Amaryllis Challenge??

[Horus]

Mine are still reaching for the sky, the one in the kitchen window is over 28" including the pot with a good flower stem.


The Monster is now starting to open, although I am not so sure that the flower will be all that attractive from what I can see so far is a very pale leaf with some light red striping.


The Amazon bulb next to it is comming along nicely and should be a better colour although I suspect quite small flowers.


My Moth Orchid is almost in full bloom with just one flower bud to open up, so this will still be looking good into the New Year


I think I have mentioned before that I have several Moth Orchids and they bloom at different times with some overlap, on occasions I may have as many as three flowering together. This is a photograph I took of a rather nice white one in full bloom, some flower sprays are more photogenic than others.

[Grandad]

So that's what they look like......thanks for the pics H, I would never have known.

[Horus]

So that's what they look like......thanks for the pics H, I would never have known.

Wait until you see it blooming in its full glory you will be even more surprised.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Nice photos and "hmmmm" it will be interesting when the Monster finally opens. If the colours deepen it could be a very dramatic striped flower and "wow" that one is tall! (which also reminds me I need to go and find a pot stake for Superstar)

Superstar is chugging along and soon should start open flowers but not quite there yet. Minerva has just started and is now moving along (long ways to go but coming out of being dormant)

Your orchids are lovely and I do agree I need a bigger pot(s) where the roots can grow about more freely. I bought that little pot just cause I saw it and it was super cheap but small. I have two orchids so looking for another one. The orchid that is moving now is producing aerial roots above the old pot so maybe that is what it is looking for too.

[Mad Dilys]

All this talk of Orchids is making me think of getting some for here. They have some really nice ones in the shop next door and they aren't expensive and as you say last for years.

There's been something irritating the back of my mind about orchids this week and I went back and looked at LLL's healthy looking plants - then it hit me! I can't see any old flower stem in the photos. I thought that normally the old flower stem would be pruned back to 4 or 5 buds and flowers come usually from the top one or two if you are lucky. It's a long time since I've had them, but I thought that they were propagated from cuttings from the old flowering stem, as long as it was healthy obviously.

I don't ever remember new flower stalks coming from the rosette of leaves. Am I thinking of a different kind of orchid or just completely wrong?

[LovelyLadyLux]

I don't KNOW (if mine have old flower stems)!

[Horus]

or just completely wrong?

Yup! completely wrong, with Moth Orchids you cut them back to just one node above the plant, or you can propogate by removing the sheath from the lower buds and applying a paste or other methods, you can also cut the buds with a bit of stem top and bottom and put in a growing medium. All of mine throw a new shoot from the plant base and do it a couple of times every year for at least the last 10, I hardly ever get one growing from the old cut down stem and they usually just dry up. The only time I have had flower spikes from a stem is when I have accidentally broken the tip of a growing spike and then thet readily throw out another flower stem from the next bud.

[Mad Dilys]

Thanks for putting me straight Horus I couldn't see a stem in the photograph. I need new glasses

[Horus]

I just went to check out my other plants, unfortunately none of them are ready to throw out a flower spike so I can't take a photograph to show you how they grow out of the plant which is usually between a pair of leaves. However you can see several withered stumps of the last flowerings and every one is just dead wood. When they first appear it is hard to see if they are a root or a flower spike, but by now I am pretty good at knowing one kind from another.

[LovelyLadyLux]

I just took these two photos of each orchid (sorry one is a bit fuzzy) but these are the old flower stalks. They are there but were to the back when I took the photos.

In the second photo you can see the new root growth that is happening and that one is now in a pot with holes in it. Hoping the daylight will get it perking into getting a flower stem growing.





The flower shoots are there and each has produced one new leaf just no more flowers. Hopefully soon.

I have not fertilized these two since I got them however have thought about it just not sure what type of fertilizer would be the best or when. Am rather of a mind to NOT fertilize until the days start getting longer signaling spring a time of natural growth.

On the other hand I think were orchids are growing in the wild it is tropical by the equator where days and nights are sort of an even split.

Thoughts? To fertilize or not?

[Horus]

Yes that is a new aerial root and not a flower spike, but that is a good sign and the plant looks healthy. The main thing for flower growth in Orchids is Phosphorous and you should give them a feed each time you soak them, I always stop feeding them when in flower. Can you get Amazon deliveries OK where you are LLL? If so take a look at this product.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Miracle-Gro-Or ... fertiliser

[LovelyLadyLux]

I just checked on Amazon and I could get it for $10.86 CDN + $6.81 shipping and I'd get it about 10 or so days after Christmas (IF it doesn't FREEZE en route!)

