple of months, so the latest batch I kept in the same media and pot the way it came but I see here is one pbulb rotted in lava bust. Wondering if you can shade some light to explain how do you take care of those seedlings would be great.

Thanks in advance.

[estación seca]

Sorry, didn't have a chance to respond before now.

Oncidiums should never dry out. These tiny mericlones are even more sensitive to drying out than are larger plants. Most of them are not large enough to flower on arrival. Howeara Lava Burst is a miniature that is blooming size in those tiny Olympic Orchids pots, and doesn't get a lot bigger.

Even going dry once may cause loss of many leaves from these tiny plants, and stop the plant from growing for a long time. I don't believe I've ever had a problem with keeping the sphagnum too wet. They use water so rapidly it doesn't stay saturated for long.

Olympic ships plants in nearly new sphagnum, so I rarely repot them until they've outgrown the pot. I mostly move them to semi-hydroponics. Rather than disturb the roots, I put the entire sphagnum root ball into a container, and backfill with LECA. I set them at one edge of the transparent plastic container, with the growing direction towards the center. It can take months for new roots to penetrate the LECA. I need to keep the moss moist until the roots grow out.

Ambient temperatures and light affect water use. Because of their ancestry, Twinkles and Lava Burst are less tolerant of high temperatures and bright light than are most other Oncidium hybrids. Most home temperatures are fine. If you let your house get quite cool in Winter, or quite hot in Summer, they might become unhappy.

They both flower in bright shade. If grown close to lights, or a window, they may overheat, and they don't need that much light. Bright shade is fine for these.

When you put the sphagnum root balls into a bark mix, I would suspect roots never grew into the less hospitable bark. You would need to keep the bark quite moist to entice roots into it, being sure it still has plenty of air spaces at the roots. It would take a while, but roots would eventually grow into the bark as the plant grows. I could envision needing to water a plant moved to fine bark almost every day until it grows into the new medium.

Observe how they use water. Water a new one in the packed moss thoroughly. Feel how heavy it weighs. Lift it every day and see how rapidly it lightens. During warm weather I have to water small mericlones from Olympic almost every day.

And don't be in any hurry to repot. They should outgrow the pot before the moss goes bad. If they haven't, you probably haven't been watering or fertilizing enough.

I don't have your plant in front of me, but I suspect the pseudobulb didn't rot. It is more likely it died due to underwatering. It can take quite a while for a plant to wake up and grow again after that happens, so don't give up. As far south as you are, these can grow all year.

[aparnamane]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Sorry, didn't have a chance to respond before now.

Oncidiums should never dry out. These tiny mericlones are even more sensitive to drying out than are larger plants. Most of them are not large enough to flower on arrival. Howeara Lava Burst is a miniature that is blooming size in those tiny Olympic Orchids pots, and doesn't get a lot bigger.

Even going dry once may cause loss of many leaves from these tiny plants, and stop the plant from growing for a long time. I don't believe I've ever had a problem with keeping the sphagnum too wet. They use water so rapidly it doesn't stay saturated for long.

Olympic ships plants in nearly new sphagnum, so I rarely repot them until they've outgrown the pot. I mostly move them to semi-hydroponics. Rather than disturb the roots, I put the entire sphagnum root ball into a container, and backfill with LECA. I set them at one edge of the transparent plastic container, with the growing direction towards the center. It can take months for new roots to penetrate the LECA. I need to keep the moss moist until the roots grow out.

Ambient temperatures and light affect water use. Because of their ancestry, Twinkles and Lava Burst are less tolerant of high temperatures and bright light than are most other Oncidium hybrids. Most home temperatures are fine. If you let your house get quite cool in Winter, or quite hot in Summer, they might become unhappy.

They both flower in bright shade. If grown close to lights, or a window, they may overheat, and they don't need that much light. Bright shade is fine for these.

When you put the sphagnum root balls into a bark mix, I would suspect roots never grew into the less hospitable bark. You would need to keep the bark quite moist to entice roots into it, being sure it still has plenty of air spaces at the roots. It would take a while, but roots would eventually grow into the bark as the plant grows. I could envision needing to water a plant moved to fine bark almost every day until it grows into the new medium.

Observe how they use water. Water a new one in the packed moss thoroughly. Feel how heavy it weighs. Lift it every day and see how rapidly it lightens. During warm weather I have to water small mericlones from Olympic almost every day.

And don't be in any hurry to repot. They should outgrow the pot before the moss goes bad. If they haven't, you probably haven't been watering or fertilizing enough.

I don't have your plant in front of me, but I suspect the pseudobulb didn't rot. It is more likely it died due to underwatering. It can take quite a while for a plant to wake up and grow again after that happens, so don't give up. As far south as you are, these can grow all year.

Hi ES,

Thank you so much for the detailed information.

I don't have LECA, but I do grow some orchids in lava rock in semi-hydro setup with river pebbles on top layer, I think I will use your idea to use similar setup with lava rock to drop the root ball in transparent pot.

I will update here.

Thanks once again for your reply.