# Coelogyne cristata



## emydura (Oct 1, 2021)

Flowered nicely this year.


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## monocotman (Oct 1, 2021)

Lovely. an all time classic!
David


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## KyushuCalanthe (Oct 1, 2021)

Beautiful specimen!


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## Guldal (Oct 1, 2021)

emydura said:


> Flowered nicely this year.


That is something of an understatement, David!
Well done!


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## Paphman910 (Oct 1, 2021)

Really beautiful! I have rarely seen a specimen that size! Last time I saw one was at the University of Victoria Green house back in the mid 80s!


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## abax (Oct 1, 2021)

Gorgeous plant. I've never seen such an outstanding specimen.


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## Ozpaph (Oct 2, 2021)

superbly grown and flowered, David.


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## GuRu (Oct 2, 2021)

Congrats David. This plant with all its flowers would be 'The Champion Of The Show' and earn a gold medal here in Germany.


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## emydura (Oct 2, 2021)

GuRu said:


> Congrats David. This plant with all its flowers would be 'The Champion Of The Show' and earn a gold medal here in Germany.



Thanks Rudolf. As luck has it, our orchid society is having its Spring show (virtually) this weekend. I'm busily sending in my photos as I write this. The cristata will be hard to beat for specimen of the show at the very least. I looked at previous cultural awards for this species here in Australia and I think I still have a little way to go. Previously awarded plants had more even flowering across the whole plant.


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## GuRu (Oct 2, 2021)

emydura said:


> Thanks Rudolf. As luck has it, our orchid society is having its Spring show (virtually) this weekend. I'm busily sending in my photos as I write this. The cristata will be hard to beat for specimen of the show at the very least. I looked at previous cultural awards for this species here in Australia and I think I still have a little way to go. Previously awarded plants had more even flowering across the whole plant.



Good luck, David and of course....fingers crossed.


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## l_kikkert (Oct 2, 2021)

Very nice. Could you share your growing conditions; temperatures, humidity, lighting and growing mix. Thanks from a yank


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## NEslipper (Oct 2, 2021)

Amazing specimen and congratulations on the culture, any accolades are well-deserved!


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## emydura (Oct 3, 2021)

l_kikkert said:


> Very nice. Could you share your growing conditions; temperatures, humidity, lighting and growing mix. Thanks from a yank



This plant grows in my cool house where it has no heating or cooling. Temperatures go down to around 3 degrees Celsius in winter. Summer temperatures an be extreme reaching 40 degrees. The humidity can get very low, especially in summer. The conditions can be quite harsh in summer. It grows in quite a bright position. It only has an aluminet cover of 50%. I think it needs bright light to flower. I have another clone of cristata that was in the corner where it was darker and it did not flower at all. It is just growing in a relatively shallow pot with coarse bark. It really needs a repot. The growths are just growing on top of the old growths at the moment.

This is the first time I have got this plant to flower well. It has certainly enjoyed my new coolhouse, as has all my cool growing orchids. I use to grow it outside where I think it was just too cold plus the plants didn't get enough light in winter.


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## Guldal (Oct 3, 2021)

emydura said:


> Thanks Rudolf. As luck has it, our orchid society is having its Spring show (virtually) this weekend. I'm busily sending in my photos as I write this. The cristata will be hard to beat for specimen of the show at the very least. I looked at previous cultural awards for this species here in Australia and I think I still have a little way to go. Previously awarded plants had more even flowering across the whole plant.


Keep us posted about, how it fares, David!


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## emydura (Oct 5, 2021)

Guldal said:


> Keep us posted about, how it fares, David!



Will do.


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## l_kikkert (Oct 5, 2021)

emydura said:


> This plant grows in my cool house where it has no heating or cooling. Temperatures go down to around 3 degrees Celsius in winter. Summer temperatures an be extreme reaching 40 degrees. The humidity can get very low, especially in summer. The conditions can be quite harsh in summer. It grows in quite a bright position. It only has an aluminet cover of 50%. I think it needs bright light to flower. I have another clone of cristata that was in the corner where it was darker and it did not flower at all. It is just growing in a relatively shallow pot with coarse bark. It really needs a repot. The growths are just growing on top of the old growths at the moment.
> 
> This is the first time I have got this plant to flower well. It has certainly enjoyed my new coolhouse, as has all my cool growing orchids. I use to grow it outside where I think it was just too cold plus the plants didn't get enough light in winter.


