# Phrag pearcei



## richgarrison (May 15, 2021)

division of Steve Male's CCE plant (purchased '17?). great grower for sure... (i need to get it back into the pot ;-) )


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## KateL (May 15, 2021)

Wicked cool plant! (And a nice humble brag.)
I have a younger one, from Woodstream I think. Any culture tips you want to share?


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## mrhappyrotter (May 15, 2021)

If you find a way to keep it in the pot, let me know! I'm constantly pushing the new growths back away from the rim of the pot, blocking their path with clothes pins and sturdy labels, and generally fighting to keep it contained.

My plant is in dire need of repotting and I think I'm going to have to divide it since I've got it in the largest shallow "bulb pan" style pot I could find. I've got nothing bigger now. It's quite a lovely species and as you can see, it's very floriferous when well grown!

And to interject, the main two cultural tips I have for this species are:


I don't ever let this species dry out, even a tiny bit. It stays practically sopping wet at all times.
It seems to prefer very bright light. Doesn't necessarily need full sun and it will grow and bloom without any direct sun, but odds are good it will do better if you can get it into a bright spot.


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## KateL (May 15, 2021)

mrhappyrotter said:


> If you find a way to keep it in the pot, let me know! I'm constantly pushing the new growths back away from the rim of the pot, blocking their path with clothes pins and sturdy labels, and generally fighting to keep it contained.
> 
> My plant is in dire need of repotting and I think I'm going to have to divide it since I've got it in the largest shallow "bulb pan" style pot I could find. I've got nothing bigger now. It's quite a lovely species and as you can see, it's very floriferous when well grown!
> 
> ...


Thanks Happy. Mine is doing “ok”, even had (has?) a couple blooms, but I think I will bring it up in the light spectrum a bit. I want mine to look like Rich’s one.


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## richgarrison (May 15, 2021)

KateL said:


> Wicked cool plant! (And a nice humble brag.)
> I have a younger one, from Woodstream I think. Any culture tips you want to share?



ha thanx and funny... the note about the plant being a great grower was because we know that some of these plants just do grow better than others... if we happened to get one, and don't grow any other examples, we think WE'RE great growers !!! 

i have 2 examples of the species... neither flowered for me in the first 2 years i had them... they grew great but nothing else... consulting a bunch of folks about that... and the unanimous undercurrent was.... try something different in their growth cycle... dry them out more than normal... cut fertilizer... increase fertilizer... more sun less sun... for me, purposely drying them out correlates to them flowering that year... but no idea if that actually did it... 

i grow them in fine kiwi bark with fine-ish perlite and river gravel of the same size.. (2:1:1 ratio)... water them just about every day... klite @ about 300 micro siemens with RO, then bump to 600 microsiemens during fall and spring growing seasons... west facing window with a fan blowing across the top all the time... 

I'm also now keeping an anti fungal regiment of cleary's (thiophante) every 5 weeks, and 3 or 4 times a year with pageant... plus actively chasing mites and thrips with soap or oil (suffoil) and one of three miticides (azamax, abamectin, pylon)... what i thought was rot and other annoying ailments has decreased substantially... i say that because both of my peracei's had some wicked nast looking spots on the thin terete leaves that i didn't see until i was looking with my reading glasses up close and personal...


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## abax (May 15, 2021)

My plant has bloomed on two growths last year and is very slow developing flowering
size new growths on three leads this year. Your flowers look great.


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## richgarrison (May 16, 2021)

mrhappyrotter said:


> If you find a way to keep it in the pot, let me know! I'm constantly pushing the new growths back away from the rim of the pot, blocking their path with clothes pins and sturdy labels, and generally fighting to keep it contained.



Funny I do exactly the same thing with labels... what I finally figured out was that planting depth in the pot can be our friend... so the pot rim acts as a container... when I move this one up to the next size. That is the plan.. 

for shallow pot management, I just load the bottom of the azalea pot with large river gravel / rocks to keep the absorptive materials shallow... but that does make for quite a heavy pot at 10"


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## musa (May 17, 2021)

Looks great!
I have mine for just half a year. Friends advised me to let it sit in water about 2 cm... as a paph man my hart nearly stopped beating in doing so; what is your opinion on that?


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## richgarrison (May 17, 2021)

Lot's of folks do that... i still enjoy spending time in my greenhouse everyday... so like Steve Male told me when i asked him your same question... 'Na, i just water it everyday'

When i started watering more frequently i did also put more inorganic material in the mix (river gravel and perlite)... so that i could get 2-3 years without repotting. There are a lot of schemes out there to accomplish that same goal... 

This scheme seems to work for me...


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## musa (May 18, 2021)

Thanks,
I'd like watering every day, but time is my limiting factor...


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## KateL (May 18, 2021)

musa said:


> Thanks,
> I'd like watering every day, but time is my limiting factor...


I hear you! Working from home has been great for me. I spend my commute and “dress up” time watering. I can read and type and even Zoom with a bit of mud on my shins and no one cares. I am not looking forward to heading back down the hill every morning.


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## NYEric (May 18, 2021)

WOW!!! Love it. Thanks for sharing. Really nice for a green Phrag!


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## richgarrison (May 18, 2021)

Ya i've done a lot of 'work time management' to keep up the regiment... and the work from home model rocks... nothing like a greenhouse visit to unwind after an unruly 'corporate america' zoom call.


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## eaborne (May 21, 2021)

Beautifully grown!


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