I think I'm going to add it to my list for next trip to the States. I haven't given them any fertilizer since I got them (wasn't really sure what to give them although the rest of the house plants get a 20-20-20 in the spring followed by weak weak fish fertilizer)

[Horus]

LLL, that 20-20-20 fertiliser will be OK, but make it diluted to about half strength especially if your plants are not in bark chippings. Bark chippings can slowly break down and use up all the available Nitrogen so with bark you need something like 30-20-20 and dilute the mix to half strength.

[Horus]

Here is today’s progress report, The Monster now has two flowers open, each flower is 3.5” long and 5” across the petals. Measuring across the two flowers it is about 9” due to the upward angle of the flower heads. There are going to be 6 flowers by the looks of things, so if all of these open together and if they spread more openly as they usually do, then we could be looking at a complete flower head of 12” across and there are two flower stems.


The ‘Grandad’ is moving very slowly, but I can now detect a flower stem poking out of the bulb along side a solitary leaf.


I just added this close up of a single Orchid flower to show the beautiful detail and colour in these plants, a shame they do not have a perfume to match their beauty.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Wow - even from the photo I can see that the Monster has a large flower! Beautiful and it is going to be a HUGE mass of bloom too. GORGEOUS and a 12" span of flower is pretty impressive!!!

Love the fine delicate veining and lines in the orchid. Lovely.

It is interesting that they do not have a perfume. Course it is also interesting as to how they grow and their own type of roots too.

As for fertilizers I never fertilize full strength. I do use 20-20-20 but it always only about half strength and the fish fertilizer is about a teaspoon per gallon but I typically only use it from spring to late summer then stop over the winter once the days start to shorten. Somewhere in my plant growing career I kinda figured that plants - even tropical indoor ones - sort of follow a calendar of generalized growing seasons.

I think today we'll warm up sufficient the ice will melt so I'm strolling down the stairs and out to the garden shed to see if I do still have the big square orchid pot. If I do it'll be in here and the other orchid plopped down into it.

I can see H from the photo that your orchid has a much larger root mass than mine so hopefully if I get more roots going (and the one orchid I have is throwing out roots) that will spur its flowering.

[Horus]

Yes the more roots the better, you need to keep most of them outside of the pot and let just those that are heading downwards and close in go between the two pots, about an 80/20 split, although you can carefully bend a few to go between the pots, but be careful they can easily snap off. The ones you see in the pot compost are not like real roots and only hold the plant in place, they should have a greenish look to them. If they look pallid and soft looking I would have no hesitation in taking it out of the pot, carefully shaking out the bark or compost from between the roots and even rinsing them under the tap to clean them off, then use a pair of scissors to cut off any rotten looking roots and just leave the ones that look viable and then re-pot them in fresh bark again. I would not use that fish fertiliser on the Orchids as it will be too strong, remember that Moth Orchids grow in trees and those roots build up a mass of leafs debris so no soil to speak of. Their only nutrients are from the air and from what may be in the leaf mass such as a few bird droppings etc. so basically very poor nutrients, so you must not kill them with kindness. If you plunge the pots every few weeks and then drain them as I explained previously, then you could add a very weak solution of that fertiliser (no more than 50 percent strength) at every plunge, say about 3 weeks apart and when they flower stop feeding them until the flowers start to drop again.

Edit:
I meant to make it clear that the fertiliser is added to the plunge water only, so most of it is drained off after say a 2 hour soak, do not water them at any time after that or in between soakings.

[Grandad]

I think I mentioned days ago that the Tesco bulb was showing some signs of movement. Well the new shoot is a little taller than the 1.5 cm last reported but..... s t i l l.....v e r y..... s l o w.

There are now two shoots as can just be seen in this out of focus pic.

[Horus]

Great stuff and get some more water in that pot

[Grandad]

Horus, I water it from the bottom. Should I add some at the top?

[Horus]

Yes! always water it from the top and not from the bottom do not over do it though, maybe every other day just enough to keep the compost damp and not soggy, do not get water into the top where the leaves are comming from. I stand a container with water in it so it is not cold when I water the bulb.