Thanks for sharing your environmental conditions. I have a hybrid of cristata called unchained melody which has a light yellow throat versus gold and it bloomed 
(1 spike) for the 1st time this past spring after 5+ years of just existing. I live in the Atlanta Georgia area and our winters appear to be a bit more severe than yours as temps will dip below freezing fairly frequently. I have a grow room with an assortment of lighting, natural, led, cfl, which is heated and maintain a winter temperature of between 13-18 C with a fairly constant humidity of 85%. In summer, my grow area ranges up to 35 C and outside temps reaching 40+ C. I move most of my collection outdoors in the summer as we have good humidity and high levels of reflected light and keep most of them outside until temps get to 7-10 C at night. I may move it to the floor level in the winter to get a lower temperature Again thanks for the information and good luck with your judging.

larry


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## NYEric (Oct 5, 2021)

JEEZ!!! WOW! Thanks for sharing.


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## Karp60 (Oct 5, 2021)

We had recently a speaker at our orchid club meeting, he suggested a lot of humidity and also extra calcium, which he adds to the water, in summer he sits them on saucers filled with pebbles to keep the humidity high. I have not had much luck with my mooreana but since I added the crashed egg shells, she looks much happier….


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## emydura (Oct 6, 2021)

Karp60 said:


> We had recently a speaker at our orchid club meeting, he suggested a lot of humidity and also extra calcium, which he adds to the water, in summer he sits them on saucers filled with pebbles to keep the humidity high. I have not had much luck with my mooreana but since I added the crashed egg shells, she looks much happier….



The humidity in which my Coelogyne's grow gets extremely low in summer. They seem to still do OK. This includes mooreana which is currently in bud. I do fertilise with a lot of Calcium.


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## emydura (Oct 6, 2021)

l_kikkert said:


> Thanks for sharing your environmental conditions. I have a hybrid of cristata called unchained melody which has a light yellow throat versus gold and it bloomed
> (1 spike) for the 1st time this past spring after 5+ years of just existing. I live in the Atlanta Georgia area and our winters appear to be a bit more severe than yours as temps will dip below freezing fairly frequently. I have a grow room with an assortment of lighting, natural, led, cfl, which is heated and maintain a winter temperature of between 13-18 C with a fairly constant humidity of 85%. In summer, my grow area ranges up to 35 C and outside temps reaching 40+ C. I move most of my collection outdoors in the summer as we have good humidity and high levels of reflected light and keep most of them outside until temps get to 7-10 C at night. I may move it to the floor level in the winter to get a lower temperature Again thanks for the information and good luck with your judging.
> 
> larry



Thanks Larry. 

Our winters in extremely cold as well. Canberra is the coldest city in Australia. Temperatures can get as low as -8oC. I have grown Coelogyne's outside for many years, but recently I built an unheated greenhouse which protects them from the extreme cold. The greenhouse also provides the plants with very bright light during winter which is just as important. All my plants are flowering so much better now. 

I also have Unchained Melody which flowered really nicely this year. You can see some of the cold damage on the leaves from growing out in the cold a couple of years back. Good luck getting yours to flower.


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## Karp60 (Oct 6, 2021)

I used to live in Hobart which had quite cold winters and they survived that with no problems, I guess the winter temp was close to Vietnams highlands where, I believe, they come from. I was also told not to divide as they do not like it, but put another pot filled with growing media and the plant will “ crawl “ into the fresh media.


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## Silverwhisp (Oct 6, 2021)

The information about calcium (and light) is very helpful, and solves a puzzle for me. I have a Coelogyne cristata var. grandiflora whose leaves were beautifully glossy until I went from using tap water over the winter, to switching to rainwater this spring and summer. It never gets high light, and blooms every February, but only puts out 2 or 3 flowers. Now I know what needs to be done.


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## Ozpaph (Oct 6, 2021)

great info, thanks. Mine doesnt flower - more light....


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## emydura (Oct 6, 2021)

Ozpaph said:


> great info, thanks. Mine doesnt flower - more light....



I also wonder if your temperatures would get cool enough in Brisbane. This is an orchid from the Himalayas.


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## Karp60 (Oct 7, 2021)

I guess Bris is too warm for them, I do not know how successful it is going to be up there.


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## Tom-DE (Oct 9, 2021)

That cristata is gorgeous!


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